Improved subpixel text rendering for OLED (WRGB stripe, RGB triangular) -- Unfixable by ClearType Tuner (Over 100 upvotes in Feedback Hub)

Description of the new feature / enhancement
NOTE: I do paid work with display manufacturers.
Repost of incorrectly-closed github item that someone else posted:

ClearType alters anti-aliasing assuming an RGB stripe subpixel configuration. More WOLED (WRGB stripe) and QD-OLED (RGB triangular) monitors are coming to market and have noticeable chromatic aberration/color fringing on edges of text. It would be nice if Windows had a built-in option to alter text rendering based on subpixel configuration of the monitor.
Scenario when this would be used?
When using a WOLED or QD-OLED monitor with WRGB stripe or RGB triangular subpixel configuration to improve text clarity.
Supporting information
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52eiLP3Zy-s
https://youtu.be/k-6yc1dA--0?t=602
https://youtu.be/PR-1tMih0fM?t=442

It is definitely a real problem caused by unresolvable ClearType limitations.  The earlier github item (#25568) was incorrectly closed by someone who thought it was a feature already built into windows; so creating new GitHub issue.

As founder of Blur Busters / TestUFO, I work with computer monitor manufacturers; so I will explain
GOOD: What ClearType Is Compatible With:
ClearType is only compatible with vertical-stripe RGB and BGR pixel structure.
RGB:
...and...
BGR:
BAD: What ClearType definitely NOT Compatible With:
No, ClearType tuner doesn't fix this properly. It is unable to 100% unable to fix this.
LG WOLED, both their televisions and monitors

It is not possible to control the white sub pixel in software, but ClearType can still at least go into a special "RBG" mode where the blue subpixel is in the middle, and the green subpixel is at the right edge.  I did some PhotoShop tests and it actually makes text better on an LG WOLED.  It looks much better, here are some example PhotoShop images that works fine on an OLED at 1:1 pixel mapping:
Solution: Use an RBG ClearType mode where B is middle subpixel
I photoshopped this special sample that looks absolutely fantastic on LG WOLEDs.

So, dear Microsoft, here's definitive proof that ClearType modifications are required to look better than anything that ClearType Tuner can do.  Winky-wink.  😉 😉 😉
Samsung QD-OLED
They use a triangular structure as follows:

Actual macro photograph of a Samsung QD-OLED:

Which produces a text fringing problem at top/bottom of texts:

Monitor reviewers such as RTINGS complain about this.

Possible Method of Implementations
Short term implementation
A future "Enhanced ClearType Tuner" utility would accept a bitmask PNG file that shows where the red, green, blue subpixels are (ignoring any white subpixels, if any), and the ClearType will automatically use this than the old-assumption of RGB stripe.
Long term implementation
Monitor drivers (.INF) can provide an optional pixel structure (possibly as a bitmask, or a base64 data: PNG bitmask). The ClearType driver would automatically use this to provide accurate subpixel rendering
Precedent
Many smartphones already supports custom subpixel renderers (e.g. Pentile), though proprietary to the Android manufacturer (e.g. not visible in AOSP source code).

Thanks for bringing more attention to this issue. I originally linked the wrong LTT YouTube review. Here is the correct link where he discusses insufficiencies of ClearType with OLED:
https://youtu.be/PR-1tMih0fM?t=442

Thanks for bringing more attention to this issue.

As I currently am on paid contract work with LG regarding their brand new 240Hz WOLED panels, I can assure you that many end-users are now complaining about this.
Please reel free to social-media share the permalink to other experienced/advanced/programmer computer users who just purchased the new 2023-model OLED computer monitors, to bring more attention to this item.

To Microsoft:
Please forward the permalink to the ClearType engineering team for further thought;

@crutkas this guy should be working for Microsoft

I do think this is an issue between hardware and OS developers, though. Have you contacted Microsoft in a more direct manner?

Yes, thought about forwarding @Jason-GitH suggestion too.  But this is a difficult communicate.
ClearType was developed in 1998 as a kind of application-based feature (Microsoft Reader) and then ported into the OS.  It's been a very stagnant feature that doesn't even have an assigned maintainer at Microsoft anymore, I think.
Still, it's technically to incubate this first as a PowerToy -- there are third party font renderer utilities, such as MacType for Windows - www.mactype.net

Generic Supersampling Algorithm
For every time one font glyph is rendered onscreen:

Check if the glyph is already in the subpixel-scaled glyph cache.  If yes, skip to step 5.
Render a single character (font glyph) in-memory at u-scaling factor (e.g. 16x size)
Downscale the supersized font letter through the subpixel-structure bitmask
Cache the resulting bitmap (for faster run at step 1)
Draw the glyph onto the screen.

Basically, bitmasking a supersized glyph using very simple ultra-fast GPU shader code.

More Information About ClearType Tuning Problem with Multimonitor
Some people argue it isn't a feature regression, but a do-nothing bug, or something else, but I wanted to add some context:
Research (by the author of Better ClearType Tuner) about this multimonitor pboelm:
https://github.com/bp2008/BetterClearTypeTuner/wiki/ClearType-Investigations
Also, tons of reddit complaints, especially when multimonitoring with televisions (which uses BGR)
https://www.google.com/search?q=ClearType+Tuner+multimonitor

I reference https://github.com/bp2008/BetterClearTypeTuner/issues/11 -- the person @bp2008 who wrote "Better ClearType Tuner" -- because he had to close the multimonitor-ability because of the Microsoft bug/regression involving multimonitor ClearType.
I'm pulling him in to see if he's got any interest commenting about the bug/regression here.  Let me see if there's a Feedback Hub for this item, but I will publicly mirror here for relevancy (until Feedback Hub is replaced with a superior public-facing GitHub Issues system)

Well Over 100 Upvotes in Feedback Hub for This ClearType PowerToy
Okay, I have audited Feedback Hub, and oh boy, this is a popular complaint by OLED owners.  This issue is so obscure (that the duplicate-item judges do not even understand these are duplicates).  I will flag by copy and pasting some of this comment in Feedback Hub.
Search Terms: "cleartype OLED", "cleartype WOLED", "cleartype QDOLED"
Duplicate Feedback Hub List

https://aka.ms/AAkkqvy -- "ClearType support for Alienware AW3423DW monitor" (19 upvote)
https://aka.ms/AAkkqvy -- "ClearType subpixel Text blurry in my new QD OLED monitor" (7 upvote)
https://aka.ms/AAkk3vt -- "qd-oled cleartype support" (3 upvote)
https://aka.ms/AAkkyhv -- "Cleartype support for abnormal pixel layouts." (24 upvotes)
https://aka.ms/AAkkbky -- "Update ClearType for Triangle or Diamond Subpixel Layouts" (10 upvotes)
https://aka.ms/AAkkbky -- "ClearType text on QD OLED displays has fringing" (35 upvotes)
https://aka.ms/AAjorgl -- "Update ClearType to include QD-OLED subpixel layouts" (31 upvotes)
https://aka.ms/AAgkmhk -- "Improve subpixel rendering for WRGB WOLED and RGB QD-OLED displays to eliminate chromatic aberration" (24 upvotes)

Related ClearType Bug Reports For Gaming/Multimonitor
https://aka.ms/AAkjw7z -- "ClearType setting for different subpixel layouts for different screens (for second monitor rotated to portrait/vertical position)" (6 upvote)
ms/AAkcebe -- "ClearType text tuner incorrectly warns about non-native resolution"
Adebisi T (Microsoft Engineer) is currently confused, maybe forward this GitHub permalink.
Since github allows me to quickly type at 140wpm with easy photo-pasting, I need to use GitHub to communicate ClearType problems, not Feedback Hub which is nigh impossible to correctly communicate the fairly complicated ClearType multimonitor bug/regression.

It looks like MacType may be working on this: https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/issues/720

It looks like MacType might be able to work on this: snowie2000/mactype#720
We'll push that front, too.

That's good to know. Their findings will be useful. I wosh MavType had broader applicability but its effects don't get applied throughout several areas of Windows UI, UWP apps, and Chromium.

Agreed.
That being said, it is a bonafide third party font renderer that already has built-in optional RGB subpixel support.   So it is a potentially useful incubation venue before something similar comes Microsoft-side.

Donation OLED Offer to Software Developer With Font Cred
Also, since I am the owner of Blur Busters -- I might be able to donate a spare OLED monitor (1440p 240Hz!) later this year to an experienced subpixel-font programmer (e.g. MacType or other) if they want to take upon the ClearType 2 task.  I will (by summer) have way too many 240Hz OLEDs cluttering up my office, and this is a very noble initiative.

It looks like MacType might be able to work on this: snowie2000/mactype#720
We'll push that front, too.

Bad news, I think the MacType author may not be interested; however a new github request has been submitted to MacType: https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/issues/932
So that gives an open source programmer multiple choices of venues.

OK, I think MacType just incubated it.  Need some guinea pigs for these PNG images.

I have played around with MacType quite a bit on WOLED. DeepGrayNoHinting, SoftGrayNoHinting, and the built-in CRT profiles did the best at eliminating fringing in Windows UI.

I have played around with MacType quite a bit on WOLED. The built-in CRT profile as well as DeepGrayNoHinting / SoftGrayNoHinting did the best at eliminating fringing in Windows UI but don't improve sharpness noticeably.

However these seem to do grayscale rendering, which would avoid dealing with this topic completely.

I have played around with MacType quite a bit on WOLED. The built-in CRT profile as well as DeepGrayNoHinting / SoftGrayNoHinting did the best at eliminating fringing in Windows UI but don't improve sharpness noticeably.

However these seem to do grayscale rendering, which would avoid dealing with this topic completely.

Yep. Disabling ClearType, setting Better ClearType Tuner to grayscale aliasing, or using one of those aforementioned MacType profiles accomplish reducing color fringing in most areas. There are still some areas of Windows UI that remain affected, though. And sharpness is not as good as I think it could be.

I have played around with MacType quite a bit on WOLED. The built-in CRT profile as well as DeepGrayNoHinting / SoftGrayNoHinting did the best at eliminating fringing in Windows UI but don't improve sharpness noticeably.

However these seem to do grayscale rendering, which would avoid dealing with this topic completely.

Correct.  However,
Some people want the sharpest text
With the LG OLED demonstration image having nearly twice as sharp text than any of the other options ...
(viewing the LG OLED images on anything else other than LG OLED, will not work -- it is as sharp as well-optimized LCD ClearType).
There are ClearType fans that would like the sharpest possible text.
It is a matter of personal preference

Thank you for bringing attention to this issue.

profiles accomplish reducing color fringing in most areas on WOLED. There are still some areas of Windows UI that remain affected, though. And sharpness is not as good as I think it could be.

