Which software is best? Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator - for making sharp fonts in images?
My client has selected the Frutiger 45 Light Font at 12 px (or one very similiar) as the font for identifying products in web images.
Please see the first image here:
http://www.netafim-usa-agriculture.com/Agriculture/images/temp/temp.html
How can I improve the sharpness of this font (without spending days on each word) and make JPG images.
I can save the images at 80% to 90% quality.
I have access to Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Illustrator CS and Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 (which has a custom anti-alias feature which I've never been able to figure out).
Thanks for your help. This has been driving me crazy.
April
Please see the first image here:
http://www.netafim-usa-agriculture.com/Agriculture/images/temp/temp.html
How can I improve the sharpness of this font (without spending days on each word) and make JPG images.
I can save the images at 80% to 90% quality.
I have access to Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Illustrator CS and Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 (which has a custom anti-alias feature which I've never been able to figure out).
Thanks for your help. This has been driving me crazy.
April
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Hi Aptril,
>>"I'd go with Photoshop with antialiasing disabled on the text layers"
Yes, that was meant when using pixel fonts. The reason is that aliasing is not required for them to look good; applying aliasing will make them fuzzy and you'll lose the dvantage of their special design. If you use conventional fonts then aliasing is a must or they'll look pixelated when the text layer is flattened.
>>Do you think that gives better results than crisp antialiasing?
I'd say that generally crisp antialiasing works better on fonts because it preserves as much of their sharpness as it can and the sharper they are the more readable, right?
One more thing to consider that I forgot to mention last night is JPG compression. The more compression you apply, the more artifacts there'll be around your text. We may not be able to pick them one by one at 100% display but zooming into an image in Photoshop shows clouds of artifacts around text when it's been compressed too much; and at 100% display they contribute to make the text look fuzzy. How much to compress? It'll depend on the quality of the source. As a general rule, I never compress a JPG to anything lower than level 10 in the Photoshop JPG compression slider unless I'm creating a mockup, in which case the lower quality acts as a deterrent for any rogue client that may want to grab the mockup and disappear *L* (yes they exist)
Run a couple tests with different size/compression level settings until you get a combo you feel happy with and then remember those settings (I keep a Notepad TXT file with random data like that) so that next time you do a similar job for the same client or a new one you have these settings at hand. Keeping consistency makes your clients look more professional and you get the credit (and the account.)
If there's anything else I can help with, please keep asking. I don't mind adding more input. Call it Customer Service ;o)
Good Vibes!
Lobo
>>"I'd go with Photoshop with antialiasing disabled on the text layers"
Yes, that was meant when using pixel fonts. The reason is that aliasing is not required for them to look good; applying aliasing will make them fuzzy and you'll lose the dvantage of their special design. If you use conventional fonts then aliasing is a must or they'll look pixelated when the text layer is flattened.
>>Do you think that gives better results than crisp antialiasing?
I'd say that generally crisp antialiasing works better on fonts because it preserves as much of their sharpness as it can and the sharper they are the more readable, right?
One more thing to consider that I forgot to mention last night is JPG compression. The more compression you apply, the more artifacts there'll be around your text. We may not be able to pick them one by one at 100% display but zooming into an image in Photoshop shows clouds of artifacts around text when it's been compressed too much; and at 100% display they contribute to make the text look fuzzy. How much to compress? It'll depend on the quality of the source. As a general rule, I never compress a JPG to anything lower than level 10 in the Photoshop JPG compression slider unless I'm creating a mockup, in which case the lower quality acts as a deterrent for any rogue client that may want to grab the mockup and disappear *L* (yes they exist)
Run a couple tests with different size/compression level settings until you get a combo you feel happy with and then remember those settings (I keep a Notepad TXT file with random data like that) so that next time you do a similar job for the same client or a new one you have these settings at hand. Keeping consistency makes your clients look more professional and you get the credit (and the account.)
If there's anything else I can help with, please keep asking. I don't mind adding more input. Call it Customer Service ;o)
Good Vibes!
Lobo
ASKER
It is SO frustrating; but my client insists on an Arial type font and will not let me use pixel fonts. I've been fighting this with them since April 2004.
Drives me crazy as I really dislike fuzzy fonts and they look so unprofessional.
I'll certainly use pixel fonts for my other projects. Thank you for the links in your answer. I've purchased several bundles from MiniFonts.
Clarification - in your answer you said "I'd go with Photoshop with antialiasing disabled on the text layers" -- you meant when using Pixel fonts? correct?
I'm wondering if I should use Arial at 10 or 12 pixels with antialiasing disabled in Photoshop. Do you think that gives better results than crisp antialiasing?
Thanks so much. This has been a huge issue for me.
April