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Why do my fonts look choppy/boxy??/grainy?


Aesthete18

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I've been making signatures in my past time and every time I add a font to it, I find it being very choppy, like pixel around the edges. I don't know why. The sigs are relatively small 300x100. Here's an example, check out the "A" it's so obvious.

d09kZbW.png
 
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Hybrus

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Untitled-1.jpg
this will help your problem.
you can experiment with that, I am using smooth option.
 

Hybrus

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if your problem did not resolve with that, maybe your font style is kind like of that . .
by the way, you can wait for other detailed replies from the gurus.
 

MrToM

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I don't want to sound harsh but what do you expect from a grid of square pixels viewed on a grid of square pixels?

The 'A' is only 13 x 21px and the sloping sides of the character change over 3 of those pixels.....thats nearly a quarter of the total width over just 21 pixels.

There are only so many pixels in a 13 x 21px space....any 'diagonal' edges WILL look like that.....its a digital image made up of a grid of small squares.

Even if you made it bigger you'll still be viewing on a monitor made up of a grid of small squares.

hybridmadness's suggestion is not really going to help....there just aren't enough pixels to smooth out the edges but even if there were enough pixels then setting the anti-aliasing to 'Smooth' would look better.

Don't get me wrong...that suggestion is good, and 99% of the time would be a perfectly viable solution...its just that in this case its not quite right for this particular circumstance.

If you take a closer look at that text you'll notice that all the characters show some degree of 'staircasing'.....its just that the 'A' is the only one with a full height 'diagonal' edge so it stands out more from the rest.

Small text = a bit 'jaggy'......and the more 'contrast' you have the worse it will look.
Best just get used to it I'm affraid.

Regards.
MrTom.
 
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Aesthete18

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I'm not well that well versed with Photoshop so I don't know what to expect but ask because I've seen it done. Another guy on the forum has pretty smooth wording, he uses the same size to make his sigs. I wouldn't even have known it was a problem had I not seen a better version. I thought it was my limited font library so I downloaded a 2k font pack and tried well at least 200 of it, to no avail. I will try Hybrid's suggestion.

Also, isn't pixelation more obvious the bigger it gets? Like cropping, I'm able to get away with mistakes since the output is at such a small size.
 
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IamSam

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MrTom said:
The 'A' is only 13 x 21px and the sloping sides of the character change over 3 of those pixels.....thats nearly a quarter of the total width over just 21 pixels.

Screen Shot 2015-04-29 at 10.35.01 AM.png

(thought this needed a graphic)
 

MrToM

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Thanks Sam......beautiful!

@OP
This has nothing to do with 'pixelation'.

Changing the anti-aliasing may help but again, there are are very few pixels in which to get that anti-aliasing.....see Sams image.

Like I said, there are only so many pixels in that small space, PS will do its best to get the desired look but there is only so much it can do.....in fact, that anyone can do.

If the font was bigger then sure....lots of pixels to play with and the anti-aliasing can do its job but at this size you are wanting to split the pixel and that's just not possible.

Post the other guys 'better' example so we can see why you seem confident of improvement.

Regards.
MrTom.
 

IamSam

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You will have some slight improvement by choosing a font with a wider base.

In this example we have:

Width = 27px
Height = 22px

Except now we have 9px to make the slant from the top of the A to the bottom of the leg, so the slants transition will appear smoother because of the added pixels.

Screen Shot 2015-04-29 at 11.23.33 AM.png

However............at this small size, you will always have aliasing!

edit: added size at 100%...

Screen Shot 2015-04-29 at 2.01.18 PM.png
 
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Hoogle

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You can change the type size scale by going to edit > Preferences > Units and Rulers and under the type drop down box change it to pixels rather than point size,

I am not saying this will make it beautifully smooth but it will do the type size based on pixels rather than point size, but be warned standard size 18 will not be the same as pixel size 18.
 

Aesthete18

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Thanks Sam......beautiful!

@OP
This has nothing to do with 'pixelation'.

Changing the anti-aliasing may help but again, there are are very few pixels in which to get that anti-aliasing.....see Sams image.

Like I said, there are only so many pixels in that small space, PS will do its best to get the desired look but there is only so much it can do.....in fact, that anyone can do.

If the font was bigger then sure....lots of pixels to play with and the anti-aliasing can do its job but at this size you are wanting to split the pixel and that's just not possible.

Post the other guys 'better' example so we can see why you seem confident of improvement.

Regards.
MrTom.

GtU6C8u.png
UPlbmBl.png
e2RTWJ7.png

I know it's bigger but the resized version doesn't have jagged edges like mine either.

2qno8it.jpg
I don't know why this one appeared so big, I only put it cos it was the same size as mine.

Is it better to work on a bigger size then output it to the 300x100? Would that change anything quality wise?
 
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MrToM

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...I know it's bigger but the resized version doesn't have jagged edges like mine either...
Sorry, you've totally lost me.....resized version?
Of what?


...I don't know why this one appeared so big, I only put it cos it was the same size as mine...
I'm trying to understand, honestly, but this really isn't making any sense.


