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Is there any way to stop fonts looking pixelated?


B

Bubble

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Hi all,

I am a newby to this site, well to forums in general, but i though the gurus out there may be able to help me...

I have been using photoshop for a while - but would definately not call myself anything much above intermediate (fear more than that will take the rest of my life [confused] ) - and have found a constant problem with the fonts that annoys me to, well you know where. It seems when I try to do anything of a smaller scale, the fonts appear blurry and pixelated. It's fine when its a large project, but have found that in order to make the font readable on anything small, i save my work as a jpeg, and import it into word for the text. I know this seems drastic, as i lose all ability to then include any effects on the text, but I'm not sure what else to do to keep my fonts looking crisp.

I know this is probably a very silly problem, but was hoping someone out there may have the slap in the face answer that i'm looking for, and would be very grateful for.

Thanks
 
Welcome aboard Bubble
did you try the texts options? smooth, crisp, strong etc?
sfm
 
Hi Bubble and welcome to the board :righton:

First a question. What is your target? A printer or the screen?
 
Yes, I have tried the various options - i also thought rasterizing might be a solution, but it appears not. Target is both, I initially thought that it may just be a problem on screen, but when i print the image out, it prints pixelated as well... Like i said tho, it doesn't seem to be a problem when my font is large, but say i try to use a 10px font, then the resolution issues arise.

Thanks for your promt replies... I'm hoping that this isn't just a problem in my world ;\
 
That problem may be the actual font you are using. Beacuse the font you have probably isn't made for being such a small size, when it is reduced so low, it appears pixelated. Try downloading a pixel font. Pixel fonts can be used at a very small size and are still nice and crisp.

Also, try sharpening the text layer. filters>sharpen>sharpen

Hope this helps.

BTW, I am now expert at this and what I have said here may be completely wrong, so anyone who knows better please step in and correct me.

Sanby
 
Well, 10 pixels in Photoshop is not very much when it comes to screen resolution...
What you see on your screen, these pixelated little letters, is a reflection of the limitations of a computer screen

If your printer output however is very pixelated, then you have to change the resolution of your document; Image/image size/
Change resolution to 180 or something like that. Your printer output should be crisp now.

Btw, it would be nice of course to see a screen shot so that we all know what kind of pixelation you're talking about.
 
ok guys, i've included what it looks like at 12px (as a jpeg). Every font i have seems to do this, so i don't know if its a font problem. When I change resolution though, it makes my canvas bigger - even though it says its the same size canvas, my 12px text now takes up less room - tis a mystery to me :)

Hope I can figure this out - is very bizarre.
 
hmm... looks like i'm making the problem up now doesn't it [saywhat]

let me see if i can get my point across any better - can i include my psd file so that you can all open it and have a look at what i mean, i'll give it a shot (just talking to myself there). hmmm, apparently not according to the file types allowed, unless i save it as a zip...
 
Just a shot in the dark, here because the psd looked ok on my monitor, but start with an image resolution of 72 dpi. (screen res) And for print, 300 dpi works pretty well as a general starting point.
 
Bubble... take a screenshot of yur PS doc. That way, we'll see it exactly as you do. Don't save the image out as before.
 
Welcome to the forum Bubble! :)

Bubble: When I change resolution though, it makes my canvas bigger - even though it says its the same size canvas, my 12px text now takes up less room - tis a mystery to me
Click to expand...
Bubble, changing resolution will only affect the quality of the printed image. Your canvas "appears" bigger from a screen point of view, but the printed document dimension remains the same. This is a good link/read for anyone wishing to understand "resolution" in terms of screen and print. http://www.tildefrugal.net/photo/dpi.html

As to your problem re your fonts appearing "pixelated"... Firstly, 12 pt @ 72 ppi might be a bit too small a font size (in my opinion) to use for web, without setting the "anti-aliasing"option to "NONE".

As for print, this is a whole different matter. Take a look at the example below. The size of the document is 1.333 inches square. Notice the "visual size" (screen size) of the type and look at the aliasing. In this example, the actual font size (12 pt) remains unchanged. The only change I have made for this demonstration purpose, is to the screen resolution setting.

Remember, this example image will print out 1.333" x 1.333". Pretty tiny, huh? Obviously 12 pt @ 72 ppi would be illegible! But, at an image resolution of 300 ppi, it would not only be legible, but it would be very crisp indeed.
 
thanks wendy, that was most helpful... hadn't thought of the anti-aliasing bit, but i do notice the difference. I will give that a try from now on. If however, I strike another blow in the opposite direction I will come back and mumble some more about it.

Cheers
 
well really photoshop is gonna have your text looking like crap no matter what because after all everything in it is pixel based. If you want crisp font save the rasterized photoshop image and import it into Illustrator there the text is vector based and will look good.

another option is doing your text in illustrator and then bringing it into photoshop to do effects on it (set it as the layer mask)
 
hedsteve: well really photoshop is gonna have your text looking like crap no matter what because after all everything in it is pixel based.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't exactly say that! I've produced enough art/copy for print purposes in PS to know otherwise. And, even copy as small as 4pt comes out legible and "clean to the eye" when designed in the correct resolution. ;)
 
hedsteve said:
well really photoshop is gonna have your text looking like crap no matter what because after all everything in it is pixel based. If you want crisp font save the rasterized photoshop image and import it into Illustrator there the text is vector based and will look good.
Click to expand...
That is incorrect. Yes, if you design in 72 dpi and print on a 600 dpi printer, of course it looks crap.

There's no need to print fonts in Illustrator only, since fonts in Photoshop are vector based too; it's only the resolution that you have to take in account.

Btw, every font is rasterized when you send it to a printer, even in Illustrator...dot...dot...dot...dot... :D
 
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