O.T. ...Blurry text in Flash

[Egg Bramhill]

I posted a question in the Flash forum, which appears to be anoying quite a few members. You don't seem able to post images direct on the Flash forum so I'm posting it here with a link.
The problem I was having was the crappy anti-aliasing of text in Flash.
Flash anti aliases all objects on the screen and this includes text if it's in a "text block". Frankly Flashes anti-aliasing is u/s. However if you alter the text into a "text field" Flash does'nt anti-alias it, so the text remains far sharper.
Sorry about posting here but I wanted to post the image.
The full explanation can be found at Flash Support page
Egg

[Egg Bramhill]

I posted a question in the Flash forum, which appears to be anoying quite a few members. You don't seem able to post images direct on the Flash forum so I'm posting it here with a link.
The problem I was having was the crappy anti-aliasing of text in Flash.
Flash anti aliases all objects on the screen and this includes text if it's in a "text block". Frankly Flashes anti-aliasing is u/s. However if you alter the text into a "text field" Flash does'nt anti-alias it, so the text remains far sharper.
Sorry about posting here but I wanted to post the image.
The full explanation can be found at Flash Support page
Egg

[jens g.r. benthien]

Egg,

I think many FLASH users are going crazy on this issue. I've discovered the trick 2 years ago, but messing around with text fields is only a temporary workaround.

Instead of using small font sizes, I started using larger font sizes for better legibility. Don't get me wrong, but currently there is a trend to code extremely small fonts in HTML and FLASH pages, especially in Germany. I call this 'fly shit on a screen', because nobody can read a font size that's just 4 pixels high. But those ad agencies consider it 'chic' or 'chique'.

But what is text that doesn't bring across the message? Nothing. It would make more sense to draw a meaningless line instead - because it will definitely look nicer and sharper.

With the Opera browser you can enlarge the content of a web page, but some smart asses are using DHTML and XML with CSS so the font size will remain the same small fly shit even if you zoom into the page to 500%.

I guess 95% of the visitors just click those liliput font pages away. Sad story for the customer who paid considerable amounts for the website development...

jens

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://jens.highspeedweb.net

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[jens g.r. benthien]

I **love** it - Write on the head of a pin - great expression ;-}

But: I refuse to code this nonsense and try to convince the customer to go with something that makes sense. And if he still instists, I tell him to look for another coder how will code in a font size of 1/2 pixel height.

jens

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://jens.highspeedweb.net

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[Egg Bramhill]

I couldn't agree with you more, far to many sites, Flash sites in particular, use font sizes that are all but impossible to read.
However my point is that Flash's anti aliasing of 12 point text, which by no means is small, is crap. A gif of a button with 12 point text is acceptably sharp, but a Flash button with 12 point text is blurred beyond acceptable limits.
Egg

[dk_art]

I agree about the silly and annoyingly small font sizes some people use. Boggles my mind what the logic behind that decision is.

I don't have much to say on the topic of flash but I wanted to bring up the point of Windows XP's an screen font anti-aliasing effect. Perhaps this may fuzz out text as well if it is a rather small font size. Just something to consider when making font sizes for html now. I like 12pt myself

David K ... www.dkingdesign.com http://www.dkingdesign.com/stuff/signature.jpg

[dalel]

And my conclusions were:

1) Only specific fonts are OK to use at font sizes 8-12, and still be readable and sharp.

2) Those fonts need to be blocky fonts, like Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, etc. (I use Arial or Verdana for small HTML text, and Tahoma for buttons/navigation.)

3) Anti-aliasing of fonts this size (8-12) makes them too "soft" and blurry, even when done in Photoshop or other bitmap programs. The only exception I've seen is Swish, a 3rd party Flash program, which has terrific anti-aliasing of small text. The small text in Swish is a bit soft, but not blurry like it is in Flash.

4) Aliased text of this (8-12) size looks a bit jagged, but is far more readable than anti-aliased text. That is why small HTML text is usually far more readable and sharp than small graphics text.

5) At size 14-16 and up, aliased text starts looking a bit TOO rough and jagged, depending on the font, and usually needs some anti-aliasing.

Those were my conclusions. I felt the exercise was well worth the effort. I used over 50 different fonts in Photoshop, at sizes 10-20, to see how they looked with various types of anti-aliasing (None, Crisp, Strong, Smooth). I didn't just TRY these fonts, I saved files with all the different versions, to see the final results as they would appear on web pages. Very enlightening, and I highly recommend trying this exercise!

Consequently, I now use aliased text for sizes smaller than 14. And I usually avoid graphic text in the range of 14-16-18, going to a bit larger size for a better anti-aliased look.

And I agree about the awful trend of using tiny tiny text in web pages. Who has so much content that they NEED print that small?

http://eyesitewebdesign.com/dale2.gif

Why, I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I’m not myself, you know...
- Lewis Carroll

[gidgit]

Personaly, I prefer to stay away from those things java, as well active x components, IMHO there are several issues that need to be addressed with these formats... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] and... that is unfortunate, as the technologies themselves are outstanding and truly hold a ton of potential, especially when done up nice like.

Great tip on the aliasing condundrum though...
and, for what it is worth, I like the interface on the example [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

The issues of this topic, and related issues, sure make me happy that there are more than just a couple of ways one can do things... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[Klaus Nordby]

Jens: "fly shit on a screen" - how true! Yes, that shitty design trend is everywhere.

Fuzzy fonts have been the main reason I have so far shied away from Flash. But I've recently discovered that selecting "use device font" will disable that lousy anti-aliasing of the Flash player and display crisp fonts - even at smaller sizes.


K

K
www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/kn/
www.klausnordby.com/xara

[dalel]

Simple solution for Fuzzy small text

For Flash 5:

Select the text block.
Check "device fonts" in the Text Options panel, which is in the same panel as the Character and Paragraph panels.

Try this and Test Movie, and see how much sharper the text will be exported. It doesn't embed fonts using this method, and uses ALIASED text from the user's computer, and tries to match the font you chose in Flash, with the closest font on the user's computer.

There are three generic fonts provided by Flash for getting a close match: _sans, _serif, and _typewriter, which roughly correspond to Arial, Times, and Courier. These fonts should be at the top of the fonts list.

http://www.eyesitewebdesign.com/dale.gif

Why, I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, sir, because I’m not myself, you know...
- Lewis Carroll