Chromium-based browsers on Windows improve text contrast & make it easier for you to read

Microsoft has just recently announced an update to improve text contrast across all Chromium-based browsers on Windows, which includes Edge.

This new update, which builds upon a patch spotted in Chrome’s Gerrit system over several months ago, raises the contrast value from 0.5 to 1.0.

The change, now officially integrated into browsers like Google Chrome (starting with version 132), makes it easier for you to read text on your screen, especially in scenarios involving lighter-weight text and CJK (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) languages.

The change does seem subtle, but you’ll notice it if you spend quite a lot of time reading things online. The “Text Contrast” flag message reads, “This change adds a base feature called “IncreaseTextContrast” that bumps the default text contrast on Windows from 0.5 to 1.0.”

It also mentions that “this behavior applies to both web content and browser UI” and it “only applies if the user has not set a custom contrast value in the registry via the ClearType Tuner.”

So that means, besides improving the contrast, Windows users will have the option to further customize text rendering through the ClearType Text Tuner, a feature that lets you adjust the contrast and gamma values for more personalized settings.

“With the text contrast enhancement we made to Chromium, the Windows ClearType Text Tuner now also applies to the browser,” Microsoft explains.

Chromium-based browsers are web browsers that use the open-source Chromium project as their foundation, meaning they share the same core code for rendering web pages.

These browsers are known for their speed and efficiency. Examples include Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Brave, all of which are built on Chromium but may offer different features and customizations.