Michael Wagner wrote:

The button should have a total height of 16 pixels and so I start with an empty image of that height. Every time I use the text tool the resulting text looks really ugly.
I already have a running web page where the navigation bar is created of text links (only using the tag) and the fonts rendered there are looking much better (using the same height of course)

How can I create good readable font buttons?

Hello Michael,

Do you mean that the font looks "jaggy", "pixelised", blocky, not smooth? Or do you find the text too blurred? Do you mean the result is ugly in gimp, or nice in gimp and ugly in the browser?

There may be several reasons in this:

1- the font: choose a vectorial font, not a fixed/bitmap one

2- antialiasing: in the text tool options (double click on the text tool if you do not already have this dialog in your windows), check that the "antialiasing" option is selected. Play also with the "hinting" option.

3- the image format (in case the image is nice in gimp and looks like crap in the browser): if you create small images transparent with only text, and then put them on a pre-existing background, you will have problems. GIF does not support true transparency, and you will need to use PNG to keep the text smooth. However, you will have to change your HTML for IE Win32 does not display crappy text. See: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/pngopacity/ http://dean.edwards.name/IE7/
Another solution is to use the semi-flatten plugin (filters->colors->semi-flatten) after having set as background colour a colour which is a good average of your background image.

I hope one of these point can help you.

Best regards,

Olivier.

Hi,

Michael Wagner writes:

I am trying to create web navigation buttons with text on it. Of course I am using TheGimp for it, but I have a problem:

The button should have a total height of 16 pixels and so I start with an empty image of that height. Every time I use the text tool the resulting text looks really ugly.

What version of GIMP are you using? Your image is in RGB mode, isn't it?

Sven

--- Michael Wagner a écrit :
> Hallo again,

I send this mail back to the list (maybe my reply-to is not correct... you replied directly to me, not to the list).

> or> Michael Wagner wrote: > >> The button should have a total height of 16 pixels and so > >> I start with an empty
> >> image of that height. Every time I use the text tool > >> the resulting text looks really ugly. > >> I already have a running web page where the navigation bar is > >> created of text links
> >> (only using the tag) and the fonts rendered there are > >> looking much better (using the same height of course) > >> How can I create good readable font buttons? > or> Hello Michael,
> or> Do you mean that the font looks "jaggy", "pixelised", blocky, > or> not smooth? Or do you find the text too blurred? >
> The text is mainly pixelized or blocky >
> or> Do you mean the result is ugly in gimp, or nice in gimp > or> and ugly in the browser?
>
> In both. The view in gimp seems to be exactly like in browsers (IE > and Netscape). I have used jpg as file format to avaid the png > problems
>
> or> There may be several reasons in this: > or> 1- the font: choose a vectorial font, not a fixed/bitmap one >
> I am already trying with several True Type fonts (which are > vectorised as I understand).

Yep, these fonts should be perfect. But indeed, 16 pixels is a little troublesome to have nice text: I have tried with Nimbus and Vera, and the result is not satisfying...

> > or> 2- antialiasing: in the text tool options (double click > or> on the text tool if you do not already have this dialog > or> in your windows), check that the "antialiasing" option > or> is selected. Play also with the "hinting" option. >
> I already have done this: Depending on the used font the result > gets a little better but is still far away from beeing good.

Could you put a screenshot somewhere. I guess that since you are talking about a web site, you have one somewhere ;) So we can see what you call "better".
[snap]
> What still bothers me is: Why do I have a different result when I use > the same font and settings as in the web page as text? >
> Thanks
> Michael
>

A not very elegant way is to work on bigger text images (32 or 64 pixels) and rescale them to what you want (scaling with the cubic interpolation).

Best regards,

Olivier.

PS: when replying, check that the list is at least cc:ed

I have used a font called Ergoe for 12 pt text buttons, and it worked great. I cannot tell you from where I installed it, but any time I need small text it is the one I choose as it is clear and legible.

Here is a web site I did many years ago, much has changed but the mouseover on the left is still the same buttons I made in '99 with (I think) 12 pt Ergoe.

http://www.rma.usda.gov/

Thanks-

Jim Clark

And for the fellow with the missing pixels in his (very attractive) sister's image: It may not be the best way, but a simple way to fix that is to leave a duplicate of the original beneath it and just erase around the edge in a manner to make sure nothing shows through. All the erased pixels will have their original source behind them.

Hi,

Michael Wagner writes:

or> Yep, these fonts should be perfect. But indeed, 16 pixels is a little or> troublesome to have nice text: I have tried with Nimbus and Vera, and or> the result is not satisfying...

I tried Tahoma and Verdena and the result gets better...

The quality of the font becomes more important the smaller you render it. Good fonts have hinting information that improve the rendering at small sizes. If you get poor results for small font sizes, there are a couple of possible reasons:

(1) The font sucks. This is very common as there are only few good fonts and almost all of them are expensive.

(2) There's no hinting information for the particular font size you are trying to use. Sometimes it helps to make the font slightly larger or slightly smaller. Some fonts only have hints for standard sizes like 10pt, 12pt, 17pt.

(3) Your font has hints but your version of the Freetype library doesn't have the TrueType bytecode interpreter enabled. Due to patent problems (see http://www.freetype.org/patents.html), many distributions disable this code in the Freetype library. You won't be able to use the hints embedded into the font then. Recent versions of Freetype have a fairly good auto-hinter but for very small sizes it can hardly compare to hints choosen by the font designer.

Sven