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Is it just me or does photoshop suck for text?

by RedShifted
4 replies
  • OFF TOPIC
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This has been a continous problem ever since I've been using photoshop, and I wasn't sure where to post this.

For some reason, photoshop does not seem capable of making sharp/readable text.

Anytime I make ads in it, the pictures come out nice and sharp, but the text always looks like crap. EVEN WHEN I save it at the highest resolution possible. I've tried everything. I'll make the graphic 10s bigger than it should be, then shrink it down, nothing makes the text clear. So what I do now is make my images in photoshop, then use publisher for the text, but publisher has its limitations as far as text editing goes!

I typed "photoshop sucks for text" into google, and apparently many graphic designers are aware of this.

Can I ask what graphic designers on WF use to get really clear text? Do you make images up in photoshop then export them out to software like publisher... or may even illustrator?

I guess its too much to ask for 1 program that does everything. But I'm really curious what some of the more competent graphic designers are using. I've been using photoshop for 4 years now and I love it for image editing, but like I said its horrible for text.

Thanks guys - Red
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    What's your anti-aliasing setting on the text toolbar?

    These are my options in CS5.1:
    • none
    • sharp
    • crisp
    • strong
    • smooth

    I think crisp was the default setting.

    If you want anything better, you might have to add the font in a vector program.
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    I was speaking earlier about a feature I needed in photoshop that seemed to not be documented well. Well everyone.......*****SURPRISE*****! YUKON mentioned it! It wasn't so simple in the photoshop I was using.

    BTW Photoshop is a BIT ORIENTED graphics program, as I recall. That means that it will NOT properly scale text, that is represented via graphics. Of course, as long as it is a TEXT layer, it will scale, because, today, TEXT is generally VECTOR oriented, for just that reason!

    SO, if you want clear text, KEEP IT AS A TEXT LAYER! The antialiasing should then properly render it.

    ALSO, REMEMBER, SOME text IS bit mapped, and it WON'T scale well!

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    One more thing that MANY don't seem to realize. It is IMPOSSIBLE to display text in most graphic formats! So how does PHOTO shop do it? Well, they have a few SPECIAL formats, like PSD that can do it. The REST just render the text as a GRAPHIC, and often merge it with the other graphics. Photoshop even has a flatten option for PSD and IT does the SAME thing. Once that happens, you lose ALL facilities available to text, and it is VERY hard to undo. PHOTOSHOP doesn't provide a way to undo it, at least not once you save it and exit.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author jatomlinson
    I've been using Photoshop for years and have never had this issue. It must be a setting on your program. I make graphic Craigslist ads for clients as well as posters and other products on POD sites like Zazzle, and this has never been an issue for me. Because the text is a vector itself (the same as custom shapes) it scales up and down without losing pixels. Have you tried saving in different formats like .tiff and .png? If you save it in .eps file the entire file remains in a vector format. Is it possible that you are saving the file and then uploading to a site like Photobucket, where the image then gets scaled and distorts the text? Have you tried using different fonts? Is this an issue only when you're printing because if so, then you really should increase your file size to 300-400 dpi before you even start creating the file, since when printing you'll need a much higher dpi. Standard dpi is 72 when you open a new file, which is way too low for printing.

    Sorry to hear you are having issues.
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