Bill Hill talks about ClearType in Internet Explorer 7 at the IE Blog. In IE7 ClearType is turned on by default because research proved ClearType improves reading.
ClearType improves word recognition accuracy by 17%, reading speed by 5% and reading comprehension by 2%.
My job at Microsoft is Director of Advanced Reading Technologies. The ClearType and Readability Research Group which handles the ongoing development of ClearType reports to me. Our team’s mission is straightforward: "Research and develop innovative technologies that improve reading on the screen for Microsoft customers worldwide". Surprisingly, reading’s the major task for which people use their computers – most people spend more than half their time at the screen reading.
Since the IE7 beta went public, we’ve been monitoring all the comments on the IEblog. We want to know what kind of experience people are having, and want to look for ways to make it better for anyone who’s having problems or issues.