WOLED is more immune to fringing than Samsung QD-OLED.  It's easier to fix fringing on WOLED than QD-OLED, and color fringing on QD-OLED is completely unfixable without some subpixel rendering adjustments.
I just got some reports from [H]ardForum that people like the QD-OLED image:

"The 2's have far less or no fringing to my eyes. 2,2b, or 2d are the best. I can't notice much difference between them. Everything on the left has obvious fringing."
"On the [Alienware] DWF, 2 is the best with 2b as close second. Clear fringing on all the 1's.*

Which one has the least green/blue fringing artifact?
Please specify if 1, 2, 1b, 2b, 1c, 2c, 1d, 2d looks the best on your QD-OLED display.

I'm on an AW3423DW. All of the 2's don't have much fringing to me or others I've had try. 2 looks the best to me, while 2b and 2c looked the best to two other people.

FYI, I've been using MacType on QD-OLED (AW3423DW) with the Pixel Layout specified in this reddit post and fringing is almost completely eliminated.
Thanks for your work on the TestUFO website and for trying to draw attention to this misunderstood issue to Microsoft's attention!!

not totally sure this is something the PowerToys team could fix but asking around

cleartype已经过时落伍了，它对于中文字体的渲染简直是噩梦级的，比macos/linux的字体渲染差太多太多

My LG WOLED panel monitor is on it's way home, but already looking for a proper solution from Microsoft.

cleartype已经过时落伍了，它对于中文字体的渲染简直是噩梦级的，比macos/linux的字体渲染差太多太多

Translation:
cleartype is outdated, its rendering of Chinese fonts is a nightmare, much worse than macos/linux's font rendering.

FYI, I've been using MacType on QD-OLED (AW3423DW) with the Pixel Layout specified in this reddit post and fringing is almost completely eliminated. Thanks for your work on the TestUFO website and for trying to draw attention to this misunderstood issue to Microsoft's attention!!

Oh wow!  That one is unbeknownst to me!  That's a 9-month-old independent reddit fix for the unfixable QD-OLED color fringing problem, independently came up by someone else.  It's specific to QD-OLED and not to the other subpixel structures, though;

FYI, I've been using MacType on QD-OLED (AW3423DW) with the Pixel Layout specified in this reddit post and fringing is almost completely eliminated. Thanks for your work on the TestUFO website and for trying to draw attention to this misunderstood issue to Microsoft's attention!!

Oh wow! That one is unbeknownst to me! That's a 9-month-old independent reddit fix for the unfixable QD-OLED color fringing problem, independently came up by someone else. It's specific to QD-OLED and not to the other subpixel structures, though;
More reason for subpixel specs to be included in computer monitor drivers.

Completely agree, it would be great if computer monitors could advertise their pixel layout, I think it's going to be more and more needed with all the new OLED panels coming out.
However, I'm not sure if the solution shown in the Reddit post would work as well on WOLED because of the white pixel (maybe specifying using PixelLayout only the RGB leds and ignoring the white led would work?), but on QD-OLED it's really been amazing.

FYI, I've been using MacType on QD-OLED (AW3423DW) with the Pixel Layout specified in this reddit post and fringing is almost completely eliminated. Thanks for your work on the TestUFO website and for trying to draw attention to this misunderstood issue to Microsoft's attention!!

Oh wow! That one is unbeknownst to me! That's a 9-month-old independent reddit fix for the unfixable QD-OLED color fringing problem, independently came up by someone else. It's specific to QD-OLED and not to the other subpixel structures, though;
More reason for subpixel specs to be included in computer monitor drivers.

Completely agree, it would be great if computer monitors could advertise their pixel layout, I think it's going to be more and more needed with all the new OLED panels coming out. However, I'm not sure if the solution shown in the Reddit post would work as well on WOLED because of the white pixel (maybe specifying using PixelLayout only the RGB leds and ignoring the white led would work?), but on QD-OLED it's really been amazing.

Does the fringing persist in areas not affected by MacType?

However, I'm not sure if the solution shown in the Reddit post would work as well on WOLED because of the white pixel

No, it does not.  I've written about the need for separate custom subpixel profiles.

(maybe specifying using PixelLayout only the RGB leds and ignoring the white led would work?),

Yes, my tests above show ignoring the whitesubpixel works.
https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/issues/932#issuecomment-1517078311
https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/issues/932#issuecomment-1517162968

However, some more experimentation is needed to come up with a MacType version of this Photoshopped image.

Does the fringing persist in areas not affected by MacType? Chrome, UWP, etc

Unfortunately, yes.  You will have to do the Edge/Chrome hacks documented at https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/wiki/Google-Chrome

Does the fringing persist in areas not affected by MacType? Chrome, UWP, etc

Unfortunately, yes. You will have to do the Edge/Chrome hacks documented at https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/wiki/Google-Chrome The gist is the following:
Being able to override the built-in front renderer and using a third party renderer requires disabling integrity (security consideration)
chrome.exe --disable-features=RendererCodeIntegrity
Or modifying RendererCodeIntegrityEnabled for registry keys:

HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge, for new Edge
HKLM\Software\Policies\Chromium, for Chromium
HKLM\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome, for Chrome
HKLM\Software\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave, for Brave

Then it can use third party font renderers.
But this is not ideal from a security perspective. Long-term, a Microsoft-native solution for what MacType can do with QD-OLED, would be highly desired, to reduce the security.

Indeed, that's what I had to do. That's why this issue needs to be resolved by Microsoft more globally and more safely.

For those unaware of the color fringing is on QD-OLED, this is what it looks like:
What QD-OLED looks like without subpixel fix

Does the fringing persist in areas not affected by MacType? Chrome, UWP, etc

Unfortunately, yes. You will have to do the Edge/Chrome hacks documented at https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/wiki/Google-Chrome The gist is the following:
Being able to override the built-in front renderer and using a third party renderer requires disabling integrity (security consideration)
chrome.exe --disable-features=RendererCodeIntegrity
Or modifying RendererCodeIntegrityEnabled for registry keys:

HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge, for new Edge
HKLM\Software\Policies\Chromium, for Chromium
HKLM\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome, for Chrome
HKLM\Software\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave, for Brave

Then it can use third party font renderers.
But this is not ideal from a security perspective. Long-term, a Microsoft-native solution for what MacType can do with QD-OLED, would be highly desired, to reduce the security.

Indeed, that's what I had to do. That's why this issue needs to be resolved by Microsoft more globally and more safely.

I believe Chromium doesn't use ClearType at all so fixing ClearType would not help that specific case. For Chrome at least --disable-lcd-text can enable grayscale rendering, but as shown by the post right above this that's probably not a solution.

More precedent
FreeType documentation is rather interesting about a possible subpixel-structure-flexible algorithm:
https://freetype.org/freetype2/docs/reference/ft2-lcd_rendering.html

More precedent
FreeType documentation is rather interesting about a possible subpixel-structure-flexible algorithm, that doesn't require a bitmask technique. https://freetype.org/freetype2/docs/reference/ft2-lcd_rendering.html
Popular request among OLED owners

EDIT - Oh wow, there's quite a lot of upvotes earlier in this thread -- Appreciate the support.

I posted your GitHub thread on several OLED gaming forums to get some support. Feedback has been in Windows Feedhub for years and nothing has come of it.
Btw, building off your FreeType link: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/freetype/freetype/-/issues/1182

@mdrejhon Do you know if the EDID for these monitors contains the subpixel layout information? From my basic understanding of ClearType, it is more of a 'workaround' for doing things the correct way; reading the subpixel information from the monitor itself and then making an automatic adjustment for the display.

That document is from 2006, but I doubt there has been enhancements since then in the EDID for this specific scenario. You can use this tool to inspect some of the information provided by the display.
Note: I do work at Microsoft but I'm not associated with anyone who knows how to fix this issue. However, I do desperately want this issue fixed.

I tested my LG C2 with ControlMyMonitor but it just gave an error. I used https://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/moninfo.shtm

I tried ControlMyMonitor with LG C2 but it just gave an error. I tried the Monitor Asset Manager and it gave me some EDID info. I don't think it's reporting what you need, though, as it's not a monitor but a TV. It reported the following info:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bf3KlDIf_XpToT0E8h4cJKIbTH7QN6qgiZ06h2OunT4/edit?usp=share_link

I tried ControlMyMonitor with LG C2 but it just gave an error. I tried the Monitor Asset Manager and it gave me some EDID info. I don't think it's reporting what you need, though, as it's not a monitor but a TV. It reported the following info.

The Google doc you linked is not publicly shared (meaning, no one can access it). Any chance you could put the info into a public Gist instead?

@mdrejhon Do you know if the EDID for these monitors contains the subpixel layout information? From my basic understanding of ClearType, it is more of a 'workaround' for doing things the correct way; reading the subpixel information from the monitor itself and then making an automatic adjustment for the display.

Unfortunately, this is unreliable -- many don't report the information accurately enough to calculate the subpixel structure.
The best way to do it is either
(A) Via monitor drivers (monitor INF files that contains information on subpixel layout)
(B) Via DeviceID database of known subpixel structure associated.  You know, those 7-character Plug and Play IDs reportable by APIs.  e.g. "BNQ74F8" or "VSC37C4".  These are port specific, and for some manufacturers, are unique representations of one port of a monitor.
Even TVs are finally adding Device IDs now to make universal remotes plug and play!  Universal remotes on my FireTV auotmatically recognized the 7-character DeviceID returned by a HiSense TV a house, and correctly loaded the infrared codes for the televisions' volume buttons, mute and power button, without the usual glitchy remote-scan step.

@mdrejhon This project is getting noticed! https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1682676702
I uploaded the C2 EDID as a Gist.

LG 27GR95QE EDID Gist

AW3423DW EDID Gist

Asus PG27AQDM EDID gist

Samsung Odyssey G8 OLED EDID gist

Dell Alienware AW3423DWF ControlMyMonitor gist

I do not think sending gists for common RGB LCDs is productive at this juncture (I already have access to a much better crowdsourced EDID database at the moment) -- but gists for OLEDs are.

@LamTop @mrnicedonovan @Ncl8 Apparently those manufacturers put the serial number in the EDID. You may want to delete those from your public gist.

There is an upcoming OLED monitor from Dough called Spectrum OLED. They sent this cryptic email today implying they are doing something with the subpixel structure for some purpose:
https://imgur.com/vX868oH

I have communications with several manufacturers.
No, the filter is unrelated to subpixel structure correction -- this has nothing to do with the discussion in this thread.  Spectrum's monitors are glossy (without film) as far as I know, and it is a comparison to the other manufacturers that use an antiglare film on their monitors.
On a related topic, there can be some panel-side mitigations possible. However, in the long-term, Windows support for nonstandard pixel structures needs to be implemented.

