Hello DevExpress Support,
I have ClearType disabled and have Visual Studio set up to use fonts that render well without ClearType.
But many of the CodeRush windows, dialogs and popups unfortunately use their own fonts that do not render well with ClearType disabled.
for example:
- everything in the CodeRush options dialog
- all the Text-Editor popups like "Declare", "Jump to XYZ", …
- Toolbar tooltips
- References window (screenshot attached)
- …
In the screenshot you can see the poor font rendering of almost everything inside the References window except the line numbers and the reference count
Could you please add CodeRush options to change the fonts used in any CodeRush window, dialog or popup?
Or, as an alternative, use only fonts that are already defined in Visual Studio Options / Environment / Fonts and Colors, like: "Text Editor", "Codelens", "Editor Tooltip", "Environment", etc.
best regards…
Hello,
Thank you for pointing out this issue and providing the screenshot. Behavior with ClearType disabled on my side is different than the one in your screenshot:

Please give us some time to examine this issue in detail.
Also, it would be helpful if you provide us with additional information:
- your Visual Studio fonts settings
- a screenshot of the window with results of the "Find All Reference" Visual Studio command
- a screenshot of the Environment\Fonts and Colors" option page from the "Tools | Options…" dialog.
Hello Alexander,
in Visual Studio i changed all fonts to the following:
- Segoe UI -> Tahoma
- Consolas -> Courier New
- Calibri -> Microsoft Sans Serif
With these settings, almost the whole Visual Studio UI renders well with ClearType disabled.
Attached are screenshots of the VS References window, the options dialog and a VS export of my font settings.
Hello Uwe,
Thank you for your clarification and screenshots. Please give us some more time to research this issue.
Hello Uwe,
Thank you for your patience. We have prepared a special build with some changes made to the References window: DevExpress.CodeRush.Roslyn-17.2.7.18088.vsix.
Please install this build and let us know whether it improves the situation on your side. If it resolves the issue, we will include this change to work for other CodeRush windows.
Hallo Alexander,
i uninstalled CodeRush, then installed your build. CodeRush about dialog shows v17.2.7.18088
But the References windows looks exactly the same as before: All text ist blurry and smudgy except the references count and Line/Column numbers.
Thank you for informing us of your results and providing the screenshot.
We are concerned to hear that a special build didn't have effect. Please provide us with your DPI settings.
Hello Alexander,
i use Windows 7 with the default DPI settings. See the Control Panel screenshot.
Hello Uwe,
Thank you for your clarification and providing the screenshot. We tried to reproduce this issue on a machine with Windows 7 and your settings but our attempts were unsuccessful.
Please specify the configuration of your monitors. Are the Visual Studio window and CodeRush windows located on the same monitor? Or on different monitors? It would be great if you provide us with a screenshot of Visual Studio with all child windows.
Hello Alexander,
i only have one monitor. A screenshot of Visual Studio 2017 is attached.
I also did some research myself. I looked at the live tree of the CodeRush references window using XAML Spy. And i found that the blurry text is caused by using fonts that don't render well without ClearType.
For example: the "All Usages" ComboBox, the search box and the tooltips are using "Segoe UI" font. If i modify the "Font Family" of these UI elements with XAML Spy they all render with blur-free sharp text like the rest of Visual Studio.
So it comes down to my initial request: please allow the user to select the fonts used in CodeRush or use only fonts that are already defined in Visual Studio.
Hello Uwe,
Thank you for providing us with the additional information.
Please give us some time to think about the appropriate decision.
One of the ideas could be to prepare a build with the Reference Window using the Tahoma font and check that the window elements display well on your side.
Hello Uwe,
We have prepared a build containing a single font change in the combobox list (see link) for you.
Please install it and let us know if the combobox list looks well on your side.
- http://downloads.devexpress.com/Share/IDE/180404/DevExpress.CodeRush.Roslyn-17.2.7.18094.exe
- http://downloads.devexpress.com/Share/IDE/180404/DevExpress.CodeRush.Roslyn-17.2.7.18094.vsix
Hello Eugene,
the combobox height is a bit low now, but the text looks ok. No-Blur, sharp text, see screenshot.
Hi Uwe,
Thank you for the fast update.
I'm happy to hear that this solution helped you.
Please give us some time. We will research the best way to solve this problem.
Hi Uwe,
We prepared a build containing the requested correction.
