Google seeds Chrome 37 beta with DirectWrite support on Windows

Google announced on Thursday afternoon that it has released Chrome 37 beta with a number of new developer features, making it easier to create richer and faster web content and apps. The beta release includes support for the DirectWrite API on Windows for high-quality text rendering, even on high DPI displays.

The release also adds an HTML element called <dialog> as one of its headline features, allowing for styled boxes that can be controlled with JavaScript. More than a half-dozen other improvements were also made.

The full changelog from the Chromium blog:

Other updates in this release

• The Web Cryptography JavaScript API is enabled by default starting in Chrome 37, allowing developers to perform cryptographic operations such as hashing, signature generation/verification, and encryption.
• Subpixel font scaling is now supported, which enables smooth animations of text between font sizes.
• TouchEvents are now longs instead of integers, enabling higher-fidelity touch interactions on high-DPI displays.
• CSS cursor values “zoom-in” and “zoom-out” are now unprefixed.
• The number of cores on a physical machine can now be accessed bynavigator.hardwareConcurrency.
• The user’s preferred languages are now accessible by navigator.languages, and the languagechange event is fired when this is updated.
• The CSS Shapes Module allows developers to define non-rectangular text wrapping boundaries around floated elements.
• NPAPI deprecation continues according to our previously-announced plan with a harder-to-bypass blocking UI.
• The default monospace font on Windows is now Consolas instead of Courier New.