Isn't this not just a text rendering issue? In some of the correction images posted here this seems fixed for text but not for other elements. I know of many RGB layout monitors also having issues with colored fringing on objects (but not all). This should be able to be improved by sharpness calibration of the monitor itself. More so for QD-OLED than WOLED. Maybe a system wide calibration of Windows could be an option in the future.

Isn't this not just a text rendering issue? In some of the correction images posted here this seems fixed for text but not for other elements. I know of many RGB layout monitors also having issues with colored fringing on objects (but not all). This should be able to be improved by sharpness calibration of the monitor itself. More so for QD-OLED than WOLED. Maybe a system wide calibration of Windows could be an option in the future.

This is correct.
Alas, a lot of the other rendering issues aren't always easy to fix in software.
For example, the red/green fringing of yellow objects on white background on LG WOLEDs is an intrinsic hardware behavior that can't be fixed directly.
However, red/green fringing of yellow objects on black backgrounds is indeed fixable on LG WOLEDs by shifting the red channel to the right (by 1 pixel), or the green channel to the left (by 1 pixel).  However, this creates other artifacts.  It's theoretically possible that a custom shader or AI-based de-fringing filter is possible, e.g. SweetFX / Reshade style.  This will probably require, however, a Windows Indirect Display driver, configured to run a custom shader.

Hi, sorry for barging in like this. I just ordered a QD-OLED monitor (Odyssey OLED G8) so this issue has become relevant to my interests :)
I checked the E-EDID dumps and noticed they are incomplete; apparently the Entech utility only ever dumps the first 256 bytes of the E-EDID even though 2-3 extension blocks are specified.
Expected size is 128 bytes for the base EDID 1.3/1.4 block plus 128 bytes for each extension block.
In case of the LG 27GR95QE it seems to specify an extension block map additionally, adding 128 more bytes.
Comparing the Entech output with the entries in my Windows registry I can confirm that; registry gives me 384 bytes of E-EDID for my current monitor (34WK95U), at least in two of the "...&UID" sub-entries under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\DISPLAY.
@nicck @Ncl8 @LamTop @mrnicedonovan
It would be super neat if you could export your respective registry keys so we can get full raw EDID dumps including all extension blocks. (copy&paste from the binary viewer inside regedit doesn't seem to work, and the export feature outputs a bit of a clunky 20-bytes-per-line format but at least it's complete). If your monitors have multiple sub-entries like in my screenshot, pick the EDID key that is longest; there's a chance that some of them are truncated.

^ make sure the numbers on the left go higher than 000000F0
Here's a sample of the export from my 34WK95U:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\DISPLAY\GSM7720\5&3b7692c&1&UID49411\Device Parameters]
"EDID"=hex:00,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,00,1e,6d,20,77,**,**,**,**,09,1c,01,04,b5,50,\
  21,78,9e,09,c1,ae,50,44,af,26,0e,50,54,21,08,00,71,40,81,80,81,c0,a9,c0,d1,\
  c0,81,00,01,01,01,01,e7,7c,70,a0,d0,a0,29,50,30,20,3a,00,20,4a,31,00,00,1a,\
  9d,67,70,a0,d0,a0,22,50,30,20,3a,00,20,4a,31,00,00,1a,00,00,00,fd,00,30,3d,\
  1e,87,4c,00,0a,20,20,20,20,20,20,00,00,00,fc,00,4c,47,20,48,44,52,20,35,4b,\
  0a,20,20,20,02,b2,02,03,19,71,44,90,04,03,01,23,09,07,07,83,01,00,00,e3,05,\
  c0,00,e3,06,05,01,4d,d0,00,a0,f0,70,3e,80,30,20,65,0c,20,4a,31,00,00,1a,28,\
  68,00,a0,f0,70,3e,80,08,90,65,0c,20,4a,31,00,00,1a,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,e3,70,12,79,03,00,03,00,28,70,1d,01,86,ff,13,68,01,\
  18,80,60,00,6f,08,3d,00,2f,00,08,00,b8,8e,00,86,ff,13,68,01,18,80,60,00,6f,\
  08,3d,00,2f,00,08,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,ab,90

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\DISPLAY\GSM7720\5&3b7692c&1&UID49411\Device Parameters\WDF]

Note if you want to hide your serial numbers overwrite the 13th-16th entry in the first line of the EDID entry as I did using asterisks in my example.
That said, my current LG's (albeit LCD) extension blocks do not contain any EDID DDDB blocks at all and I don't have high hopes for the OLED monitors having them, but can't hurt to check...

Monitors Unboxed makes the point that fixing ClearType probably won't make much of a difference due to how limited the applicability of ClearType is in Windows environment: https://youtu.be/vSpo6rmfP0Q?t=210
He also suggests perhaps it would be better to render Windows desktop at super resolution and then scale back to native resolution: https://youtu.be/vSpo6rmfP0Q?t=328

**Jason-GitH ** commented May 11, 2023 •

Yes, that's another option.  I mention this already at https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/25595#issuecomment-1543299153
A subpixel-aware downscaler would allow everything to be "ClearType'd" including graphics, and not just text.  This can even be done as a third-party Windows Indirect Display Driver, which I already offer a USD$2000.00 source code bounty for for something under MIT or Apache.  Contact me at mark[at]blurbusters.com

Alas, a lot of the other rendering issues aren't always easy to fix in software.
For example, the red/green fringing of yellow objects on white background on LG WOLEDs is an intrinsic hardware behavior that can't be fixed directly.
Very likely out-of-scope for this PowerToy; but it is one possible route of de-fringing an OLED via a software filter on top of everything, perhaps as a superscale-downsampler (e.g. running at 2x-3x resolution at 200%-300% DPI, and running it through a shader-based downscaler).

There may be an underlying issue with LG WOLED displays, since the added white subpixel messes with rendering, though on QD-OLED which is basically just RGB differently aligned this should not be an issue. Since there are RGB-Layout displays that don't have colored fringing on all objects (some do though), probably fixed by some hardware calibration for RGB already, the same should be possible with QD-OLED at least.

a subpixel-aware downscaler would allow everything to be "ClearType'd" including graphics, and not just text. This can even be done as a third-party Windows Indirect Display Driver, which I already offer a USD$2000.00 source code bounty for something under MIT or Apache.

This seems like a good idea for WOLED displays, but not really needed for QD-OLED perhaps. A downscale algorithm will always have a hit on performance which is why this does not seem like the best solution. Maybe an advanced algorithm can fix this in native, That would be a better solution if it could improve it a bit on WOLED, as well as fix it for QD-OLED. A display calibration in Windows like suggested would surely be a great feature that could possibly fix colored fringing even on some RGB displays.

I'm sorry for going off topic on this. I just want to throw this out there. I did some more thorough testing with nVidia DSR with WOLED (LG C2). It actually does help improve the text blurriness/reducing fringing. Note that I have ClearType disabled for all of this and kept Windows UI scaling at 100%.
With Legacy DSR, the Smoothness function makes a significant difference. 100% is unusably blurry and 0% makes text look very "ugly". The default 33% seems generally good. I tested all the Legacy DSR scaling factors, and the 2.00X option at 33% produced the best effect to me.
With DLDSR, the Smoothness function has a very subtle effect if any, so I left it at default 33%. I tested all the DLDSR scaling factors, and the 2.25X option at 33% produced the best effect to me.
As far as DLDSR 2.25X vs Legacy DSR 2.00X at 33% smoothness, the DLDSR 2.25X text is slightly bolder/smoother.

There may be an underlying issue with LG WOLED displays, since the added white subpixel messes with rendering, though on QD-OLED which is basically just RGB differently aligned this should not be an issue.

There's a thread on HardForum about this.
I know why the color fringing is happening with yellows... I need to point out that the problem with red/green fringing is because it's an R-W-B-G system, where B and G is swapped when W pixel is added <-- THIS.
The R color is far away from G, which creates the fringing.

There are potential solutions that are being looked into, by half-pixel shifting the processing, where [RWBG][RWBG][RWBG][RWBG][RWBG] becomes RW][BGRW][BGRW][BGRW][BGRW][BG .... In this case, it becomes largely BGR ClearType compatible while eliminating the color-fringing involved with yellows (because the brightest primary colors R and G stays together).
The pixel structure was designed in the television era, and there's even a peer reviewed paper explaining why they chose the structure.  However, it's not ideal for computer graphics use.

Some day, some time, I wonder if some big shot from Microsoft will look back at this issue and think: "How did this happen?"
I urge any Microsoft employee that is reading this to take this issue seriously, don't wait for LG CTO to have to call Microsoft CTO to complain that this issue is preventing them from selling monitors and advance the technology for millions of consumers. Don't wait for that call, be proactive, or else they will look back and ask, "How did this happen?", and will want to point fingers. If you don't have the necessary expertise, escalate this issue. If the person you escalate this issue to ignores it, escalate to his superior. Do the right thing, make a noise. This is unnaceptable and the whole industry is watching.
The mere fact that someone as technical as @mdrejhon has to beg to be heard is shameful, honestly.

I purchased the LG 45GR95QE-B and spend about 8 hours total traveling down a rabbit hole before finding this issue. I can rest now. It can be fixed in software.
I can see text is noticeably better when plugging my monitor in to my MacBook Pro versus Windows. What does MacOS do that Windows doesn't?
Either way, have a thumbs up. Thank you so much for raising this issue in such detail.

I purchased the LG 45GR95QE-B and spent about 8 hours total traveling down a rabbit hole before finding this issue. I can rest now. It can be fixed in software.
I can see text is noticeably better when plugging my monitor in to my MacBook Pro versus Windows. What does MacOS do that Windows doesn't?
Either way, have a thumbs up. Thank you so much for raising this issue in such detail.

MacOS uses grayscale rendering and it doesn't do sub pixel rendering at all. Some newer Windows apps like Windows Terminal do this too.

upvote this!!!

Hopefully Microsoft will address and resolve this issue in Windows 11. This problem has persisted for years, as evidenced by this example from 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntwiDrQcUv4
thanks everyone for providing such a great detail in this thread.

Would love to see this properly addressed/fixed.

Would also love to see this addressed. WRGB OLED panels are everywhere now and the text looks terrible. Looks nice on my Mac, but I primarily use Windows. Let's get this fixed in Windows 11!

Asus PG42UQ gist

With WRGB panels, this is probably unsolvable due to white subpixel unpredictably/uncontrollably coming into effect at higher brightness.
Suggested this for Dough QHD OLED monitor.