...Is it better to work on a bigger size then output it to the 300x100? Would that change anything quality wise?...
Well, yes...when starting from scratch why work on a thumbmnail sized image?
Make it as big as you feel comfortable with. Just keep the proportions the same as the output...so 3000 x 1000px would be more than big enough.....even 1500 x 500px would be OK.

As to 'Quality'...well, quality doesn't really exist in a digital image, every pixel is always as good as it can ever be, as to the content of that image well, that's down to you and your skills in Photoshop.

When making something like this 'size' shouldn't really be a concern....just make the canvas the correct 'ratio' (proportions) of the final output size and as big as you can.

Anything you put into that image should be proportionally correct, but its actual pixel dimensions are irrelevant....scale fonts till they 'fit' or look right, don't restrict yourself to having to use a font at a certain size.

The same goes for images too....preferably you'll have images that are too big for the canvas, which is good, re-sampling down is ok, re-sampling up is not.

On that note, images used may depict the size of the canvas you start with....but if its too small then its better to source bigger images than to reduce the size of your canvas.

Saving out to the required image size from a much larger 'working' (PSD) image is the more usual workflow.

Regards.
MrTom.
 

Aesthete18

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Sorry, you've totally lost me.....resized version?
Of what?



I'm trying to understand, honestly, but this really isn't making any sense.



Well, yes...when starting from scratch why work on a thumbmnail sized image?
Make it as big as you feel comfortable with. Just keep the proportions the same as the output...so 3000 x 1000px would be more than big enough.....even 1500 x 500px would be OK.

As to 'Quality'...well, quality doesn't really exist in a digital image, every pixel is always as good as it can ever be, as to the content of that image well, that's down to you and your skills in Photoshop.

When making something like this 'size' shouldn't really be a concern....just make the canvas the correct 'ratio' (proportions) of the final output size and as big as you can.

Anything you put into that image should be proportionally correct, but its actual pixel dimensions are irrelevant....scale fonts till they 'fit' or look right, don't restrict yourself to having to use a font at a certain size.

The same goes for images too....preferably you'll have images that are too big for the canvas, which is good, re-sampling down is ok, re-sampling up is not.

On that note, images used may depict the size of the canvas you start with....but if its too small then its better to source bigger images than to reduce the size of your canvas.

Saving out to the required image size from a much larger 'working' (PSD) image is the more usual workflow.

Regards.
MrTom.

:lol: Do you see the images I posted? It's the work from the other guy. That's what my first two sentences are a response to.
 

IamSam

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Your original image is 300 x 100. The images from the other guy are 460 x 125. They are a bit larger.

This A is created at 1000 x 1000

Screen Shot 2015-04-30 at 8.25.23 AM.png

This is the same A scaled down to 100 x 100.

Screen Shot 2015-04-30 at 8.26.27 AM.png

This is an A created at 100 x100

Screen Shot 2015-04-30 at 8.26.27 AM.png

Sizing will not help much. This is about the number of pixels that Photoshop has to work with. Period.
 

Aesthete18

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Your original image is 300 x 100. The images from the other guy are 460 x 125. They are a bit larger.

This A is created at 1000 x 1000

View attachment 55374

This is the same A scaled down to 100 x 100.

View attachment 55375

This is an A created at 100 x100

View attachment 55375

Sizing will not help much. This is about the number of pixels that Photoshop has to work with. Period.

I see. Why is his fonts better? It's almost too obvious the difference in quality. Are all 4 images I posted visible? The third curvy writing is not jagged at all to me.
 

MrToM

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...Why is his fonts better?...
Some fonts are deliberately designed to be 'blocky', others smoother.

Have you tried a different font?

What font are you using?
If we knew that, and its a 'free for public use' font, we may be able to find the best settings for you.

And yes, I can see your images perfectly thank-you.

Regards.
MrToM.
 

Aesthete18

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Some fonts are deliberately designed to be 'blocky', others smoother.

Have you tried a different font?

What font are you using?
If we knew that, and its a 'free for public use' font, we may be able to find the best settings for you.

And yes, I can see your images perfectly thank-you.

Regards.
MrToM.

Yes I tried quite a few, the cursive ones tend to have this effect more, that's why I'm wondering cause if you look at the third image I don't see any jaggedness. When it's used as a sig, it's resized to 300x100 and there's no jaggedness just kinda blurry. I will try the few things that were suggested here first. Will check back with the results. Thank you for the information.
 

MrToM

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No worries.

It does seem that it could just be the font you are using....and it being at such a small size.

The first thing I would try (as its a good workflow for future projects anyway) is to have the canvas much larger.....3000 x 1000px if your system is up to it. (Just keep the ratio the same as the output....3:1)

Try the text, (remembering the anti-aliasing options!), in that font and save out as a PNG-24 file at 300 x 100px.

From the 'Save For Web' options window you can set up your browser to display the image at the click of a button......you'll see exactly how its going to look 'on a web page' then.

The 'browser' options are bottom LEFT of the 'Save For Web' window.

browser-preview.jpg

Regards.
MrTom.
 

Aesthete18

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Holy **** it is the thing Hybrid suggested!

Word Not Okay.png

Word Okay.png

Working on a bigger canvas is so much better!! Thanks a lot guys, got more than just one thing out of it!
 

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