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moores1990
Participant
July 16, 2013
Answered

why is the small text blurry on photoshop?

  • July 16, 2013
  • 1 reply
  • 44537 views

why is the small text blurry on photoshop? i am dong a very small advert for a newspaper! and the text is printing blurry and when zoomed in is appearing all blurry? how do i stop this i only have photoshop and indesign

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer moores1990

    Guys it might just be a font issue.  Some fonts really don't work well at very small sizes.  This can be even worse on the paper quality most newspapers are printed on.  Tell us what font you are using, the size of the advert in inches or milimetres, and post the image to this thread.

    http://37signals.com/svn/posts/140-the-10-most-popular-newspaper-typefaces


    the font is myriad and the advert size is 3.3" x 5.4" inches! the add looks fine there but then when its printed it looks pixelated

    1 reply

    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 16, 2013

    »Blurry«? Do you mean pixelated?

    Photohop is a pixel oriented image editing program, so text will be represented by pixels on-screen and in file formats that do not support that kind of data.

    But if you save a pdf you can maintain vector and font data (provided no faux styles are applied, …).

    i only have photoshop and indesign

    Then why don’t you use Indesign for type to begin with?

    M
    moores1990Author
    Participant
    July 16, 2013

    yes probably pixelated is the word! so if i print it as a pdf it wont appear blurry? i tried typing the font in indesign and then opening it into photoshop and it still made it pixelated? will i need to save it as a vector? if so how do i do that?

    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 18, 2013

    c.pfaffenbichler schrieb:

    If a vector is intact, no flattening has been done. I don't talk about PDF layers, they are a complete different thing. When flattening is done no form or text survives as live vector or live text.

    The pdf is X-1, so there are no Layers or transparencies in it, but the text is searchable still.

    So I guess you are correct in that no flattening has happened, rather Photohop embedded two images in the pdf and clipped the one with the type.


    Exaclty, whe a pDF X1 or 3 is created transparency is flattened and here it can come to unwanted rasterizing of vectors.

    How will you create the correct boxes for bleed and crop in Photoshop?

    For a newspaper add those will probably be irrelevant as bleed is hardly necessary.


    Not at all, it is much easier to assamble files in a greater layout if all boxes are correct.

    You know it good enough that this is not the right tool for that task?

    Indesign is definitely the preferable tool for the task at hand, but claiming Photoshop cannot output type except pixelated was not proper.


    I think in a forum we should not support the use of wrong tools but we have to show the best way to do things correct.

    And there are also problems which cannot avoided with higher knowledge like coloured black (not in this ad). Yes, you an me we are capable to shift around the known problems with ads created in Photoshop, but others don't know these problems and will crash.


    Exaclty, whe a pDF X1 or 3 is created transparency is flattened and here it can come to unwanted rasterizing of vectors.

    Unless certain conditions are in play (faux styles for example) Photoshop will maintain vectors in my experience.

    Unlike Indesign and Illustrator Photoshop seems to generate the necessary amount of images covering the full area and clips them with Paths or type).

    Of course this can lead to a lot of full area pixel images which may affect file size considerably – a legitimate argument for prefering Indesign or Illustrator created pdfs.

    When opening a Photoshop created pdf in Illustrator the number of resulting Clipping Groups and embedded images can be quite remarkable.

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