Why does type in Photoshop look pixelated?

[Nocandu]

Hi

I don't use Photoshop to set type, but another post here got me thinking.
Why does Vector type in Photoshop, (I use CS2) look pixelated?

Why doesn't it look sharp like the type in my other software InDesign and Illustrator?

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/9407/photoshop2.png

Above is the same size, 300 point Blackadder on a type layer in Photoshop on the same background that is shown below at the same size and color in Illustrator.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/576/illustrator2.png

I know that I have to rasterize it to do anything to it in Photoshop, so why isn't it clean?

Mike

 

[Gruuuu]

It looks like you're zoomed in, a lot, in both instances.
How does it look at 100% zoom, or when printed?

 

[Nocandu]

Hi

This is 300 pt type and I'm zoomed in tight.
So it looks fine at a normal size.

But in either Indesign or Illustrator the type never starts to look pixelated as you would expect.

I just wondered why it does in Photoshop if this is vector type?

I remember type in old Photoshop back when it was all rasterized to start with and really looked bad so this is an improvment.

Mike

 

[Gruuuu]

Ok, Photoshop has a different rendering engine that InDesgin and Illustrator. It rasterizes just about everything as it displays it. The underlying text object, while still being a vector object, is converted to raster before being drawn to the screen.

As long as you scale, stretch, modify the font before rasterizing it, it will always print and display just fine at 100% zoom. The only questionable thing would be what would happen if you printed and had the image stretch to fit the page or something. Although I'm pretty sure that if you leave it as a vector object before printing, it will still print at the correct resolution.

 

[apepp]

...Photoshop is a pixel based program therefore everything is made of pixels even type, for high end print work Photoshop is not the best thing to be using as a typesetting tool. It is more for special effects creation, any text that doesn't require special shading or effects is better done in vector programs like indesign, quark, illustrator etc...

...if designing for the Web then somtimes you have to typset basic text as pixels, but is best avoided if destined for print...

...one day hopefully it won't matter, as it is today there are differences that need to be taken into account. The best you can do for preserving text as vector text in Photoshop is to save to PDF and print from that, if you use faux text styles this won't always work and vector smart objects always get rasterized...

...if you must use text in Photoshop then the character pallette allows you to choose anti-aliasing methods for text rendering, ensure this is set to something other than none...





andrew

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http://www.apepp.info

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[Nocandu]

Hi

Thanks for the info, I get it now.
As I said I don't use Photoshop to set type I was just curious.

As an experiment I took an image like the one I posted and saved it from Photoshop as a PDF file.

Sure enough the type is clean as a whistle no matter how big you blow it up in that format.

So it is just that Photoshop displays the type in a different way then InDesign or Illustrator on the screen even though it is really the same.

It is actually just a sharp as it is in the other programs when saved in a non Raster format.

Mike