Reading page after page of text on your PC can often be quite taxing on your eyes. In fact, the stress can be more on LCD monitors, where the text appears somewhat distorted if viewed from even a little side angle. For this reason, if you have to work with large volumes of text on a regular basis, you should make sure that the text looks as smooth and comfortable to read as possible. Thankfully, if you are using Microsoft Windows® XP, there is a way of ensuring this. You can enable ClearType on your PC.

ClearType is a technology developed by Microsoft for Windows® XP and later operating systems. The technology smoothens the edges of on-screen fonts and ensures much better readability, thereby reducing the stress on the user’s eyes. ClearType is turned on in Internet Explorer 7 by default, but you have to enable it manually for other applications, such as your word processors and spreadsheets. Here’s how:

1. Right click on any blank area of your desktop and click on Properties.
2. In the window that appears, click on the tab named “Appearance”.
3. Click on the button named “Effects”.
4. In the window that appears, check the box beside the caption ‘Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:”. If the box is already checked, then leave it as it is.
5. Under the caption mentioned in point no. 4, there is a drop-down menu. Click on it and then click on “ClearType”.
6. Click on “OK”.
7. In the main “Display Properties” window, click on “Apply”.
8. Click on “OK”.

Your PC should now have ClearType enabled and display fonts in a way that is more comfortable to read. Enabling ClearType not only improves readability of on-screen fonts, but also consumes less system resources, thus speeding up your PC to a little extent.