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Nick
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:36 pm
Posts: 3527
Location: Portsmouth
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Could I pick the collective brain of the x404 Mac contingent on what I hope is their pet subject... fonts. I am a complete font n00b, so please bear with me. I'm making some changes to my signature image:  The only problem is that the font looks crummy. I just don't know the technical term for the problems I'm having so I can look them up!! One is the spacing between characters, which I believe is kerning? Another one is the colour - which doesn't seem to be uniform across the letters. I am using a font file which I uploaded from my Mac - is this likely to cause problems if I use it in another system? i.e. my web server? _________________
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| Wed Jun 02, 2010 12:11 am |
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HeatherKay
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Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:13 pm
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Location: Here, but not all there.
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Hmm.
I can't identify the actual font you're using there, but the problems you're seeing are due to the thinness of the letters. It's throwing the letter spacing out, and causing problems with the anti-aliasing - which is what's causing the colour change.
I'd be tempted to specify a web standard font, like Verdana or Trebuchet, if you can. The letters need to have some beef to them in order to render nicely, I think.
_________________My Flickr | Snaptophobic BloggageHeather Kay: modelling details that matter. "Let my windows be open to receive new ideas but let me also be strong enough not to be blown away by them." - Mahatma Gandhi.
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| Wed Jun 02, 2010 9:41 am |
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Nick
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:36 pm
Posts: 3527
Location: Portsmouth
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Thanks for the reply Heather.
I am using the Verdana.ttf font file which I uploaded from my Mac, but it looks different when rendered into the image than it does when my Mac renders it.
Are fonts supposed to be uniform, or is it normal to see differences between platforms?
When you say the thinness of the letters, do you mean their weight? Or the amount of horizontal space they are using?
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| Wed Jun 02, 2010 3:25 pm |
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jonlumb
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Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:44 pm
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Location: Exeter
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My understanding is that Macs and PCs use a fundamentally different process to render fonts on a screen, so although they will look similar and have the same 'features' to each font, they won't necessarily look identical.
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"The woman is a riddle inside a mystery wrapped in an enigma I've had sex with."
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| Wed Jun 02, 2010 3:29 pm |
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HeatherKay
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Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:13 pm
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Location: Here, but not all there.
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Theoretically. Different platforms, though, render the font info differently. Windows is different to the Mac and so on. I meant the weight. The problem with the TTF is bold and italic is embedded in the actual font. It looks like the normal weight is being used, where perhaps the bold would be better. Is there any way to specify the thing to use bold? If not, then you may have to find a single weight font that does render nicely. I'm sort of feeling about in the dark here, as I'm not familiar with what you're trying to do and how the function works. _________________My Flickr | Snaptophobic BloggageHeather Kay: modelling details that matter. "Let my windows be open to receive new ideas but let me also be strong enough not to be blown away by them." - Mahatma Gandhi.
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| Wed Jun 02, 2010 3:42 pm |
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Nick
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:36 pm
Posts: 3527
Location: Portsmouth
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Well I've done a bit more research into the systems running on the web server I'm running. The font engine (sorry if that's the wrong term!  ) it is using is FreeType 2.2.1It appears that the problems I am having are due to limitations in the software due to patent issues: More info HERE for anyone who is interested. So I now have two questions: 1. I'm a font n00b - do these problems mean that every font is going to degrade with this software? They seem to only mention TrueType, but that means nothing to me. Are there some fonts out there which don't use these Apple patents, which might look better when rendered with this particular software? 2. Does anyone know of an engine that can render fonts nicer than this? Many thanks. _________________
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| Thu Jun 10, 2010 7:03 pm |
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paulzolo
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:27 pm
Posts: 12251
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I think all fonts are going to be affected - you could try PostScript TYpe 1 fonts, but I’d guess the library is for TTF files as they are common across more platforms.
Has your server got the GD library installed?
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| Fri Jun 11, 2010 8:32 am |
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Nick
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:36 pm
Posts: 3527
Location: Portsmouth
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Thanks for the reply Paul. Yeah, I've got GD installed, and that is what I'm using to render the images - but GD doesn't render the fonts itself, it relies on FreeType to do it - and that's where the problem is. I tried a .otf OpenType file, and it looked even worse than the images you can see on this page.  I will give a PostScript Type 1 font a bash, and see how that looks. _________________
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| Fri Jun 11, 2010 8:51 am |
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Nick
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:36 pm
Posts: 3527
Location: Portsmouth
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So I tried a Post Script Type 1 font called Galaxian, and this is the result:   Looks like I can't get fonts to render nicely without paying Apple buckets of cash?  _________________
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| Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:02 am |
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HeatherKay
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Well, it looks a bunch better than the Verdana one.
_________________My Flickr | Snaptophobic BloggageHeather Kay: modelling details that matter. "Let my windows be open to receive new ideas but let me also be strong enough not to be blown away by them." - Mahatma Gandhi.
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| Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:07 am |
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Nick
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:36 pm
Posts: 3527
Location: Portsmouth
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I suppose this is an example of when a Windows server would be useful - Microsoft have a license, so a Windows server should render these fonts nicely.
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| Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:13 am |
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HeatherKay
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Would it work if you had a bespoke TTF made for you?
_________________My Flickr | Snaptophobic BloggageHeather Kay: modelling details that matter. "Let my windows be open to receive new ideas but let me also be strong enough not to be blown away by them." - Mahatma Gandhi.
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| Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:21 am |
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Nick
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:36 pm
Posts: 3527
Location: Portsmouth
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Yes I think so, because it appears to only be certain aspects of fonts that can't be rendered correctly.
I have been searching on Google for a font that someone might have already made. If I can find one (or more) then I'll be laughing.
I don't know how important this "TrueType Bytecode Interpreter" is though. It may turn out that any font created without it is ugly as sin anyway, although I doubt that.
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| Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:26 am |
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paulzolo
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:27 pm
Posts: 12251
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Weird that the GD LIbrary is not giving you better results. When all that digital Cameron poster vandalising was doing the rounds, I had a go, and my effort is here: http://www.worldofpaul.com/cameron/CLick the text that says “draw” at the bottom, and you’ll get a GD rendered version of the image (the default is all editable text). The image produced is from a .ttf file. This is an Apache/Linux (IIRC) server.
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| Fri Jun 11, 2010 11:39 am |
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Nick
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:36 pm
Posts: 3527
Location: Portsmouth
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Hmm, odd. :EDIT: Paul, would it be possible to do a test with a much smaller font-size? I am using 10 to get the horrible results. When I up it to 100 the fonts seem to look okay. One possible workaround could be to create images with the text at 100, then scale them down by a factor of 10. It would be horribly inefficient though. _________________
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| Fri Jun 11, 2010 11:45 am |
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