Migrating to Blurry

[coulee]

I am intending to upgrade my entire company to FM7. However, I initially bought one version to test the migration. I was horrified to immediately see that my layouts all became blurry. I have now learned that I am not alone. I trust that FileMaker will fix this immediately or risk losing their Windows based users. I will end any attempts at migration until this problem is resolved or a workaround is available. In 24 hours, I have gone from an avid FileMaker backer to wondering if I should have switched to Access long ago.

FileMaker Version: 7

Platform: Windows XP

[DrRoebuck]

I agree. The anti-aliasing is very, very frustrating.

[CyborgSam]

Check out the forums for the many discussions we've had about this issue.

To summarize: FM7 uses its own built-in font and graphic rendering engine. On Windows, fonts look blurry because the pixels are all too light. If the font is black, the backbone pixels (non-anti-aliased) will be grey instead of black). Windows' built-in font smoothing settings have no effect on FileMaker layouts.

Many folks are delaying deployment on Windows because of this issue. We can only hope that FileMaker is listening and coming up with a fix pronto.

[shadowdoc]

Does anyone from FM participate in this forum...or does anyone in the forum have a FM connection who can explain the status of this problem ? This problem is intolerable. I know that I for one have ceased development on the FM platform [until a fix is released]and have sought non-database alternative solutions for runtime modules [such as Macromedia FLASH].

[rogermax]

Can't say if they browse these boards, but they should. I have reported this a few times through the channel on their web site. I hope they are getting this message. From what I have read, they knew the problem existed, at least in their own documentation it is mentioned. Unreal, it is. I am hoping for a switch to turn it off. I love FileMaker. I hate fuzzy.

[Wrangler]

A fix to the fuzzies is coming one of these days!

I received the following from FM support:

"We are aware of the problem and we do not currently have an updater for that problem. We are working on the issue and when a resolution exists, we will inform our customers regarding any updates to fix the problem."

Well, at least they admit it's a 'problem' instead of a 'feature'. How this version ever got released is beyond me.

Fred

FileMaker Version: 7

Platform: Windows XP

[coulee]

Thanks for the note Wrangler. I'm delighted to hear that they finally have recognized the problem.

[Tim Biden]

Does anybody know if this is happening to all XP users or just some? If it's only happening to some, would the demo version display the same issue?

Thanks,

Tim

[IEW]

We too have stopped development. Yesterday, one of our consultants recommended that we migrate to MySQL rather than relearn FM. The blurry screen is the main problem. Some have even said we bought a Beta version and are doing FM's testing. For them not to have a fix already is ridiculous. FM has built a wall and moat around the company so you cant bother them with the details.

[rogermax]

I got a call from FMI yesterday and I complained about the fuzzz. They said they hadn't heard a thing about it. I said "you have got to be kidding me!". Nope but he would send a message on. Wow.

[Ano Nimus]

rogermax said:

I got a call from FMI yesterday and I complained about the fuzzz. They said they hadn't heard a thing about it. I said "you have got to be kidding me!". Nope but he would send a message on. Wow.

My take on that one: the second FM inc dare admit that there is a bug, instead of 'a non-documented feature', they will have their asses sued off them by some whiner who claims that they destroyed his eyes, his business, his life. They have no choice but to deny everything, do they?

[johnrh]

Yes they most certainly do have choice - They could try FIXING it. Let them call it anything they wish bu just FIX it.

[Ano Nimus]

What makes you think they won't? The rumour mill has it, that v2 will be the fuzzyfontfixer... That won't change the fact that, thanks to questionable laws in certain countries, a company can't even admit anymore that they have a problem with a product.

[coulee]

I took matters to the top and wrote a letter to FM President Dominque Goupil expressing my profound disappointment with the fuzzies. One of his staff left me a very kind message on my answering machine. She acknowledged the problem, said they have already developed a fix, but that the fix won't be available until they post a complete release on their website this summer. Since she didn't talk to me voice to voice, she said she would try again on Monday.

I'm delighted with how they have handled this, but bummed that we Windows users will have to wait until the summer release.

[rogermax]

That definitely sounds like there is hope! I have loved FMP since about 1989+- that was a long time ago. I have been actively engaged with it since '92. I had hoped for a little better communication on this. Summer at least gives a time frame to look to.

[cellmaker]

I can imagine how frustrating this must be. Very oddly, when I imported an existing solution from 6 to 7 in the trial version (Mac), I was stunned at how much *clearer* everything looked.

Sounds like the feature group favored Windows and the presentation group favored OS X. Go figure.

Charlie

[coulee]

I spoke voice to voice with a FileMaker representative today. She was very cordial, again acknowledging the problem and indicating that a fix would be available. Concerning the actual date of the fix, she preferred not to commit until the marketing/PR department had an opportunity to define a timeline/process, but based on our conversation, I can confidently say it will be very early in the summer and summer starts June 21.

