Text/Font appearance & Sizing in photoshop 7

[autumn_whispers2me]

I posted something 'similar' to this question a few days ago, but this isn't the same thing.. bear with me....

Well, under certain conditions text images can look 'okay' in photoshop 7, but I can't seem to make a crisp, clean text image no matter what I do. Everything looks blurry, fuzzy, awful. Didn't really have this problem with PS 5.5 though, so I could really use your help on this one!

The other issue is size: in photoshop 7 the smallest font/text setting is 6pt... which is actually HUGE. Reducing the text size by resizing only makes it blurry and messy looking. Even so, the font has to be set at a very large size to look clean. What's up with this, anyone know?

When I had PS 5.5 I could make the font size huge, or too small to read, and if I remember correctly the font settings were in px not in pt.

So, I'm stuck because I can't seem to make a text image that doesn't look like it was watered and sandblasted.

help?

[Webforumz Staff]

I'm using Photoshop 6, so I really can't help you much.

Unless someone else replies, I suggest you google search for this problem and see what you can find.

[Webforumz Staff]

Everything looks blurry, fuzzy, awful

What antialiasing method do you have set? Sharp, Crisp, Smooth, Strong? Also, if you're talking about the final image being blurry are you saving it as a JPG or a GIF? Text and JPGs aren't usually a good mix.

The other issue is size: in photoshop 7 the smallest font/text setting is 6pt...

Under Edit>Preference>Units change the units from points to pixels. Also the values in the drop down font size list are just presets, you can manually type anything into the box like 3.25px or whatever.

Finally, fonts aren't universally scalable. They're designed to look a certain way at a certain size, so if you try using them at odd sizes they'll sometimes look bad.

From http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdtypo.htm :

With a 'screen font', the type designer has considered each individual character at a pixel level and optimised the character shapes to work within the constraints of a grid.
Fonts will be designed in a range of specific font sizes 8, 9, 10, 12, 14 etc. Specifying a size that is not a 'designed' font size ie. 11 or 13 point, will generate a 'calculated' font which visually approximates the chosen size but loses all the design's subtleties.

[autumn_whispers2me]

Thanks, guys.

I do know that text and jpg's don't often mix, but sometimes you can get away with it. lol :wink: Thing is, right now nothing at all looks good. Not text on solid color background, nothing, and doesn't matter if it's a gif or jpg or wether it's anti aliased or not. Unfortunately.

I'll try going in and changing the settings.

I do try to look at the type's information to see what the numberic values are for it so I don't end up with something weird. But in this case it hasn't helped.

....Okay, changed from pt to px, but nothing makes the font look good at all... comes out very blurry, no matter what font I use.