Web Design

[roman]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Klaus Nordby:
One great annoyance with XX is that it can't use bitmap system fonts -- the only kind of fonts which are really sharp and legible in small sizes, because they're pixel-drawn.

So I urge Charles and Xara to implement the use of bitmap fonts in the maintenance release. Yes, we will have to jump through some hoops, I guess, by turning off XX's native screen anti-aliasing and combining screen grab bitmaps, etc. - but if we could at least get the bitmap fonts to SHOW UP in XX's font menu, workarounds can be had. Now, you have to set your bitmap fonts in some other app and bring them in as graphics in XX, etc. Plain torture.

K
http://www.klausnordby.com/xara (big how-to article)
http://www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/kn/ (I was the first-ever featured artist in the Xone)
http://www.graphics.com (columnist, "The I of The Perceiver")


<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yup. All we need is the possibility switch on/off the mathematically unaffected displaying of texts using pixel fonts. Like Bitmap editors do. Making bitmap screenshots in other programs isn't the way how it should be done.

[Charles Moir]

I wish it was that easy guys, but we've looked into it and it's a huge job, so it can't be done for Xara X1. For lots of technical reason integrating two basically incompatible font rendering mechanisms is not easy. For instance the accuracy, predictability used by Xara is not present in system font rendering. You are all probably aware that system fonts do not render the size they are meant to be rendered. It's not just that 10pt Arial isn't, in fact, 10pt Arial, but more seriously that fonts do not scale consistently. As you increase the font size slightly the displayed font jumps sizes, often quite dramatically. Ask the system to display 10.2pt Arial and you get nothing like it. That's not just a problem with odd sizes, but you get the same same problem if you are using 10pt Arial and zoom your document to 120%. And obviously a system where you get different font metrics and line length depending on the zoom is not really acceptable. It is not WYSIWYG.

With the Xara font rendering we require and get absolute accuracy, and so if you ask for 12.34pt that's exactly what you'll get. However the goal remains that in some, probably very specific situations it would be desirable to have the option to use system font rendering. So it remains on the longer term plan.

[gwpriester]

Did you say a tutorial, Charles?

The Xara Xone is always looking for guest tutorials and this sounds like a very good and helpful one.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person


<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>


<a href="http://www.xaraxone.com">
The Xara Xone </a>

[roman]

Well maybe not tutorial but definitely he promised some hints and now he seems to try to talk it off!!! ;-) I'm not sure if this is the proper english phrase for what I wanted to say, but excuse moi Charles, I couldn't resist ;-)

[xalres]

I use Notepad.

I place the text into notepad and arange it the way I need and make sure that the width is correct. Then I take a screen cap (alt + print screen), paste into XX and cut out the window. If it needs to have the background showing through the text I use the stained glass transparency.

Works like a charm.

All Your Graphic Are Belong To Us

[alkolka]

For those of you either using or investigating Micrrosoft's ClearType, check out their ClearType Tuner at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/p...er/default.asp

It improved my ClearType settings alot.

http://home.attbi.com/~alkolka/alkolka.gif

[mrforsythexeter]

Well done mate.. that is the best solution I have seen to this problem/Bug! the only thing i must add to this is that it is a really good idea to write all the text you want in notepad and grab a screen shot of it all at the same time, other wise you will end up with a very bloated file!

Cheers Guys.. and keep up the good work.

P.S Fireworks handles the text correctly if you turn off anti a on it.. its a shame it doesn't have the graphics power of xara or the speed.

[diniel]

Xalres,

Try Sean Sedwards's fonts (they are on the Shareware page).

Set the text size to be exactly the name of the font (eg, don't use SS Sans Serif 6pt at anything other than 6pts). Also, be sure to align the text to start on an exact number of pixels in the Xara grid (that is, with the Selector tool, click on your text and be sure that the X and Y measurements for the grid position are in whole pixels).

On exporting though, antialiasing is still visible, but if you have the text on a layer of its own, you can bitmap copy it with antialiasing turned off, hide the text layer, and use the bitmap copy in the same place as you would your Notepad snapshot, restoring the antialiasing to the rest of the document. Only this way, your text is still there and editable when you need to make a change.