A fix is needed

With WRGB panels, this is probably unsolvable on software level due to white subpixel unpredictably/uncontrollably coming into effect at higher brightness.

There were some internal tests done, and there were still improvements with software algorithms (read some of the posts I made above).
So it's partially/mostly solvable at the software level, in that the artifacts by tolerating the white subpixel autonomous behavior, was confirmed to not cancel out the artifact-redutions of doing some software mitigations.
Such as the RBG ClearType simulation -- see successful PhotoShop image above.

If this was an unsolvable problem in software, text clarity wouldn't be an issue in video games or other software that doesn't use ClearType. In my experience on the LG45" Ultrawide OLED with a white sub pixel, there are 0 issues rendering text in game and outside of windows / chrome, for whatever that's worth.
I think fundamentally a problem caused by software surely must be solvable in software.

This has to be a solvable problem - text on my PG42UQ looks great on my M1 Mac Mini, but not-so-great on my Windows 11 PC.

Please fix this! Just got the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 and this is destroying the experience.

Maybe a little off-topic, but I can confirm that texts are fine on Macs. However, I am still getting that green and red fringe on left and right side of yellow shapes. I suppose this is not 100% ClearType or Microsoft's fault although a ClearType fix would be useful still.

@eisenb11 @ionizer
Afaik, macOS does not use subpixel text antialiasing for years and uses simple grayscale antialiasing instead.

@Marat-Tanalin Yeah, you may be correct on that - but all I know is that my Mac looks better on my OLED than Windows does! :)

please fix it. it's hilarious this is looking so bad on windows 11

Started a return on my new g9 OLED because of this. Makes it unusable for anything other than gaming.

Yeah, definitely a problem.

Maybe the Microsoft display engineering team might want to investigate:
(A) An improved greyscale mode or an adjustable greyscale mode (adjustable gamma-correction in the antialiasing, adjustable antialiasing-vs-nonAA intensity, etc); and
(B) Improved monitor INF files that inform whether the display is RGB, is BGR, or is a nonstandard pixel structure;

I have the OLED G9 now... it sad how bad the text is. But the issue is the same on images for mee that contain texts. tried many screen shoots from friends on my OLED G9 and also tested it on my old one and there was big differences :(
So will clear type 2 fix it when images also get bad text?

@jnormen image rendering isn’t the same as text rendering, cleartype would have no effect on that.

@jnormen image rendering isn’t the same as text rendering, cleartype would have no effect on that.

I know, but still I got the same problem with text in images as with text in apps.
For me text in mails, webpages, pdf files etc. are all messy some lines are thicker then others etc...
Exactly the same happens with text images for me. So if I take a screen shoot of my mail and save it as an image it looks the same as when read the raw text... If I take a look at the image on another screens it looks good.
So nerveless it's image or not the text looks bad.
Sadly I cant take a photo of it because my camera blur the image.

in a screenshot (especially png without compression) if you look at it 1:1 scale the clear type rendering is included as shown with the example in the second post

@Julianus43 It would only work if someone took a screenshot on a WRGB display with clear type 2 and then displayed it on another WRGB display. If they were to take a screenshot on a RGB display, it won’t be fixed by clear type 2 when viewed on a WRGB display because the sub pixel rendering isn’t going to change on an image from device to device.

I wonder if I have the same issue as others with my OLED G9.
I do not notice any blurry text, not green or red lines around the text. What happens for me is that some lines on the text are thicker than others. Also more pixelized text. So for me the text looks more "formatted" wrong.
For example number 00771 make the 1 look fat but 0077 looks almost normal but kind of thinner then normal.
The first line in many "M" chars can be thin but the two other are thicker etc... so the chars differ in line shapes.

I do not notice any blurry text, not green or red lines around the text. What happens for me is that some lines on the text are thicker than others. Also more pixelized text. So for me the text looks more "formatted" wrong.

Yep, that's the issue.

Still dead silence from Microsoft

@jnormen Line-width variability may be a result of an OS-level zoom between 100% and 200%, like 150%. This usually doesn’t happen at 100% OS-level zoom, and is usually not noticeable at 200%, regardless of ClearType.

Still dead silence from Microsoft

I ended up chatting with one of the two developers who own the actual sub-pixel rendering experience that is utilized by ClearType. This article explains the high-level details of the technology. At this point, it is quite old. The reasons I stopped digging further than this was:

I'm just a dev on a completely unrelated team (though I'm an OLED user myself and would love to determine a fix)
The current ClearType implementation doesn't seem suitable to fix this issue

The low-level APIs don't support anything that would be necessary here (like a W sub-pixel or custom arrangements that aren't horizontal)

I no longer think of this issue has being related to PowerToys/ClearType

This is something more fundamental and I have no idea what direction to go
ClearType was created to solve a certain problem (CRT -> LCD), and it is not a wholistic solution that applies to this problem

No longer sure who or what team would even be interested in solving this

In my opinion, the problem seems more than just 'text rendering'. Given that, I don't think it is necessarily the OS's responsibility to add this kind of "sub-pixel anti-aliasing" (I know it isn't exactly that, but it is conceptually how I think about it). Additionally, the ClearType dev also let me know that the technology they have doesn't work if the monitor is in portrait mode, which makes sense since it isn't aware of the monitor's physicality from a text rendering standpoint. At this point, the likely best implementor would be something at the driver-level for video cards. Something where they're aware of:

Monitor type (at least basic information)

Still would need to solve who/where the sub-pixel information comes from

Monitor orientation
Access to the entire render-state (independent of text or not)

GPU manufacturers do use some techniques like this already. I've personally used AMD's VSR before. It had it's own issues but worked for my use-case.
Anyway, this is just my 2-cents. I still enjoy seeing the conversation take place here, but I don't foresee the problem being solved via PowerToys/ClearType, unfortunately. I think there would need to be, you know, some panel manufacturer to throw their weight around to try to get some company to make a change. But trying to do this from the bottom-up does not seem to be the way. 😢

In my opinion, the problem seems more than just 'text rendering'. Given that, I don't think it is necessarily the OS's responsibility to add this kind of "sub-pixel anti-aliasing"

Yeah thats kind of what i said in my post. Its definitely affecting more than just text. In this image from the first article mentioning this issue on the Alienware QD-OLED, you can clearly see this affects window edges as well. I saw similar behaviour on many LCD displays too! I feel like people never mention that this issue exists on LCD (RGB Layout) at all which I dont understand.

Its clear that the monitor manufacturers need to fix this issue as far as possible first, via some sharpness calibration settings. When its possible to fix it on LCD, it must be possible to fix on OLED as well (on QD-OLED at least as mentioned in my other post). For W-OLED though there should definitely be a better grayscale text option in windows, to fix rendering at least in that scenario. I kind of think a general removal of colored text rendering could be a good step for the future. There are quiet a lot of applications that don't use colored text rendering anyway and this would just give more consistency.

If this is fundamentally unfixable in ClearType so be it, but I do not understand what's preventing windows from allowing grayscale rendering so, even if there are issues and artifacts in other areas, we can at least live in peace having parity with MacOS text clarity.

If this is fundamentally unfixable in ClearType so be it, but I do not understand what's preventing windows from allowing grayscale rendering so, even if there are issues and artifacts in other areas, we can at least live in peace having parity with MacOS text clarity.

There is a already a greyscale rendering mode in Windows (turn off ClearType) but it's not as high quality as MacType for Windows or connecting an Apple MacOS-based computer to the same monitor.

Yeah thats kind of what i said in my post. Its definitely affecting more than just text. In this image from the first article mentioning this issue on the Alienware QD-OLED, you can clearly see this affects window edges as well. I saw similar behaviour on many LCD displays too! I feel like people never mention that this issue exists on LCD (RGB Layout) at all which I dont understand.
Its clear that the monitor manufacturers need to fix this issue as far as possible first, via some sharpness calibration settings. When its possible to fix it on LCD, it must be possible to fix on OLED as well (on QD-OLED at least as mentioned in my other post). For W-OLED though there should definitely be a better grayscale text option in windows, to fix rendering at least in that scenario. I kind of think a general removal of colored text rendering could be a good step for the future. There are quiet a lot of applications that don't use colored text rendering anyway and this would just give more consistency.

As an alternative to ClearType-only rendering (ala ClearType 2 experiment or PowerToy etc), could be a filter that applies to the entire Windows desktop to make everything subpixel-clear regardless of graphics/text.  This can be done by supersampling the resolution and downscaling the composited framebuffer in a subpixel-structure aware manner.   Some phones already (sort) of do this, on a PenTile display, etc.
As a related initiative that should be done in parallel to deciding mitigations on this -- I think the monitor INF format should at least be upgraded in some form -- to automatically turn off the original ClearType (Which does look great for LCDs) whenever the monitor is not a standard RGB-subpixel or BGR-pixel format.

As an alternative to ClearType-only rendering (ala ClearType 2 experiment or PowerToy etc)...
There could be an everything-filter that applies to the entire Windows desktop to make everything subpixel-clear regardless of graphics/text. This can be done by supersampling the resolution and downscaling the composited framebuffer in a subpixel-structure aware manner. Some phones already (sort) of do this, on a PenTile display, etc.

Since I know this behaviour happens on RGB-Layout displays as well (although maybe not as severe), I do think there should be a windows wide calibration that can be optimized on a per monitor basis. I don't think that a downscale alrgorithm is the correct solution though, but maybe I don't 100% understand what you mean by this. I think I mentioned this in my second post (which I can't find anymore) where I said that this would lead to performance reduction. Is that so or would I be wrong?
I feel like some form of monitor sharpness calibration would be able to dealw ith this as well. When I had my other LCD monitors I noticed that all had different out of the box sharpness and color fringing. Some looked good out of the box (sharp and no fringing) and some don't. Messing with the inbuilt sharpness calibration sort of dealt with the color fringing on many monitors but would made them look more blurry. I am sure either Microsoft or Nvidia could built something like this which has a subpixel aware rendering to fix this.
It's definitely clear that this has to be fixed by someone at least, seen by the amount of users this affects and it's a fact that ClearType is out of date and either needs a refresh or be removed. I definitely think though that colored text rendering on its own should to be removed. Grayscale text (that isn't as bad as the current Windows option) with a monitor wide calibration would be the ideal solution.

Since I know this behaviour happens on RGB-Layout displays as well (although maybe not as severe), I do think there should be a windows wide calibration that can be optimized on a per monitor basis. I don't think that a downscale alrgorithm is the correct solution though, but maybe I don't 100% understand what you mean by this. I think I mentioned this in my second post (which I can't find anymore) where I said that this would lead to performance reduction. Is that so or would I be wrong?

