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I'm using OpenOffice 3.4.1 on Windows 7, the Writer keeps giving me these weird bumps in my words. Sometimes, randomly, the words I type have little hills and/or valleys of about one pixel. I took a screenshot and blew it up so you can see what I mean.

enter image description here

What's going on? Is this a bug, or a feature? If font matters, I'm using Calibri, but this happens with other fonts like Times New Roman too.

Lincoln Bergeson
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  • Have you tried adjusting your ClearType settings? Is your monitor an LCD or a CRT? – Zooks64 Jan 02 '13 at 17:21
  • Remind me again how to tell the difference? – Lincoln Bergeson Jan 02 '13 at 17:25
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    LCD is commonly referred to as Flat-Screen or Flat-Panel, while CRT's look like old TV's. – Kruug Jan 02 '13 at 17:28
  • try exporting the document as pdf and see if the issue still persists – Shekhar Jan 02 '13 at 17:35
  • Nope, the issue disappears when I export it as a PDF, and in fact, the issue is fixed in the document as well. – Lincoln Bergeson Jan 02 '13 at 17:38
  • maybe some kind of (invisible) underlining (grammar correction? something else?). And make sure your zoom is 100% (if not, then expect similar issues while editing, but nothing when printing to PDF or to a printer) – Olivier Dulac Jan 02 '13 at 18:44
  • How much alcohol do I need to see that? ;) – Lizz Jan 11 '13 at 06:15
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    Sometimes these types of issues can be caused by a video driver bug. Can you check if your video drivers are up to date? If you're not sure how to check, post the make and model of your computer and I might be able to help. – Tweek Jan 14 '13 at 01:56
  • I have seen this issue on LibreOffice 3.5.4.2 on GNU/Linux too (although I can't seem to reproduce it at the moment), along with lines that seem to be vertically stretched by a few pixels. I don't remember seeing it on any other application. OpenGL version string: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 295.40 (if that helps anyone...) – user55325 Jan 14 '13 at 23:12
  • I ran across that a couple of times, too. Mostly seemed to creep in while scrolling. Scrolling to the next page and back usually fixed it. Sure seems like a bug... – Magnus Jan 15 '13 at 21:13

3 Answers3

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Click Start - Run, type ClearType and then select Adjust ClearType Text. In the dialog that appears make sure ClearType checkbox is ticked and then go through the remaining dialogs to complete the wizard.

Note: you need to complete the entire wizard otherwise the settings will not be saved.

For screenshots and step by step instructions see http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28790/tweak-cleartype-in-windows-7/

As the page suggests some applications might be doing their own font smoothing so in that case the steps above might not be sufficient.

Also you seem to be using OpenOffice which is an outdated branch and probably not supported as well as LibreOffice. If the problem is not solved through ClearType Settings then I would strongly suggest to switch to LibreOffice instead as this is probably better maintained and is the 'established' way to go.

And, optionally, if you really want to know the reason why LibreOffice should be used over OpenOffice have a look at http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/76331.html.

ccpizza
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If cleartype option is not working,

  1. Check if it is an issue with display. Open a different software say notepad and type text in same area on display
  2. If not, to check for driver issue, bring up something on display before windows boots(say BIOS setup) and check if misalignment is there
  3. Try changing your default printer. Sometimes, old printer drivers mess up text rendering.
tumchaaditya
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Waidesworld at www.oooforum.org suggests turning off the antialiasing:

I had the problem with the last few versions. I finally solved it recently by selecting in Writer Tools/Options/View and unchecking the box "Use Anti-Aliasing". I have an ATI Radeon card and never believed that was the problem. Hope this helps some people.

sm4rk0
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