I have seen complaints about this from years ago and you still haven’t resolved the issue. I used both Brave and Edge and I must say that I am moving over to the latter more and more since the font rendering in Brave is terrible. In fact, it gets worse and worse as the zoom level gets smaller and smaller. I have compared the same web page at the same zoom level on the same monitor and it is much better using Edge. Listen, the MOST important attribute of a browser should be readability. That’s what I use it for, viz., to READ. Why would I want to use an inferior product for something so important? I used to use Firefax. Maybe I should start using it again. I keep getting eye-strain using Brave.
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@tzackin,
Thank you for reporting.
Would you be willing to share a screenshot of a site in Brave vs in Edge so I can see the font discrepancy you’re encountering?
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Notice any differences if you toggle
Graphics Accelerationatbrave://settings/system? -
If you open in private window, does it stay the same?
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Have you tried changing font at
brave://settings/fontsto see if it’s better? Also, which font are you using? -
Does it look any better in a new browser profile?
In my testing, things seem to be just fine.
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In addition to what @Saoiray asked, you might check and see if this is a ClearType issue that you can resolve via Windows system, as instructed here:
I know that this is a common issue with most Chromium based browsers. I believe Edge renders the fonts better than other browsers using the same engine as they leverage the OS Cleartype settings by default.
I’ve also found several potential fixes for this issue that you can try — again note that these fixes are for Chrome but most of them will apply to any Chromium based browser:
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None of those changes made any difference. The Brave font is choppy while the Edge font is much smoother. Note that I set the Brave fonts to match the Edge fonts so that is not the issue.
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I ran the ClearType setup (yet again) and tried all of the applicable “fixes” form AskVG without any success. Edge renders the font MUCH better at all zoom levels. Look at the difference with a high zoom value. The Brave fonts are jagged while the Edge fonts are smooth.
Out of curiosity, if you launch a guest profile window (Menu —> More tools --> Open guest profile), do the fonts there also appear jagged?
BTW, there is something that I should have made clear upfront (no pun intended). This problem is only happening on my Windows 10 desktop. My Windows 11 laptop fonts are perfectly legible and quite smooth in Brave. Maybe I will have to bite the bullet and upgrade my desktop to 11. Of course, since not everyone can do that this would not be the ideal solution to this problem.
@tzackin thanks for testing. I was hoping that it was just some issue with a particular font, as I know I’ve seen similar before.
In the same token, I know toggling graphics acceleration (which was hardware acceleration back then) had resolved for quite a few who expressed issues with font rendering. (at which point just required some changes surrounding graphics card)
Just to confirm, this included trying in a new secondary profile? So new profile which is default settings and no extensions.
Two other questions
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Without uninstalling Brave, if you were to download again, does it fix anything? By running the installer on top, it can sometimes patch any corrupted or missing files that may have occurred
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Could check, does this also happen on Brave Beta and/or Brave Nightly?
Yeah, doesn’t seem to be mentioned many places. Essentially is where keep trying to get you to try various steps to see if can land on whatever it is causing issues for your Windows 10.
No, that doesn’t help.
Okay, Brave Nightly solves the problem although it got some negative feedback regarding safety from Avast. Does this mean that a future release will fix the problem? I clearly do not want to be using beta-ish software as my browser particularly when AVAST doesn’t think it is safe.
Thanks so much for your help. At least there seems to be a simple fix coming…
A command line option I always enable is --disable-lcd-text. It helps me with the fonts.
Check the properties and brave://flags to make sure no option like that is on.
Nightly may not have actually fixed anything. It may have just bypassed the problem because it would have a fresh install and new profile.
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That command line option doesn’t seem to exist for Brave. I specified it but it made no difference and I couldn’t find it among the listed options. However, I did play with the Enable Fontations font backend option. I enabled it and the problem disappeared. But, what is weird, is that when I disabled it again (with a relaunch, of course) the rendering is now back to normal despite that option being disabled. Very strange! But the bottom line is that the fonts are no longer jagged and I can read the screen again and so, for the moment, all is good. And, most importantly, the “fix” survives a relaunch. Thanks for your input.
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That never happened to me, and I have Windows 10
@tzackin,
Very interesting — I was not aware of that flag, nor did it show up during any of the research I was doing for this issue. Very strange but thank you for sharing, I will remember this flag for any future users encountering this.
This happens very frequently — AV software often throws false positive flags for Brave. I’ll report this to Avast so it doesn’t continue getting flagged.