Remember the subpixel resolution of the display is much higher than the pixel resolution of the display, either by a factor of 2 (PenTile), factor of 3 (RGB, BGR, QD-OLED), or factor of 4 (LG WOLED).
To take advantage of the spatial positions of the subpixels, in a content-independent way (text, images, lines, borders, graphics) there needs to be a higher spatial resolution to have something that clicks to the subpixel grid.  Otherwise it doesn't scale in a sharper-than-native way.  There could also be a Sharpness adjustment that blends between full subpixel and full non-subpixel -- to accomodate user preference.
In theory this can be done as a third party filter.  Like an F.Lux / Night Light or other.
There are many workflows, but

It's definitely clear that this has to be fixed by someone at least, seen by the amount of users this affects and it's a fact that ClearType is out of date and either needs a refresh or be removed. I definitely think though that colored text rendering on its own should to be removed. Grayscale text (that isn't as bad as the current Windows option) with a monitor wide calibration would be the logically ideal default generic solution, even if not the ultimate clearest/sharpest.

Fixed that for you.  It should be default from now on, as long as greyscale rendering is improved to match the Mac quality crispness -- the current Windows greyscale mode is worse than the Mac native version or the MacType-for-Windows implementation (even with its subpixel render mode disabled).
It's a user preference matter.

@mdrejhon I understand it's not just text but also borders and other straight and thin lines. That the real cause is the way the pixels are positioned in the display and that there are actually OLED displays that do use the "normal" RGB positoning.
Why are display(panel) manufactures changing the positioning?

This is a separate problem, really. Similar things happen with RGB although perhaps to a lesser degree because there's no white sub pixel. For example: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/subpixel.php
The problem here is that ClearType actively makes text much worse than we'll rendered grayscale (e.g. UWP apps).

Microsoft seems to be working on this issue. I asked bing chat and got this answer :
A feedback report titled “Windows 11: Subpixel rendering for OLED monitors” (...) has a reply from a Microsoft employee named “Jason Howard (Microsoft)” on August 4, 2023. The reply says:
Hi OLED Lover, thank you for your feedback and for sharing your experience with OLED monitors and subpixel rendering. We are aware of this issue and we are working on improving ClearType to support different subpixel layouts, such as PenTile, WRGB, or QD-OLED. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work on this feature. Please stay tuned for future updates and releases of Windows 11 Insider Preview Builds. Thank you for being part of the Windows Insider Program.
I am not in the Windows 11 Insider Preview program so I cannot access the link with the complete report, if anyone can, let me know : https://aka.ms/AAkkyhv

@Wilburocrome Jason never said that in this thread.  We'd love to know what you gave as a prompt to get the response there to get that response as it isn't true.  That response isn't even in this thread nor in the Feedback hub.  If i don't get a response back in the next few days, I will mark this as off topic as it isn't true.

@crutkas Hi, maybe it is just some hallucination from bing chat.
My prompt and response : https://imgur.com/VFd94pG
I'll delete my post if it's not true

@crutkas that's an awfully detailed quote if it's a hallucination. Wonder where bing got that info from? Really really really hoping that's true.

@Wilburocrome can you provide the deep link the bing chat?  I directly verified with Jason and he never responded to this topic.

If i don't get a response back in the next few days, I will mark this as off topic as it isn't true.

FYI -- yes, please remove these posts if this is an AI hallucination! Make sure you only surgically mark the specific offtopic posts (rather than this whole thread).
(There are multiple parallel lines, including the new-powertoy route, instead of the Insider route.)

EDIT @crutkas: I noticed @Wilburocrome registered 2 days after this github opened.  I don't know if that means anything, but I wanted to inform everyone (just in case), since that seems.... fishy.  Whether that person is a fan of this change, or is a troublemaker.

If that person is a fan and screenshot is real, then yes, send hallucination to the Bing debug team.
If that person faked the screenshot, everybody please don't do such sheninigians as much as you think it might help me or Microsoft.  It just annoys the bleep out of me and Microsoft.

@crutkas, @mdrejhon: the screenshot is real, here is the bing deep link : https://sl.bing.net/fLVl5OQS3rg
The quote is on the message 4/5, do not mind the last message which is unrelated to this topic.
Please do report the hallucination as it is concerning and actually fooled me...

New QD-OLED 32 inch panel incoming  with modified subpixel structure to improve text clarity (rectangular)

I hope to see 25/27 inch oled monitors with a normal subpixel arrangement, for me 32+ is already a TV.

downscaler filter for all desktop content (text + images) can be produced to accomodate practically any subpixel structure, if the OS could discover the subpixel structure of the display itself. For 1920x1080 displays at 100% DPI zoom, the desktop would be internally rendered as 3840x2160 at 200% DPI zoom or 5760x3240 and piped through the subpixel-aware downscaler. In fact, even 4K videos would become sharper on a 1920x1080 display too, when piped through a subpixel-structure-aware downscaler.
Today's fast GPU shaders can scale every DWM composited refresh cycle in less than a millisecond, so while this increases processing overhead, it's extremely fast in a GPU shader.
The global method is a bit brute overkill but reduces/solves fringing for all graphics, and not altogether that efficient, but would be a universal approach optionally activated by users who want the extra screen clarity.
You are making a powerfully convincing argument here. Should that be part of the AMD/Nvidia driver rather than Windows?

You are making a powerfully convincing argument here. Should that be part of the AMD/Nvidia driver rather than Windows?

Well, there's pros/cons.
The algorithm is a generic GPU-vendor-independent method, utilizing existing general-purpose shader algorithms that runs in ShaderToy, so there's also good argument for making this an industry standard rather than one GPU vendors'.
Whether that's Microsoft... or a third party open source middleware driver... that can indeed be up for debate.

Still can't believe this hasn't been implemented yet

Just to drop in, I specifically didn't purchase a QD OLED monitor because it wasn't worth the risk of finding out text clarity is actually a deal breaker long term or not. I think a lot of people except gamers have likely passed for a similar reason, though another artifact of the subpixel structure can be the 'green' lines around white windows in the samsung QD OLED, which I'd expect may turn off some gamers as well.
I think monitors with this tech is being sold now to recoup R&D investments, but it's still new technology. What's frustrating to me is that some of these issues can be solved with software, and if it was solved, would have more people purchase them, allowing more investment in the tech to resolve some of the other issues in it.
Also, I don't know much about these processes, but I wonder if there is another attack vector we could consider via using NVIDIA's hook into the display process to have it resolve these subpixel rendering issues? I know they have game settings to do 'super resolution' and 'g-sync' etc., Maybe they could come up with a rendering process which optimizes for different subpixel layouts. I wonder if they have monitor-specific solutions for some of their features already?

I and many friends of mine will not get an OLED monitor before there is an acceptable solution to this problem. This seems to be the consensus for all the not 100% gamers who want to have the best monitor for their systems.
It seems to be solvable. I wonder why this is still a concern in late 2023.

I game a lot and I also use my computer for productivity, browsing, etc., and after reading up on the quirks of QD-OLED I figured it was worth a shot to at least try it - and yeah the text fringing is an issue. When trying to read text it makes me feel like my vision is a little blurry or like I can't focus properly.
I really hope this is officially addressed soon as it's not just a matter of preference, it's an accessibility concern. I generally have good vision, and the text fringing still makes reading more difficult for me, so I can imagine it being very problematic for someone who doesn't have good eyesight. Heck I worry that it could cause problems long-term since I'm straining a bit to read things.
It's unfortunate because while the contrast and colors and perfect blacks are all great, feeling like I'm losing my vision whenever I look at text - or really anything where fringing is apparent since it's not just a text issue - is making me question if it's worth keeping.

While I have no problem for this thread to become a place to complain and vent frustration, let's find some way to move forward:

in the short term, we want to APIs from OS/Driver to select sub pixel layout per monitor
in the long term, we want a industry standard to auto detect sub pixel layout of monitors

How do we make these happen? Anyone from Microsoft/Apple/Nvidia/AMD/Intel/Google can bring up this problem from inside your companies?

Isn't there something the community can do in the meantime? Some sort of virtual display adapter which creates a virtual screen with 2x the resoltuion and DPI of the host display, do the scaling with subpixel layout in mind and "mirror it" onto the real display?
There's this virtual display driver written in Rust for example https://github.com/MolotovCherry/virtual-display-rs
All it's missing is the live preview of the display conents.

Thanks for the heads up to @MolotovCherry.  Fantastic, I didn't know about that project.  Perhaps it could be a good base.

It's built on top of one of the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) examples as far as I can figure it out.
Even if it's doable, I admit it's a rather hacky solution and not very user friendly, it's good for power users who knows what they are doing. But I don't think there's too much options in terms of creating a universal middleware between the rendering of Windows and the native GPU driver provided by a vendor. Also this definitely adds some latency in the process, but for desktop use this might be acceptable.
The best really would be to ask Nvidia/AMD to add such desktop super-resolution capabilities to their drivers, but I can imagine that would take ages to be released. Especially that the number of OLED monitor users are still very few; spending too many resources on implementing it would probably not worth it for them.
Though as someone who's using an LG TV as my main monitor for many years, I would love to see this implemented in one way or another :)

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TBH, I think this should be better addressed at the OS level instead of as a PowerToy. I understand the issue, but I don't think users should need to install an app to get proper rendering for their displays, especially when more manufacturers are moving to OLED.

I can't tell if I'm just used to it now, or if the default rendering has gotten better than it used to be. I'm in Windows 11 on an AW3423DW. I've had it for more than a year. I'd like a second opinion to be honest!

Inspired by community, I made a small project to be able to use grayscale font anti aliasing for Firefox, Obsidian, and Visual Studio Code electron based apps.
https://github.com/mhtvsSFrpHdE/Grayfox

Implementation Suggestion
I agree that the way to go forward would be to allow monitor drivers to export their subpixel structure in a standarized way. A suggestion I would strongly recommend would be to export it in such a way that provides the most lossless description possible of what the subpixel structure looks like.
Instead of representing the data in a grid (with bitmasks, PNG or rows of strings as suggested by the original post), it might be better to export the quads for each subpixel element directly. This could be done with two points to represent top-left and bottom-right, or a position and a size, etc. The positions can be specified in the space of a unit square representing the pixel.
This would be more accurate and require potentially less data, since you don't quantize the subpixel elements to a grid.
I'd also suggest having a format that would allow for manufacturers to export extra subpixel elements outside red, green or blue. The software would be allowed to ignore them, but it could allow interesting uses of the white subpixel in WOLED for example, or any extra subpixel elements we haven't seen so far. These could be represented as count+string, null-terminated strings, UTF-8, etc. In general, a format that allows to extend beyond R,G,B.
The format could look something like this (formatted as text for explanation purposes):
4         // Number of subpixel elements to expect

R         // Identifier for the type of subpixel element this is, in this case it's a red subpixel
0.1 0.1   // 2D coordinates of the top-left quad representing this subpixel element in a unit square
0.2 0.8   // Same for bottom-right, these could be represented in a normalized uint, in float16, float32, etc.

