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 VA Font hard to read with clear type off

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GulPaprika Posted - Dec 04 2017 : 02:27:40 AM
Hello, the font used (or font rendering settings) makes the VA tooltips/listboxes look pretty bad on VS2015 with ClearType turned off in windows 10. It is really hard to see which of the arguments that is highlighted compared to IntelliSense:



Maybe not the most common use case to have ClearType off in windows but I know I am not the only one who can't stand it.

Suggested fixes:
- let the user select font for tooltips/listboxes/etc
- check if computer has disabled clear type and default to another font
- if rendering with wpf set TextFormattingMode=Display, SnapsToDevicePixels and UseLayoutRounding

Thanks.
17   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
feline Posted - Dec 11 2017 : 04:31:59 AM
Thank you for the update, I am glad this has worked well for you.
GulPaprika Posted - Dec 11 2017 : 02:13:27 AM
I have tried WinAero and changing the font as you described worked really well and the VA tooltip is now looking as I want it, thanks for all the help!
GulPaprika Posted - Dec 08 2017 : 4:34:09 PM
Alright thanks, I will look at this on monday
feline Posted - Dec 08 2017 : 3:04:12 PM
This may help, the program Winaero lets you edit hidden settings in Windows 10:

https://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.1836

If you want to try running this program on your system, you can change the VA tooltip font by editing the setting:

Advanced Appearance Settings -> Statusbar Font

You will need to apply this change, and log out and log in again for it to take effect.
feline Posted - Dec 08 2017 : 06:35:35 AM
I never used to like clear type on my old monitor, but with newer monitors, I am happy with it, but I do appreciate that not everyone likes clear type, having been there myself.

VA is using the global Windows icon font setting for these tooltips. The problem with this fact is that as far as I can tell Microsoft have removed the ability to change this setting in the later builds of Windows 10. I have tried a few different searches to find out how to change this setting in Windows 10, but it looks like you are going to need to download a program, or edit the registry manually, just to change this setting.

I have already put in a feature request to use the IDE setting for tooltips, but I don't know when we will get around to looking into this change.
GulPaprika Posted - Dec 07 2017 : 3:52:23 PM
I have and I do not enjoy any of the settings, indeed some fonts does look better with ClearType on but not as good as when using other fonts with ClearType off. But then again it is a highly subjective matter and most people just have it on without having any issues while other like me can't stand it, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ClearType#ClearType.2C_human_vision_and_cognition
feline Posted - Dec 07 2017 : 09:11:08 AM
Have you tried running the Clear Type Tuner? Under the start menu search for ClearType, which will bring up "Adjust ClearType text". As you step through the screens offered here, you can fine tune your clear type behaviour, to make it more acceptable and pleasant to read.
GulPaprika Posted - Dec 06 2017 : 2:00:05 PM
That does not work unfortunately as we have a huge code base and intellisense is slowing down VS significally.
feline Posted - Dec 06 2017 : 08:09:45 AM
Is enabling the IDE intellisense a good option for you? This would allow the IDE to generate these tooltips, so allowing you to set the font in the IDE options.
GulPaprika Posted - Dec 06 2017 : 01:57:59 AM
I have yes, for Text Editor -> C/C++ -> Advanced I have set Disable IntelliSense and Disabled Database to true.
feline Posted - Dec 05 2017 : 5:30:47 PM
That's what I was doing, and for me changing the source of intellisense has a clear effect on the tooltip.

Do you know if you have disabled IDE intellisense in your solution? This would explain the different results that we are seeing.
GulPaprika Posted - Dec 05 2017 : 4:07:42 PM
When the caret is inside a call to a function or constructor I press ctrl+shift+space to bring up the tooltip, as in the image above.
feline Posted - Dec 05 2017 : 4:01:13 PM
That's interesting, changing this setting is having a clear effect for me, in all of my tests. How, exactly, are you triggering this tooltip? Perhaps we are checking slightly different things?
GulPaprika Posted - Dec 05 2017 : 10:45:24 AM
Thanks for the quick reply.

VA Options -> Enhanced Listboxes -> Source of C/C++ content: Default Intellisense
It did not affect the font for me, I tried Consolas and Courier New on tooltips in VS and VA still uses the same font as in the image above.

Turning off coloring made it worse, still thanks for the suggestions, hoping for a fix in future versions.
feline Posted - Dec 05 2017 : 09:04:10 AM
I had not noticed that, I have put in a bug report for this:

case=112760

For now, can you try setting:

VA Options -> Enhanced Listboxes -> Source of C/C++ content: Default Intellisense

for me this causes these tooltips to respect the IDE font settings.

If this does not work well for you, turning off:

VA Options -> Coloring and Attributes -> Apply coloring to -> Tooltips

may help, since then you won't have colouring in the tooltip effecting the clarity of the text.
GulPaprika Posted - Dec 05 2017 : 01:55:00 AM
Yes, that does not affect the VisualAssist popup shown in the picture above though. It does change the popup shown when hovering the mouse though, but not the popup shown above when typing in arguments.
feline Posted - Dec 04 2017 : 06:40:20 AM
Are you aware that you can change the font and text size for tooltips? This might make it easier to clearly read the text, and pick out the highlighting. To do this go to:

IDE Tools menu -> Options -> Environment -> Fonts and Colors -> Show settings for = Editor Tooltip

and set the details that you want.

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