Chromium Edge Blurry

Brass Contributor

So this was something I stumbled across unexpectedly in the Chromium version of Edge. The image on the left is Chromium Edge and the image on the right is the standard version of Edge. You'll notice that some of the text in the Chromium version is blurry/fuzzy. What's also strange is there appears to be a cutoff in Chromium Edge where it suddenly become sharp again. That seems to remain in the same place if I scroll, as in the cutoff scrolls with the text and doesn't leave it.

 

chomiumblur.PNG

25 Replies

Just wanted to update. I went to Outlook.com on Chromium Edge and immediately noticed it didn't look right. As such, I decided to open the same page on Edge classic and the difference was stark. Everything on Outlook.com on Chromium Edge was noticeably blurry/fuzzy while Outlook.com on Edge classic was crisp and clear.

Cannot replicate this. Having done an A/B, using the same pages you show, w/ no perceptable difference.

@Bradcore  I tried to replicate this on three computers (one a Dell XPS 8920 with AMD Radeon 580 and Dell P2717H (1920x1080) monitor, the second a Dell Latitude 13-7280 laptop with Intel 620 onboard graphics (1366x768), and the third a Dell Inspiron 11-3185 laptop with Radeon R5 graphics (1366x768)), and could not.  In each case, I lined up Edge Classic, Edge Dev and Firefox 66.02) and clicked back and forth across several identical pages (WP and NYT front pages, the Edge Insider's page with your comment, and Outlook).  I am seeing a slight difference in rendering, but nothing dramatic and no marked blur.  The fonts in Edge Dev appear thinner than the fonts in Edge Classic or Firefox, and the fonts appear a little less sharp, but I don't know if that is a font difference or a difference in rendering.  I'm glad you brought it up, though, because if there are blur problems in Edge Dev (even on a relative small number of devices), then MS needs to know about it and get it corrected.  My  relatively low resolutions might not show something that is apparent at higher resolutions.  I hope that the team will add this to the issues list and check it out.

@tomscharbach  Thank you. Something I find interesting is that the blur almost seems to be selective of what is blurred/fuzzy. I've included another example, this one is a bit more subtle. The top images show Outlook.com with Chromium Edge on the left and Classic Edge on the right. The Crhoming version appears lighter and fuzzier while in the Classic Edge, the text is noticably sharper and the colors more bold. 

 

This doesn't seem to carry over on every page or website though. On the lower pictures, the text looks fine in both Chromium and Classic Edge, maybe slightly bolder in color in classic, but crisp in both. The problem for me arises in things like Outlook.com where the fuzziness actually bothers my eyes. I can't look at Outlook.com through Chromium without getting a headache.

 

chromiumblur2.png

@Bradcore  Outlook opens for me in outlook.live.com.  In Outlook on outlook.live.com, I am getting the okay results (Edge Chromium fonts slightly greyer and thinner than either Edge Classic or Firefox, but clear enough) and no blur.   I've been keeping an eye out as I wandered around in Edge Chromium today and I haven't seen the blur problem yet.  I don't use Chrome, but I do use Chromium on a Linux computer, and the fonts on that computer seem to render very similarly to Edge Chromium on this computer.  So I don't know.  I do wish that MS would darken the font rendering in Edge Chromium -- deeper black seems more crisp to me -- but so far I haven't had the unreadability problem you seem to be encountering.  

 

I guess that what I would do at this point is to report the problem using the Smiley face in the browser, so that it doesn't get overlooked.  Something is not right with the blur problem you are reporting, and MS needs to look at it.

 

I'm attaching a jpg file showing my look at Outlook in the three browsers.

 

@Bradcore 

 

I'm having the exact same issue.  It seems to blur randomly which makes finding the exact bug difficult.  It seems to happen more often when I right click, then everything below the pop-up box is blured when the box disappears.  Usually when everything blurs, then it goes back into focus after moving the mouse.

 

If it helps:  1920 x 1080 resolution; Intel UHD 630 GPU; 15.5" monitor; Dell G5 5587 Laptop

@Cromi   

A thought, based on your comment "It seems to happen more often when I right click, then everything below the pop-up box is blured when the box disappears. Usually when everything blurs, then it goes back into focus after moving the mouse."