G
0.5 0.1
0.9 0.4

B
0.1 0.5
0.5 0.9

W
0.5 0.5
0.9 0.9

Here's a quick widget to explain what I mean:

A data representation like this would still allow software to convert to a bitmap representation if that's what it internally wants to work with, but other implementations could potentially calculate subpixel intensity directly with these primitives. As a graphics software guy I'd much rather work with this kind of data if possible.
I'm not sure how far discussions are for something like this @mdrejhon, hopefully it's not too late to mention 😊

Standardizing a configuration method for custom subpixel structures is great for the industry (including possibly, of course, for Microsoft later on).   It's a really interesting idea to standardize a subpixel definition system.
I would like to point out ongoing potential "standards":

MacType: The "PixelLayout" line in MacType INI file. (Example)
FreeType: The FREETYPE_CUSTOM_GOMETRY in rennr's fork of FreeType (Example)

They are simply coordinates of subpixel-color centers, and it seems the two projects (MacType and FreeType) have kind of adopted the same simple method.  It might not be enough, given the various sizes and shapes of subpixels, but as a commonalty being used by two different font projects, it might also (theoretically) be a potential standard too.

That's interesting, I wasn't aware of those approaches, certainly seems like a good direction to go in. If a precise specification were to happen at some point it might be good to err on the side of specificity. It could give more freedom to display manufacturers and avoid unforeseen issues with future panels (very irregular subpixel elements, non-RGB subpixels, etc.)
That said, I totally agree on keeping this as simple as it can be. Ideally manufacturers would chime in and give input towards a standard that can represent their current and future technologes effectively while still being relatively simple.
The subpixel center approach used by FreeType (MacType looks like it uses FreeType under the hood?) is interesting, I imagine it would model them internally as a circle, or perhaps some sort of standard gaussian function. One worry I'd have with only having pixel centers would be that it would either not work great with very elongated subpixel elements, or if it became standard, discourage manufacturers from pursuing arrangements that wouldn't be well represented with it.
An example can be the Apple Watch layout (image from Jonesblog)

Although if it's more useful to represent pixel centers, we could have a format similar to the previous example but that gives you the 2D coordinate of the subpixel center, then followed by its extents (e.g. width and height for rectangular shapes). Both approaches represent the same data really.
If I had to guess, an approach with rectangles/quads as the primitives might be enough instead of having to support extra shapes, given that the pixel-center-only approach is working to some people's satisfaction. The quad approach is essentially only expanding the center-only approach to account for non-uniform shapes like the one on the picture. But I'm not familiar enough with the ins and outs of subpixel light emission to claim this to be the case.
As a separate note, I also agree with @MattBDev that this should live in the OS/monitor-driver realm. But this is the only place I saw with well informed and interesting discussion about the topic. If you think this should also be posted/discussed elsewhere let me know.
Thanks @mdrejhon! 😄

I made a small demo app specifically to fix qd oled triangle subpixel fringe here https://github.com/sava41/qdoled-defringe.

This can be generalized to other subpixel layouts but would have to be tuned on a per-layout basis

I've tested the filter and it does reduce fringe really nicely, but it does make text look blurry. Definitely promising.

I don't think this is bug for PowerToys to fix, it should be fixed in Windows itself.

Ideally.
That being said, two decades ago, ClearType Tuner was originally a Windows PowerToy [WayBack Machine -- Internet Archive].
So this is why this github entry was created.  An OLED-specific ClearType Tuner can be incubated, in theory, as a PowerToy.

Does problem with OLED displays occur also in macOS?

I feel like this issue is focusing too much on QD-OLED and defining complex arbitrary subpixel layouts
when to fix WOLED all that would be needed, is other than having a RGB and BGR mode, also have a RBG (for woled) and BRG (for some IPS panels) modes, the rendering method can then stay exactly the same (render 3 grayscale pixels), only the code for combining the 3 grayscale pixels into 1 RGB pixel would need a few lines added to it.

when to fix WOLED all that would be needed

Fixing one case is useless. OLEDs are gaining popularity and most popular PC OS in the world must support all kinds of displays in one of the most important usage scenarios - displaying text. It's not hard at all.

Why not both? Assuming it is much easier to make ClearType support different orders of subpixels in the layout it already supports than to support arbitrary subpixel layouts, then why not make the easier change now and start working on the harder one afterwards?

Fixing one case is useless.

Not for everyone who has a monitor that matches that case.

It's not hard at all.

I have no idea what the ClearType codebase looks like, but as someone who regularly has to deal with ancient code at work, I think that's a pretty bold claim. 😄

Covering one case is better than covering no cases at all. Implementing support for different subpixel order is potentially much simpler than inventing a new algorithm for arbitrary subpixel layouts.

Not for everyone who has a monitor that matches that case.

IIRC ClearType doesn't account for portrait orientation either so the solution proposed above for defining any subpixel geometry also allows vertical monitor users to use a rotated RGB layout too. I believe that would be a pretty large userbase.

IIRC ClearType doesn't account for portrait orientation either so the solution [proposed above]

IIRC, ClearType worked in portrait orientation on some mobile screens.  It was implemented for certain mobile LCDs, way back in the Windows Mobile days.  So, while I am not sure of desktop support, there's prior arts of ClearType supporting portrait-mode.

Covering one case is better than covering no cases at all. Implementing support for different subpixel order is potentially much simpler than inventing a new algorithm for arbitrary subpixel layouts.

While this is tempting; I recommend to stakeholders: Do not weaksauce it
A very simple/forked modification to MacType/FreeType already supports arbitrary subpixel layouts, as seen in earlier suggestions.  Github links in earlier comments.
There's already prior arts.

Does problem with OLED displays occur also in macOS?

AFAIK the last macOS version to have subpixel antialiasing support was High Sierra (released 2017). It was completely removed in Mojave and it's all greyscale since then, not sure about iOS/iPadOS/watchOS etc.
Reason I saw usually cited being that all Macs (and Apple products in general) on the market have very high PPI displays and maintaining subpixel antialiasing was more trouble than it's worth.

Downscale the supersized font letter through the subpixel-structure bitmask
Example: Use a GPU shader to push the large font letter through the subpixel-structure bitmask during downsample
Cache the resulting downsampled bitmap (for faster run at step 1)
Draw the glyph onto the screen
The bitmaps should be transparent with an alpha channel, to be compatible with overwritten text / overlay on complex background / linked letters like Arabic / etc).

Unfortunately, the algorithm cannot be this simple. Things that this algorithm would miss:

High quality text rendering requires subpixel positioning of letters. For example, FreeType on Linux/Android can start the letter on any subpixel for higher quality kerning so you would need three variants of each letter per pixel size and choose the correct image depending on the subpixel you want to start with. In addition, modern text rendering supports fractinal font sizes so your font size can be any value between 15px and 16px. As a result, you would need to cache 15.35px size font, too. Again, in 3 different sizes.
High quality antialising requires that you do not simply multiply the pixel values when you overlay the pre-rendered glymphs but convert the pixels to linear colorspace, multiply the pixels and then convert back to correct gamma ramp. If you do all this with integer values, resulting image quality will suffer because of rounding errors in each step. On the other hand, converting between integers and floating point numbers for every pixel requires a lot of computation. Definitely doable on GPU, might be too slow to run on CPU.
You need different prerendered glymphs on dark backgrounds vs light backgrounds. And you have to use additive rendering instead of multiplying values together on dark backgrounds. And sometimes the background colors are not yet known by the time you would need to render the glymphs. For example, Google Chrome and Firefox solve this issue by switching to greyscale antialiasing unless the background color is definitely known.

As a result, writing high quality implementation is a huge task and there's much easier solution that seems more pleasing for the manufacturers: just sell higher resolution displays and use greyscale antialiasing for everything forget about subpixels. This is the solution that Apple uses with their high resolution monitors and all Android software is going this way, too.
The reason you would want 8K monitor is not that movies would look better. You want 8K so that you can use simple greyscale antialias and still end up with sharp looking text. And for smaller screen sizes (anything smaller than 32" at 8K) you probably want to disable any kind of antialiasing to get even sharper looking results and can avoid all the gamma ramp errors when you blend antialiased letters without using linear colorspace in between.
Selling higher resolution monitors seems like the best solution for all the vendors: you can sell more expensive monitors and the software is easier to develop. It's not that nice for the consumers that now have to purchase the more expensive high resolution monitor + beefy enough GPU to run with without latency but consumers are there to pay for the stuff, not to get a pleasing cheap solution.

Why doesn't the problem occur on AMOLED displays? Fonts on Android and Apple devices (iPhones and iPads) with AMOLED displays look perfectly.

@kocho1984 High pixel density.

High quality antialising requires that you do not simply multiply the pixel values when you overlay the pre-rendered glymphs but convert the pixels to linear colorspace, multiply the pixels and then convert back to correct gamma ramp

Why is such a conversion used? Would it not be better to multiply and then correct the result once? I know there's sRGB linear ramp but that can be dealt with easily too.
Is it really as significant as subpixel structure awareness?

@kocho1984 High pixel density.

Not only that, but AMOLED Android phones use subpixel rendering on their structures (Pentile).  That's why OpenType has a pentile mode.
This is Why Linux FreeType/OpenType have a subpixel structure configuration line.

To anyone that is still struggling with text clarity and hasn't seen @dxzdxz1's comment above on ExplorerMicaBlur version 1.07, check it out.
Dxzdxz1 found that that using the older version of the ExplorerBlurMica tool allows text to be rendered perfectly on OLED machines! I reformatted my computer last week and installed the ExplorerMicaBlur modification (v1.07) and have not had to change anything else on my CO49DQ for text clarity.
No fiddling with ClearType, no MacType. Just ExplorerBlurMica. I don't know why this works, so hopefully you all smarter than me can help work with the team at ExplorerBlurMica to get a solution for us all :)
P.S. I am new to GitHub so I apologize for not understanding how to properly tag people and also if posting like this is not allowed on this comment thread. Please delete this message if it breaks the rules here.

Definitely going to check that out, but what about something like a web browser ... Chrome for example ... does it help there?

font_rendering.cleartype_params.cleartype_level = 0 with Firefox is working for me.

