Origins of ClearType not all that clear

I received an intriguing email today from programmer Steve Gibson which sheds some light on Microsoft's ClearType technology, which was covered aspart of my Comdex review earlier in WinInfo. Steve has an amazing Web sitecalled Inside Microsoft's ClearType that argues rather effectively that Microsoft's latest display technology breakthrough was, indeed, a breakthrough... when it first appeared almost twenty years ago. While thepassage of time has done nothing to change the fact that this technique isterribly effective, it was first used on a 280 x 192 Apple II computer because a TV set's fuzzy output could be effectively improved using theexact same technology.

And Gibson knows what he's talking about. He was the developer of Koala'sGibson Lightpen for the Apple II and remembers talk of display resolutionimprovements using the technology Microsoft now calls ClearType. I won'ttry to explain the technical details here--mostly because Gibson's Website includes a far better discussion on the subject than I could ever hope to provide--but one example he does site basically proves that Microsoft was aware of this technique...in 1980. Microsoft's BASIC reference manual for the Apple II includes a blurb describing the technology.

As Gibson says on his Web site, "Given this information, it is my sincerehope that Microsoft will acknowledge that they, in fact, rediscovered oldand well-proven technology, and that they will not attempt to acquire and/or enforce overly broad patents which would certainly be overturned following a closer examination of PC industry history. This technology istoo important for any one company — especially a company that didn't invent it — to attempt to prevent its free use within the industry. I hopeMicrosoft will understand this."

Gibson will soon be releasing a freeware program called Free & Clear thatwill let anyone experiment with the technology used by ClearType on theirown. He's agreed to talk with me about this, but I'm waiting to hear fromBill Hill, the Microsoft researcher who presented ClearType during theGates keynote. I hope to have more information early next week.

In the meantime, please take the time to visit Steve's excellent Web siteabout this topic