While surfing around the internet, sometimes you may come to a website with appearantly nasty looking, unreadable fonts.. well, let me guess, you are probably using IE and that the designer has probably used dropshadow filter in their css for their fonts.

why is that? this is because you have cleartype turned on for your computer.

for example: you might see something like
http://regretless.com/buttons/others/cleartype_ss.gif

well many other people who DON’T have the cleartype function turned on will see something like:
http://regretless.com/buttons/others/cleartype_no_ss.gif

what exactly is cleartype?
to put it in my simple terms: it’s a function on your computer that allows you to see fonts in anti-aliased forms. read more about cleartype here

How do you Turn ClearType on/off?

1. Right-click your desktop and select Properties.
2. Select the Appearance tab, and press the Effects button.
3. Check the box next to the words labeled “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts,” and select the option you want from the drop-down box.
4. Close the Effects dialog by clicking OK, and click Apply to complete the process.