The following Registry tweak appears to trigger grayscale anti-aliasing in most of the rest of Windows:

Enable grayscale font anti-aliasing in Windows 10+ (r/windows)

One needs to log off and log in for the changes to take effect.  I'm still seeing ClearType anti-aliasing in native tooltips, though.

The following Registry tweak appears to trigger grayscale anti-aliasing in most of the rest of Windows:

Enable grayscale font anti-aliasing in Windows 10+ (r/windows)

One needs to log off and log in for the changes to take effect. I'm still seeing ClearType anti-aliasing in native tooltips, though.

this is exactly the same as opening Cleartype Tuner and picking the "grayscale antialiasing" option, which changes the font rendering mode and is NOT the same as just having all the subpixels be grayscale... it makes a lot of glyphs either too lanky or too thick, their width is inconsistent, so i would not recommend it
also some applications that render text on their own (like Firefox) will read this registry setting meaning you wanted grayscale antialiasing, and will just disable font smoothing on some fonts entirely
it's better to just tweak Firefox to use grayscale antialiasing manually : gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.cleartype_level in Firefox about:config, --disable-lcd-text cmdline option for Chrome

To anyone that is still struggling with text clarity and hasn't seen @dxzdxz1's comment above on ExplorerMicaBlur version 1.07, check it out.
Dxzdxz1 found that that using the older version of the ExplorerBlurMica tool allows text to be rendered perfectly on OLED machines! I reformatted my computer last week and installed the ExplorerMicaBlur modification (v1.07) and have not had to change anything else on my CO49DQ for text clarity.
No fiddling with ClearType, no MacType. Just ExplorerBlurMica. I don't know why this works, so hopefully you all smarter than me can help work with the team at ExplorerBlurMica to get a solution for us all :)
P.S. I am new to GitHub so I apologize for not understanding how to properly tag people and also if posting like this is not allowed on this comment thread. Please delete this message if it breaks the rules here.

I tried this out. It's okay but the text is uneven appearing similar to having font smoothing disabled, although not as drastic. A good solution in my opinion would be to have similar font rendering as is used in some programs such as NVIDIA Control Panel. I heard this was called bitmap fonts? The text appears perfectly sharp with no fringing on my LG C2 (ClearType disabled). Although it doesn't have the modern bold smooth font appearance people like, it is something to consider.

To anyone that is still struggling with text clarity and hasn't seen @dxzdxz1's comment above on ExplorerMicaBlur version 1.07, check it out.
Dxzdxz1 found that that using the older version of the ExplorerBlurMica tool allows text to be rendered perfectly on OLED machines! I reformatted my computer last week and installed the ExplorerMicaBlur modification (v1.07) and have not had to change anything else on my CO49DQ for text clarity.
No fiddling with ClearType, no MacType. Just ExplorerBlurMica. I don't know why this works, so hopefully you all smarter than me can help work with the team at ExplorerBlurMica to get a solution for us all :)
P.S. I am new to GitHub so I apologize for not understanding how to properly tag people and also if posting like this is not allowed on this comment thread. Please delete this message if it breaks the rules here.

Thanks for mentioning my findings @Zetsubou-Sensei, I hope one day we get something like this system-wide through Windows itself
For anyone wondering: This only changes the font rendering on explorer, nothing else. ExplorerBlurMica doesn't touch anything outside explorer.exe
Again, ExplorerBlurMica doesn't affect any other program except Explorer.exe. If anyone is trying and seeing difference in other apps, this is something related to other things you guys are changing, since ExplorerBlurMica only loads it's dll on explorer.exe
It's better than nothing, but isn't a solution

Going off what I said previously, there is a way to get sharp text in Windows Explorer by forcing Windows to use Tahoma font by following the steps described here: https://www.howtogeek.com/716407/how-to-change-the-default-system-font-on-windows-10/#:~:text=Open%20the%20%22Start%22%20menu%2C,and%20click%20the%20font%20name. I will summarize the steps below:
I think the ability to change the Windows OS font may be a more feasible/simpler project for PowerToys than changing the subpixel rendering. At least for WOLED, some fonts can appear very crisp. I do not have a QD-OLED to test.
Here is my Windows Explorer with Tahoma font forced via registry:

To force Windows OS to use any font you like:
-Step 1: Backup registry.
-Step 2: Install and choose a font you like. Identify the font name by going to Settings > Personalization > Fonts.
-Step 3: Paste the following into Notepad and change "NEW-FONT" to your font name (e.g., Tahoma):
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
"Segoe UI (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Light (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)"=""
"Segoe UI Symbol (TrueType)"=""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"Segoe UI"="NEW-FONT"
-Step 4: Save file as *.reg.
-Step 5: Right click and select Merge. Restart PC.
To revert back to default OS font (Segoe UI):
-Step 1: Create a new *.reg file using the following:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts]
"Segoe UI (TrueType)"="segoeui.ttf"
"Segoe UI Black (TrueType)"="seguibl.ttf"
"Segoe UI Black Italic (TrueType)"="seguibli.ttf"
"Segoe UI Bold (TrueType)"="segoeuib.ttf"
"Segoe UI Bold Italic (TrueType)"="segoeuiz.ttf"
"Segoe UI Emoji (TrueType)"="seguiemj.ttf"
"Segoe UI Historic (TrueType)"="seguihis.ttf"
"Segoe UI Italic (TrueType)"="segoeuii.ttf""Segoe UI Light (TrueType)"="segoeuil.ttf"
"Segoe UI Light Italic (TrueType)"="seguili.ttf"
"Segoe UI Semibold (TrueType)"="seguisb.ttf"
"Segoe UI Semibold Italic (TrueType)"="seguisbi.ttf"
"Segoe UI Semilight (TrueType)"="segoeuisl.ttf"
"Segoe UI Semilight Italic (TrueType)"="seguisli.ttf"
"Segoe UI Symbol (TrueType)"="seguisym.ttf"
"Segoe MDL2 Assets (TrueType)"="segmdl2.ttf"
"Segoe Print (TrueType)"="segoepr.ttf"
"Segoe Print Bold (TrueType)"="segoeprb.ttf"
"Segoe Script (TrueType)"="segoesc.ttf"
"Segoe Script Bold (TrueType)"="segoescb.ttf"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes]
"Segoe UI"=-
-Step 2: Save as *.reg & right click Merge. Restart PC.

The new LG 32GS95UE has an MLA+ panel with new RGWB subpixel layout to improve text clarity.

As founder of Blur Busters / TestUFO, I work with computer monitor manufacturers; so I will explain
Hello, I came across your article looking for some image and info on "RGB Q-Stripe" as used on the new Phillips Evnia 34M2C6500 QD-OLED. Was hoping as it has stripe in the name it would be cleartype compatible....

I'm confused. I bought an LG C2 42" for gaming about a year ago and experienced all the same issues people are describing here with font rendering in Windows.
I stopped using the monitor for about six months (went back to a 32" LCD), and when I hooked it back up a couple of weeks ago, fonts look perfect everywhere. No issues in Explorer, Firefox, Visual Studio ..
I'm not using any special tuners or anything. Did Windows improve in the meantime? What's going on?

I'm not using any special tuners or anything. Did Windows improve in the meantime? What's going on?

Yes...

Some TV firmwares have optimized for improved text processing.  LG took serious focus to this issue and has begun optimizing.
Or Microsoft may also have noticed and automatically disable ClearType when the 7-character plug and play identifier from DDC (e.g. "BNQ74F6") identifies a known OLED

One or the other.
Probably item 1, but you can also load the current state of ClearType by downloading Better ClearType Tuner and see if ClearType was automatically disabled.
Did your red/green fringing also disappear from yellows?

I'm confused. I bought an LG C2 42" for gaming about a year ago and experienced all the same issues people are describing here with font rendering in Windows.
I stopped using the monitor for about six months (went back to a 32" LCD), and when I hooked it back up a couple of weeks ago, fonts look perfect everywhere. No issues in Explorer, Firefox, Visual Studio ..
I'm not using any special tuners or anything. Did Windows improve in the meantime? What's going on?

Are you on 24H2 right now? I noticed an small improvement, like the fonts are slightly bold, which makes the wrong rendering less noticeable, but graphics in general (like icons) are still off.

I'm confused. I bought an LG C2 42" for gaming about a year ago and experienced all the same issues people are describing here with font rendering in Windows.
I stopped using the monitor for about six months (went back to a 32" LCD), and when I hooked it back up a couple of weeks ago, fonts look perfect everywhere. No issues in Explorer, Firefox, Visual Studio ..
I'm not using any special tuners or anything. Did Windows improve in the meantime? What's going on?

Are you on 24H2 right now? I noticed an small improvement, like the fonts are slightly bold, which makes the wrong rendering less noticeable, but graphics in general (like icons) are still off.

I feel like the text has been slightly improved in 24H2 now that you mention it but I have no way to compare now. Using WOLED.

I posted this in the other thread but this might help some people here too.
Small workaround solution using NVIDIA's DSR or DLDSR (Deep Learning Dynamic Super Resolution)!

Scroll down further to get straight to instructions
What is it?
Though typically done by people who game and have a lot of extra performance to spare, this will basically anti-alias your whole screen which increases the amount of smoothing globally to both text and UI elements.
Doesn't eliminate fringing but I've tried all the methods here and this one seems to have the best results for me. A lot of Macs do this alongside their grayscale sub-pixel rendering and Retina displays, which are reasons why text reads very crisp and smooth on them.
DLDSR vs DSR?
From some quick research what I could find is that DLDSR is using AI downscaling with low performance hit compared DSR. For normal desktop use outside of gaming, this shouldn't matter that much and I haven't noticed a difference.
If you're familiar with DLSS, this essentially works essentially opposite of that.
So in DLSS, it uses a low resolution in a game (ex: 1920x1080) and AI up-scaling to a higher resolution (ex: 3840 × 2160), DSR will use a higher resolution (ex: 5760 x 3240) and downscales it to your native monitor resolution (ex: 3840 x 2160)

Natively 4k but running higher resolution that downscales to 4k

Instructions
If you have a NVIDIA card, you can easily do this in the NVIDIA Control Panel

Open NVIDIA Control Panel
In the sidebar, click Manage 3D settings
Under global settings, set "DSR - Factors" to your liking
hit apply (Your monitor might bug out for a bit here as it applies)

Change to the new resolution!

If your UI gets too small, change your scaling to match new resolution. This might not work for certain programs.
Also, If you don't have NVIDIA card, (Approach with caution) there's a chance that a program like CRU could potentially work but I haven't tested it and could put your monitor into an out of range resolution since NVIDIA could be using a more sophisticated way of up-ressing and down-scaling to do this properly.