 

It might be that the blur is related to interaction between the browser and one or more of Win10's Visual Effects. (Control Panel, System, Advanced System Settings, Advanced Tab, Performance Settings, Performance Options, Visual Effects Tab, Custom). I like a very flat UI, so I use only "Smooth edges of screen fonts" and "smooth scroll-list boxes". The fact that I disable all other visual effects might be the reason that I can't replicate the issue.

 

To be clear: I am not suggesting reducing Visual Effects as a workaround. I am suggesting that turning particular Visual Effects on or off and testing might isolate the problem and give MS a leg up in resolving it.

@tomscharbach 

 

Thank you for the suggestion, unfortunatly changing visual effects didn't change the blurring issue.  However, while testing I remembered I had shrunk my text size in Edge's settings so I returned them to the default setting.  After several hours of using Edge I have yet to see the blur effect since the text resize. 

Thank you @Bradcore for offerin gus this feedback. We have heard other users commenting on the rendering of text. I have filed a bug on this issue.

@Bradcore Having the exaxt same issue as you and it seems to come and go dynamically with text sometimes becoming unreadable and then returning to normal for Edge Chromium but not as cript and bold as Edge legacy or Chrome.  Sometimes moving the cursor over the text will force it back to the normal quality if it becomes too fuzzy to read.

 

Running an NVIDIA Quadro K2100M GPU in an HP Zbook 15 G2

@Bradcore same thing occurs on my PC on chromium edge, microsoft teams, visual studio installer. 

the browser UI is fine in the beginning of the session, but on navigating to some specific pages like the Microsoft account homepage, causes UI to start becoming blurry. (some UI elements more blurrier than others).

SOLUTION TO PROBLEM: I solved this issue by DISABLING hardware acceleration.

@Elliot Kirk 

same thing occurs on my PC on chromium edge, microsoft teams, visual studio installer. 

the browser UI is fine in the beginning of the session, but on navigating to some specific pages like the Microsoft account homepage, causes UI to start becoming blurry. (some UI elements more blurrier than others).

SOLUTION TO PROBLEM: I solved this issue by DISABLING hardware acceleration.

@Tarunaditya yes disabling this fixed it for me too. I've had the same issue with some Chrome installs so it seems more of a Chromium issues rather than EdgeC.

It fixes the blurring, but disabling hardware acceleration is a guaranteed performance drop.

Our blur problem has supposedly been fixed in Chromium. I've tried >10 solutions posted on various forums and blogs, none of them have worked.

These include changes to command line boot arguments, text scaling, Win10 app scaling, countless edge:flag settings, display/graphics driver settings, and so on.

The cause seems to be some type of forced text scaling that we can't influence.

@vv_o_e_s 

 

TO ANYONE HAVING THIS PROBLEM:

 

Disabling FXAA within Nvidia's control panel fixed the issue for me.

@vv_o_e_s Have  a beer! (or whatever you may like)
This fixed it for me!
Now I have Hardware acceleration enabled and no blurry fonts (and the browsing is faster with less COU load).


@vv_o_e_s wrote:

@vv_o_e_s 

 

TO ANYONE HAVING THIS PROBLEM:

 

Disabling FXAA within Nvidia's control panel fixed the issue for me.




👊🏼

@vv_o_e_s 

 

Thank you! It worked for me! :thumbs_up::beaming_face_with_smiling_eyes:

@Tarunaditya Can confirm, disabling hardware acceleration fixed the problem for me too. Many thanks, that was so annoying.

@Rixster 

Worked for me too.  Anyone who needs to know where to look:

1) In System Tray, right click NVIDIA Settings app, select NVIDIA Control Panel

2) Under 3D Settings, Go to Manage 3D settings 

3) Select the Program Settings tab and click the Add button then select Microsoft Edge.

4) Look for the feature - Antialiasing - FXAA and select Off from the drop down.

5) Click Apply.  You might need to restart Edge Chromium.

Edge Chromium FXAA setting.PNG