Now the CodeRush windows take into account the "Environment\Fonts and Colors" option in Visual Studio.
Would you please install it and let us know how text is painted on your side?
Hello Eugene,
thank you for the new build, it looks very promising!
Almost the whole CodeRush UI uses the Visual Studio Environment font and renders with clear sharp text on my side.
But i found a few places that still render with blurry fonts:
- The results/contents of the references window have not changed. Blurry text except the references count and Line/Column numbers.
I use the references window all the time, so it would be great if you could have another look into this one.
The other occurrences are less important (to me), but for completeness:
- The waiting message in the "Jump to xyz" that is displayed while collecting items
- The contents of the "Name" column in Options, Code Issues Catalog
- The contents of the "Name" column in Options, Code Actions Catalog
- The contents of the "Name" column in Options, Naming Conventions
- The contents of the before/after formatting in Options, Formatting
screenshots are attached.
I guess that you might not want to use the default VS Environment font for the References window or Options/Formatting.
Because text that represents code normally is rendered using a monospace font.
May i suggest that you use the VS Fonts and Colors "TextEditor" font for that?
best regards…
Uwe,
Thank you for the fast update with the detailed information.
We really appreciate your patience.
Please give us some time. We will examine all the cases and introduce changes.
one additional occurrence:
- The text input box in all "Jump to xyz" popups.
Hello Uwe,
Thank you for your remarks. We rechecked all these cases using the last build provided for you. We could reproduce only the case with the waiting message in "Jump to xyz" that is displayed while collecting items. In all other cases, the text has the expected rendering font. Please see the attached screenshots from the archive. I set the Environment font to "Ink Free" with size 16 and the Text Editor font to "SketchFlow Print" with size 15.
Regarding your suggestion about the font of references in the References window and the font of code preview on the Options/Formatting options page - we do use the TextEditor font in these cases. You can see this in my screenshots. It is unexpected that on your side the font does not correspond to the TextEditor font. Would you please recheck this with another font family and font size? I suggest you choose a font that significantly differs from your currently used font to see the difference more clearly. Finally, please restart Visual Studio after changing font settings.
Hello Artem,
i can confirm that CodeRush uses the fonts that are defined in Visual Studio 'Fonts and Colors'.
But still, the rendering of these fonts is blurry at the mentioned places in CodeRush.
My VS Text Editor font is 'Courier New'. I made screenshots of the text rendering in Visual Studio and CodeRush with a zoom level of 300% for better comparability.
It is strange, that by using the VS fonts the CodeRush UI now renders with sharp text in all but the mentioned places.
Maybe these UI parts use different WPF or DirectWrite font settings, like: DW.RenderingMode, WPF.TextFormattingMode, WPF.TextRenderingMode, etc.
thanks for your effort…
Thank you for these details. We analyzed our code and found some places which can be the cause of the issue. But we need time to make corresponding changes. Please bear with us. We will let you know once have any progress.
Hello Uwe,
We prepared a new build with changes. Would you please download it and check if the issue persists on your side.
DevExpress.CodeRush.Roslyn-17.2.8.18115.vsix
Hello Artem,
thank you for the new build.
The "important" CodeRush UI-Elements that i use on a daily basis, like the references window and the Jump to XYZ popup, render in clear sharp text on my side.
The options dialog is a bit messed up now:
- The text of all the buttons is blurry now. This has changed from the last build!
- The "Code Cleanup" before/after sections have blurry text (and use a different font?)
- Some grids have rows with blurry text and rows with sharp text mixed together (screenshot attached)
-- Code Actions Catalog, column Description
-- Code Issues Catalog, column Id
-- Target Picker, column Name
-- Template Name Variables, all columns
Thank you for your feedback. I have reproduced and already fixed the issue with the "Code Cleanup" before/after preview.
Also, we reproduced cases with grid rows and we are looking for an appropriate solution now.
The button text looks fine on our side, but we will review the code that possibly causes this behavior.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation. We will let you know of our results.
The build is ready.
DevExpress.CodeRush.Package.vsix
But it has no revision version, and contains a special controls set with fixes. So would you please turn off the "Automatically update extensions" option on the Tools\Options\Environment\Extension and Updates options page.
If this build resolves the issue with blurred fonts in options pages on your side, then we will push these changes in our main branch.
Hello Artem,
all the CodeRush UI elements render with sharp text on my side.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for this good news. We are happy that the issue is resolved now.