working on the website across a number of computers, one of my windows xp computers displayed jagged edges on the fonts used on the site. i was trying to avoid using too many graphics across the page because i wanted to keep it simple and loading quickly.

it turns out that this particular machine had font smoothing turned off. to enable it, do the following:

1. minimize all your windows. easiest way to do this is to click on the “show desktop” icon in your quick launch toolbar.

2. right click somewhere on your desktop (not over an icon). you should see a popup menu.

3. click “properties”. you should see your “display properties” menu.

4. click the “appearance” tab.

5. click the “effects” button.

6. enable the checkbox for “smooth edges of screen fonts”.

7. in the dropdown underneath that option, i used “standard.” cleartype is supposed to do a better job, but the standard option looked fine for me (way better than having it disabled), and enabling cleartype made my desktop icon text look weird.