Multi-monitor setups
you can use an app like LittleBigMouse to account for new scaling. This will correct "moving between monitors" and prevent the annoying mouse jump with some tweaking.

Hope this helps, feel free to correct me if I said anything wrong!

QD-OLED Tester Wanted
Need some guinea pigs for these PNG images designed for triangular-pixel-structure QD-OLED.
For users of QD-OLED displays
Test image for triangular-subpixel QD-OLED displays
Which one has the least green/blue fringing artifact?
Please specify if 1, 2, 1b, 2b, 1c, 2c, 1d, 2d looks the best on your QD-OLED display.
The test image here, and information here, will also help Microsoft evaluate improvements to ClearType (possible concurrent incubation), perhaps as a possible "ClearType 2 Tuner PowerToy"

QD-OLED-2 by far!
The 1's get progressively worse
the 2's get progressively better.  at 100 % the horizontal lines are clear and distinguishable in the asian script.  everything else is blurry, and the 1's get chromatic separation where it looks like I'm viewing one of those red/blue 3d images through the flimsy glasses, it gives me a headache to look at.
QD-OLED-2 is crisp black and white.
Everything else has a level of blur and color bleed. Going in a U starting with the best in the top right and getting worse as you go down to the left and up to the worst one.
Dell Alienware 34 AW3423DFW OLED Quantum dot display.

Hello,
If anyone knows, is microsoft dealing with this problem? I mean better cleartype is on the way?
Is this might be feature request?
I am asking cause i bought QD-OLED Samsung oled g6, text fringing is not bad but not good as my va panel.

well hopefully windows 12

QD-OLED Tester Wanted
Need some guinea pigs for these PNG images designed for triangular-pixel-structure QD-OLED.
For users of QD-OLED displays
Test image for triangular-subpixel QD-OLED displays
Which one has the least green/blue fringing artifact?
Please specify if 1, 2, 1b, 2b, 1c, 2c, 1d, 2d looks the best on your QD-OLED display.
The test image here, and information here, will also help Microsoft evaluate improvements to ClearType (possible concurrent incubation), perhaps as a possible "ClearType 2 Tuner PowerToy"

QD-OLED-2 by far!
The 1's get progressively worse the 2's get progressively better. at 100 % the horizontal lines are clear and distinguishable in the asian script. everything else is blurry, and the 1's get chromatic separation where it looks like I'm viewing one of those red/blue 3d images through the flimsy glasses, it gives me a headache to look at.
QD-OLED-2 is crisp black and white. Everything else has a level of blur and color bleed. Going in a U starting with the best in the top right and getting worse as you go down to the left and up to the worst one.
Dell Alienware 34 AW3423DFW OLED Quantum dot display.

I have a Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 and I can agree the QD-OLD-2's get better, but I'm still having some pretty blurry text in the browser and other applications like visual studio, visual studio code, discord, old windows control panels (legacy run32.dll)

I think at this point we're all trying to work around a problem that will never be solved due to the non uniform pixel size and arrangement of QD-OLED panels. The fringe will never go away because of the dominant pixel colors, we just need to recycle these monitors and move on to a better pixel arrangement like WOLED or something new.

Dell themselves have a support page dedicated to this subject:
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000197731/alienware-34-curved-qd-oled-gaming-monitor-aw3423dw-pixel-artifact-pixel-structure-and-color-tint-at-edges

I think at this point we're all trying to work around a problem that will never be solved due to the non uniform pixel size and arrangement of QD-OLED panels. The fringe will never go away because of the dominant pixel colors, we just need to recycle these monitors and move on to a better pixel arrangement like WOLED or something new.

You can still do a great job of de-fringing any pixel structure, it just requires knowledge of the pixel structure.
We just need plug-n-play EDID to include pixel structure of the monitor, to be communicated to the OS.
That's the more difficult part (convincing manufacturers).
Also, it could be just full-screen supersampling (instead of text renderers).
Then again, resolutions are going up, so it's kind of bruteforcing this requirement away (in a sense) as tinier pixels means tinier fringes that may eventually fall below human visibility noisefloor.  But fringing is still visible on 4K OLEDs, which means this would still be useful.

Yeah, it can be slightly compensated for, but not without reducing max brightness which is a spec that manufacturers tout loudly and could be a problem.
I do like the idea of having a special mode and a database of affected displays.
To add to the idea, they would need to submit a long exposure, or video because not all of the pixels are lit simultaneously on these panels from what I've read. Could be difficult to detect the max brightness of each pixel color.

The fringe will never go away because of the dominant pixel colors

I do not understand what "dominant" is when white point is literally the same.

I think at this point we're all trying to work around a problem that will never be solved due to the non uniform pixel size and arrangement of QD-OLED panels. The fringe will never go away because of the dominant pixel colors, we just need to recycle these monitors and move on to a better pixel arrangement like WOLED or something new. In my personal experience the WOLED C2 42" panel I own has zero fringe and crisp text as well as excellent color.

Dell themselves have a support page dedicated to this subject:
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000197731/alienware-34-curved-qd-oled-gaming-monitor-aw3423dw-pixel-artifact-pixel-structure-and-color-tint-at-edges

So Dell is saying that unless they produce non-gaming QD-OLED monitors, then they will do nothing to address color fringing. I thought the new generation rectangular/triangular subpixel structure QD-OLED had mostly resolved the fringing issue.

The fringe will never go away because of the dominant pixel colors

I do not understand what "dominant" is when white point is literally the same and I do not see how QD-OLED is fundamentally different from any LCD panel or any other panel at all since any panel has underlying structure which will cause at least some fringing in some content.

The dominant colors are the larger sized pixels (see image I shared above), and also the brighter of the pixels. The arrangement also "encourages" red and blue to blend to purple on the bottom fringe, and green being on its own causes the top green fringe.

Yeah, it can be slightly compensated for, but not without reducing max brightness

I do not understand what does brightness have to do with that. If you turn green down you necessarily get magenta tint.

The brightness of the pixels is how you adjust the various color output, adjusting these to various levels up and down is how you would attempt to remove fringe and thus "clear" the text.

QD-OLED Tester Wanted
Possible MacType Incubation Under Way
OK, I think MacType might have just incubated it -- it apparently had vestigal support for subpixel vertical positions, so some creative configuration file editing made it compatible with triangular-structure OLEDs! Need some guinea pigs for these PNG images designed for triangular-pixel-structure QD-OLED.
For users of QD-OLED displays

Test image for triangular-subpixel QD-OLED displays

Which one has the least green/blue fringing artifact?
Please specify if 1, 2, 1b, 2b, 1c, 2c, 1d, 2d looks the best on your QD-OLED display.
The test image here, and information here, will also help Microsoft evaluate improvements to ClearType (possible concurrent incubation), perhaps as a possible "ClearType 2 Tuner PowerToy"

Hey there! Definetelly 2, followed by 2b and 2c, can show pictures at 10 zoom using my phone.
The monitor is PG32UCDM Asus. Any chance you can upload the profiles? Although I don't know how to apply those correctly, I guess using MacType, but when I installed i cannot see much difference between having it enabled or disabled maybe im doing something wrong? Or it's not applied everywhere? Would it be applied to apps like browser, windows system settings and games?

The dominant colors are the larger sized pixels (see image I shared above), and also the brighter of the pixels.

If green subpixel is bigger than others then it will necessarily have less flux per area since display is obliged to reproduce specific colour. There is no magical reason for green to be brighter when it's bigger.

The dominant colors are the larger sized pixels (see image I shared above), and also the brighter of the pixels.

If green subpixel is bigger than others then it will necessarily have less flux per area since display is obliged to reproduce specific colour. There is no magical reason for green to be brighter when it's bigger.

I thought the same thing until I purchased a Samsung G6 this June and I found colors were not reproduced accurately by any means due to the horrendous purple and green fringe.

To add to the idea, they would need to submit a long exposure, or video because not all of the pixels are lit simultaneously on these panels from what I've read. Could be difficult to detect the max brightness of each pixel color.

It only needs a static test pattern.  You'd have a standardized test pattern with different shades of brightnesses.  You can build-in PLUGE-style techniques to determine black clipping or white clipping is occuring, if you really wanted to curve/tonemap/gamma-correct the subpixel antialiasing (using a quadratic regression formula to cuve-fit to the pixel colors photographed).
Even a simple photo of just solid gray or solid white (R/G/B pixels) would be sufficient to produce sharper text, and you'd provide a subpixel saturation slider (like ClearType's) and subpixel rendering gamma correction slider (additional adjustment) for the sRGB subset (that computer text is rendered on) of whatever colorspace your monitor is.
The server back end would convert the photo to the appropriate masks.  Even some smartphones is sufficient to produce data that provides a significant text-clarity improvement (the ones with the good macro, aim 6" away and pinch zoom) but a standalone digital camera usually has much better macro.

@mdrejhon is it possible to upload the QD_OLED-2 profiles for mactype? I really like how the 2 looks like, and wanted to see if it suits me

I don't have a QD-OLED display, but a WOLED.  One person in one of the >130+ comments linked to a different place where you can edit the MacType config to include the QD-OLED config.

Rather than trying to fix ClearType and Windows internals in order for it to support arbitrary pubpixel layouts, wouldn't the best way forward be to just scrap ClearType altogether and improve grayscale anti-aliasing?
As macOS and Macs have shown, display monitors is such high resolution anyway that it doesn't make sense to hack subpixels anymore.

And by the way, it's easy to check for any color fringing around text using the Magnifier system app.

Please tell me you are joking.

And by the way, it's easy to check for any color fringing around text using the Magnifier system app.

Please tell me you are joking.

No? You can clearly see color fringing around the text using the Magnifier system app. Not everyone has a macro camera, so I'm not sure what your alternative proposal is.

@Void48 The magnifier app will not show you the fringing that is being caused by the sub-pixel layout of your monitor. What you may be seeing with magnifier are the special coloured pixels being used to correct text anti-aliasing.
The same thing happens with the magnifier app on any display (if ClearType is enabled) — Even those that use the traditional RGB sub-pixel structure.

a year and a half later, oleds becoming a bit more affordable but i still can't bring myself to buy an oled because of text fringing. i play a lot of games but i also works from home. i'm getting the feeling we'll see windows 12 coming up along with a "cleartype 2.0"

The upcoming stripe-RGB LG WOLEDs may be of interest to you.  These are the upcoming "office" OLEDs, so it's compatible with ClearType. Early tests show that those models look fantastic with ClearType.
Also, some of the upcoming panels use RWGB instead of RWBG.