...rendering small fonts at a very good quality

Hi,

Which tool is the best if you want to render (2D) TTF/OTF fonts at small sizes so that they stay crisp and sharp with a tiny antialiasing?

I know about the font settings in Photoshop CS but i need more than that so has Photoshop improved in this aspect in CS2 or CS3? Are there any differences between the win and osx versions? Any other method getting better results in photoshop - beside of doing the pixelwork on your own?

Any other paint program better in this aspect like Paint Shop Pro, Fireworks, Gimp, Pixelmator, ... or is there a tool around which is perfect for just rendering fonts?


Thanks,

taumel

 

If you use any antialiasing with a tiny font it won't look very crisp. Not sure which font features CS has (I can only test 7), but Gimp seems to do a pretty nice job (at least keep you from doing the pixel work). Again, not sure what CS has, but in Gimp you can do Hinting, Force Auto-Hinter and Antialiasing. I seemed to get a good combination with just Hinting and Force Auto-Hinter.

 

I was always under the impressing that PS had the best anti-aliasing out there. I could be wrong, but to my eye it is better than GIMP's... Just MHO.

 

@lgoss07
The Gimp still needs X11 beeing installed on OSX, right?

@bigkahuna
PS's AA is nice for larger letters but gets too slushy with tiny thin lines.

 

Yes. The latest stable version of GIMP is 2.4.2 and is actually quite nice (it's my main paint app, PS CS2 is just too slow to load for the quickie fix-ups I do).

 

There is also a native Cocoa port of the Gimp, called Seashore.

You can find it at: http://seashore.sourceforge.net/

 

Thanks, i'll check this out. What a nice icon, again! :O)

 

CS3 loads a lot faster.

I learned recently that I can upgrade from an educational copy of Macromedia Studio MX (which I have from a few years ago) to a bunch of full license CS3 options for great prices. Unbelievable. I'm going to get the Design Premium.

 

Then be happy! :O)