Anti-aliased Vs. Aliased type for HTML type in screenshots?? Help..
Hello everyone, Ive a problem which im not sure whether this is the right place or not, but i thought i’d throw it out there to see what people on here thought on the matter..
Right then, just so you know, Ive professionally been designing for screen based medias for 10+ years now and whenever ive done designs in the past, for say a new web site, ive always set the text in Photoshop that i intend to display as HTML type to ’aliased’ (or ’non anti-aliased’ to those that wrongly refer to it). This has been so that the client (and any other coder/designer picking up this project at a later date) can clearly see a distinction between the use of images and HTML type. I know that presenting a flattened .jpg this way is a massive presumption that the client will have < IE6 since that browser cant render HTML type as anti-alias but it is, for now, still the majority browser... so this is where my problem lies.
I had my boss come to me the other day complaining that the screen shot i had sent him for prior approval (copy errors etc) wasnt ’the best ever we could visually provide the client’... I was sat there with my anti-aliasing HTML Mac trying to explain the hows and whys of my actions before finding a PC with IE6 to demonstrate my point. I also had to state that his new laptop was running Vista/IE7 and it anti-aliases the type and thats why other websites on his screen looked really nice, compared to the printed out ’aliased’ HTML type version i had designed in his hand. I also pointed out that the low client expectation level is covered this way, and should the client have IE7 not IE 6 upon its HTML build then it will only look better than what i originally delivered as a flat .jpg screenshot.
and no, my boss isnt an art director, nor a senior designer type, hes the top level management company type boss so you know.
So anyway, my predicament is: should i start to anti-alias all my HTML example text in photoshop cos of IE7 now anti-aliasing? or stay designing the way i do??
any thoughts, advice or similar experiences please
28.Apr.2008 5.30am
I say anti-alias your text in screenshots.
It’s not as simple as IE6 vs IE7, as I’m using IE 6 on WinXP and have ClearType anti-aliased text. Surely it’s a system-wide setting in Control Panel > Display?
Avoid Cleartype anti-aliasing in screenshots, though — stick to Standard — or you risk odd colour fringing on others’ displays.
28.Apr.2008 6.27am
I second the anti-aliased text call. In a very similar position to you I’ve been presenting everything anti-aliased for years, though I never used to way back when. I’ve been doing it at least as long as Quartz rendering on the Mac allowed me to believe anti-aliased HTML text was possible. What a revelation that was. At that time Windows couldn’t do it, and later on (I think) needed a display setting changed to render anti-aliased Cleartype text.
Also, all platfoms now do anti-aliased text. Mac has Quartz, Windows has Cleartype and Linux machines using GTK have the excellent Freetype. I do know of one outraged blogger who hates what he calles “blurred” fonts on screen, but I couldn’t disagree with him more. These days there’s also a tedious back-and-forth “mine’s best” argument, exacerbated by Safari on Windows arrogantly using Quartz, often waged between Mac and Windows users as to whether Quartz or Cleartype is ’better’. I have my own opinion, but nobody else ought to care.
Essentially I agree with your boss. Presenting anti-aliased text in your work will allow you to present type that’s both ’better presented’ and, these days, more accurate. He’s right, aliased text wouldn’t now be “the best ever we could visually provide the client”.
28.Apr.2008 6.39am
I agree with the boss too - this is 2008! One trick you might want to consider is creating the mock up sans-text in Photoshop and then use HTML+CSS to position the dummy text over the background. Snap a screen grab and you’re done.
28.Apr.2008 6.52am
I say having clients sign off on Photoshop files is a bad idea to begin with.
But, yea, anti-alias the text. No biggie.
28.Apr.2008 7.04am
Anti-alias. Even a Windows 98 computer with IE 5 can antialias type, it’s a system setting, not IE specific.
28.Apr.2008 7.36am
Hehe, yeah i know its 2008 im there too, believe it or not ;)
so thanks for the feedback - however, i cant help but feel like Im now left with the next predicament: If i anti-alias my typefaces upon showback, then it potentially opens up the old ’i dont like that typeface, why cant i have my company print ’Akzidenz’ font?’ debate.
Like i said, Ive always tried to show the design at its lowest possible ’pixel’ outcome since i cant predict that the client will have cleartype turned on (ive currently got a lot of large in-house clients who have an IT dept. dictate their machines - so theyre quite old and pretty preset from when they were purchased years ago) let alone know what cleartype is, hehe!.
however, i think ill test the waters and start to deliver anti-aliased based screenshots based on your opinions. Ill try and keep you updated as to what type of feedback i get ;)
ps. aluminum: why would you not recommend PS for client sign off as a bad idea?