She made it clear that FileMaker has no intention of abandoning the Windows platform and that Windows installations are an important part of their corporate strategy. So, I'm ready to forgive and forget and look forward to the V2 fix.

[Vaughan]

WinOS is now FMI's biggest market.

[pjonesCET]

This endemic to OSX on several application. I've found a "Haxie" from uninsanity (or unsanity) .com called "SILK" that requires a componet called APE (Apperance enhancement). Both are free and work with Panther and does work for OSX.2 as well. Both components are free for now.

What SILK does is turn off antialiasing. You must setup Silk first then go to apperance control Panel and set for either light or medium. Quit both and restart the computer. Silk will be in affect.

To me its greater than sliced bread. I have a DVI type LCD monitor (18") and everything was fuzzy even on it, until I installed SILK.

[Tripod]

IEW said:

We too have stopped development. Yesterday, one of our consultants recommended that we migrate to MySQL rather than relearn FM. The blurry screen is the main problem. Some have even said we bought a Beta version and are doing FM's testing. For them not to have a fix already is ridiculous. FM has built a wall and moat around the company so you cant bother them with the details.

Uh, you bought a .0 version. This is nothing new. There are always problems when making a major upgrade to any software. My understanding is that hi res graphics are the problem. You are going to have a larger set of problems with MySQL. You might want to wait awhile and move to FM7 when the .1 release comes out.

[Wrangler]

Wall and moat...I like that. If you scream loud enough about a bug they give you a free access code for telephone support and you finally get a real person with a real e-mail address that doesn't return those 'we accept no e-mail' messages. If you're truly lucky you might get someone who actually knows something, but probably less than you do.

Their web site does not allow sending sample files; how else can you provide an example of a bug?

Well, here's what I think that they think: FileMaker is marketed as an easy-to-use database program that can do just about anything (it does pretty well by me!). There's must be a lot of newbies who buy the program, see a nice new white page and have no idea what to do next. So the company has to keep these newbies away from the 3-4 programmers in solitary confinement who really understand the code behind FileMaker.

But they went overboard. They need to take down that wall and moat and set up a direct e-mail support line; it can't be that hard to separate out the e-mails they really should reply to and send newbies something like "You're wouldn't buy a Russian word processor without knowing Russian, would you? Please use our 900 number."

[coulee]

At last...today, 6/2/04 FileMaker posted the patch on their web site that updates to v2 and fixes the font smoothing problem. Blurry is gone...life is good.

[Ocean West]

[Mikey]

Still blurry on Mac OS X. Layout, browse and find modes all OK. Only preview is blurry at any zoom level. I still think it's more than font smoothing. It's as if their rendering engine is drawing this as a bit-mapped image in preview mode. This would explain the blurry problem and the fact that my printer says there's not enough memory to print.

Waiting for a v3.

[johnrh]

As one who has been as critical as anyone about the fuzzyness of the fonts - in fact I think I was the first to raise the issue elsewhere - I want to keep a balanced approach here.

I am running Win XP and the unpdate patch v.2 has made a significant difference to the appearance of fonts on my machine. They are now crisp and clear at 100% zoom - which is what I was lookng for. I can live with the effects of the "smoothing" at other magnifications. So well done Filemaker for a good response (at least for me).

[rogermax]

Sweet!! My eyes have seen the sharpness of the text! Yippee!!

[complete-db]

Has this issue been addressed yet? This is Apple Computer as it's best! Never who forget who owns FMI, Inc.

[rogermax]

After applying the patch, I have no more trouble on my WinXP box. Very nice.

[Oldfogey]

Well, I didn't find this thread until I'd posted a question about more-than-blurry.

I started my conversions with 7.0v2 and the conversion of text on coloured backgrounds makes it totally unusable. My customers and I will be sticking with V6 until further notice.

I wonder if FMI could give me some tips on selling this now rotten product to people who think Access is the bees' knees?

[Steven H. Blackwell]

Upgrade to 7.0v2--it's a free upgrade from the FMI web site. it corrected the anti-aliasing problem.

Steven

[Oldfogey]

It might fix the problem for XP but it doesn't fix it in Win2000.

[Ano Nimus]

It made a huge difference for me on Win2k, so the problem is not as general as you make it sound

[Oldfogey]

Now I am really angry!

I started with FMP 7.0v2. First conversion was fine. Next a customer's fairly complex 20-odd file DB. Any text with coloured background was unreadable. Just had a quick look to check on something and it's fine! Thank heavens I hadn't sent my customer the letter telling them to forget V7.

Like any other user, "I haven't changed a thing." Actually I did change the appearance of my desktop and then changed it back.

Now I'm unhappy because I am happy and was misled into thinking I was unhappy. Life just isn't fair.

[VFXdbGuy]

It absolutely does not fix the problem. At least not on Win2K Pro. None of the "Font Smoothing Style" settings in the preferences helps at all. 100% is not sufficient for many of our reports that use 8 pt. Arial.

Why can you magnify but not read? This is something that worked flawlessly in previous versions.