Google Chrome

About Google Chrome and MacType

Note: MacType will work with Chrome in DirectWrite mode without using the below. However DirectWrite font rendering isn't as configurable as MacType GDI, which replaces GDI with the FreeType rendering engine from Linux. To use GDI rendering with Chrome (or a Chrome alternative), read on...

Unfortunately there is no known way to disable DirectWrite since Google Chrome version 51, or many other apps that use the Chromium engine (e.g. Electron apps like Slack, Spotify, Atom, etc.). CentBrowser, a fork of Chrome, doesn't use GDI rendering either, as seen in https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/issues/628#issuecomment-569261445 .

For more information on what we think about this topic, read our article on DirectWrite vs GDI.

Let The Chrome team know you want them to support MacType

If you'd like to see the official Google Chrome support MacType, please let the Chrome team know at Google. To do this:

1. Upvote this topic on the Google Forum, and
2. Follow these instructions to give feedback through Google Chrome

According to Google, these seem to be the official ways to give product feedback. It looks noisy in there though, so please take time to give your feedback to help get the message through.

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Workaround for Chrome 78+

Starting from Chrome 78, Chrome began to block third-party DLLs from injection. But they provided a way to disable the protection either from the command line or by policy.

Commandline

Append --disable-features=RendererCodeIntegrity to the Chrome shortcut. Which means only Chrome instances started from this shortcut is exempted.

Policy (Thanks to kcohar)

insert the DWORD "RendererCodeIntegrityEnabled" with a value of 0 into

• HKLM\Software\Policies\Chromium, for Chromium
• HKLM\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome, for Chrome
• HKLM\Software\Policies\BraveSoftware\Brave, for Brave
• HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge, for new Edge

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Workaround: CentBrowser in GDI mode

CentBrowser is a fork of Chrome. You can use CentBrowser exactly as you would Chrome, including extensions, and Chrome sign-in.

To try it:

1. Download and install CentBrowser from https://www.centbrowser.com/
2. In CentBrowser navigate to chrome://flags/
3. Search for DirectWrite
4. Set it to disabled
5. Click Restart Now for changes to take effect. Fonts should now be rendered with MacType

CentBrowser 4.2.7.116+ (beta) in DirectWrite mode

Append --disable-features=RendererCodeIntegrity to the Cent Browser shortcut. Which means only Cent Browser instances started from this shortcut is exempted.

Policy (Thanks to kcohar)

It appears CentBrowser also reads the HKLM\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome registry key: insert the DWORD "RendererCodeIntegrityEnabled" with a value of 0 into

• HKLM\Software\Policies\Google\Chrome, for Cent Browser