How to disable font smoothing in Visual Studio editor? How to disable font smoothing in Visual Studio editor? windows windows

How to disable font smoothing in Visual Studio editor?


There is an extension called Text Sharp that allows you to completely disable font smoothing (ClearType) for Visual Studio:

https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/7aafa2ea-8c54-4da8-922e-d26bf018514d

I'm using this combined with the Source Code Pro font for very readable code.

Well, the characters are at least readable. The code itself may be a different story. :)


In Visual Studio 2019 v16.5.4 (possibly lower), there is a new feature under the Text Editor -> Advanced settings called "Text rendering method". This appears to be defaulted to "ClearType" upon installation. On my machine, I've disabled ClearType at the OS level, yet after a fresh install/update, noticed that my fonts were being smoothed.

Simply switch this setting to "Aliased" to get pixel-perfect font rendering back.

Go to Text Editor - Advanced - Text Rendering Method

Change to Aliased to get pixel perfect rendering back

Again, this assumes you have already disabled ClearType at the system level. I am unsure if VS settings would ignore/override the system-level ClearType settings or not.


In my case the problem was that I had the text size to 120%, I just change it to 100%.

Is an option located in Display Settings above the Resolution selector. It says:"Change the size of the text, apps, and other items"set the value to:100% (Recommended)

This happened to me when I added a new LCD monitor to my setup.