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Today I updated Google Chrome, from version 36.0.1985.143 to 37.0.2062.102 which introduced a strange rendering change. It seems that for anchor links, the spacing between the bottom of the link text and its underline (text decoration) is one pixel less than previously:

enter image description here

For me personally, this just looks awful. Can anyone tell me, if this is a bug or a new feature?

Additionally the most important thing I would like to know is if there is any way to revert or disable this change.

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Font rendering

It's a feature. Actually, it's not just the underline. For example, compare the 0 before and after: they're slightly different. By zooming the picture you can spot other subtle differences:

enter image description here

The subpixel rendering is not the same, as hinted by the changelog (bold emphasis mine):

Chrome 37.0.2062.94 contains a number of fixes and improvements, including:

  • DirectWrite support on Windows for improved font rendering
  • A number of new apps/extension APIs
  • Lots of under the hood changes for stability and performance

A full list of changes is available in the log.

Source: Chrome Releases: Stable Channel Update

The change was aimed for the better, but it got mixed reactions because not everybody experienced a real improvement. Granted, the hardware and software combinations definitely play a major role here, so your mileage may vary.

Reverting back

If you don't like the changes, you can try disabling DirectWrite as a workaround:

  1. Type or paste the following address in the Chrome address bar:

    chrome://flags/#disable-direct-write
    
  2. Turn off the DirectWrite feature. Restart the browser to apply the changes.

Note The steps above apply to version 37.0.2062.102; newer versions might require a different approach. Since DirectWrite is only available in Windows Vista and later, the old GDI-based rendering engine could be removed entirely after XP support ends in April 2015.

Further reading

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  • It's a broken feature, for sure. Pretty much every site I use has had some problems with fonts, and it sucks even more for commercial products, because we can't actually affect this since this is completely client-side.
    – jurchiks
    Oct 10, 2014 at 17:14
  • @and31415, Sure it's a "feature", but it's actually a feature that makes things look uglier.
    – Pacerier
    Nov 6, 2015 at 5:58
  • This new "feature" made me wipe my monitor thinking there's dirt on it today: i.imgur.com/MoFSMsU.png
    – thdoan
    Mar 29, 2018 at 7:15

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