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Type specimens on the web
Posted by jyoung in
29 Jun 2004 — 7:49am
29 Jun 2004 — 7:49am
Anyone have any recommendations on what software/file format combination works best, when developing type specimens for the web? Will one get better results from Photoshop CS compared with Photoshop 5.5 or 7? More specifically, does Photoshop / ImageReady CS do a better job of compression than the older versions? I'm assuming that it does. PNG or GIF?
I want nice, smooth, lovely, type specimens, that load quickly. And I'm seeking some typophile wisdom
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29 Jun 2004 — 9:44am
Off topic, Sorry, but Jon, your icon / symbol / wordmark / avatarthingie is mighty fine.. I love it..
29 Jun 2004 — 11:39am
Fireworks does very nice anti-aliasing. Maybe a bit better than Photoshop.
29 Jun 2004 — 11:57am
many thanks, ya'll! stephen, i was hoping you would chime in actually. : ) did you have a part in the specimens for Stefan Hattenbach's Delicato? Loved that PDF he put together.
Now that you mention it, I would love to use Illustrator for producing type specs for the web. I love working with type in Illustrator. Are you referring to Illustrator CS here? Can you crop stuff when you export?
And David, thanks for the compliment on my 'jy'. It's the result of blood, sweat, frustration, good professors, cramped hands, etc... from college. i'm always surprised people see the 'y' actually.
29 Jun 2004 — 2:05pm
all right, so i just exported a png from illustrator. just a line of type. looks good. easy. crops it nicely too.
i can just sense the refreshing breeze of Illustrator and Photoshop CS (in terms of their typographic skillz). not sure i can wait any longer.
but this helps. i never bothered to check out Illustrator's exporting options. thanks.
29 Jun 2004 — 2:17pm
just tried it in illustrator. nice. i like it. never bothered to look in depth at illustrator's exporting options! not sure i can avoid CS applications any longer.
Jonathan, for some reason i have abandoned Macromedia completely. I'm not sure why. I think maybe it's because I don't like their packaging. a dumb reason, i know. it's sort of the same way with me for sports teams. the nicer their uniform, the more i like the team. like, the pittsburgh steelers, for instance. greatest team on the planet. and they just recently started using futura (at least i'm pretty sure it's futura) for the numbers on their uniforms. that was a good day in pittsburgh, when that happened. no one else seemed to care though.
thanks for the illustrator hints. just what i needed.
29 Jun 2004 — 2:20pm
look at that. two different versions of the same post. take your pick.
29 Jun 2004 — 2:33pm
I find I get blurring when going from illustrator. I found photoshop fine, judge for yourself : http://www.unionfonts.com
JIM
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29 Jun 2004 — 2:52pm
jim, what version of photoshop? i guess my main point is this: is the anti-aliasing that much better in CS / OSX Adobe applications?
29 Jun 2004 — 3:01pm
Just how much better they are is subject to debate, but I can say for sure that Adobe's anti-aliasing schemes have continued to evolve over time, and that the CS apps are not identical to the previous generation.
T
30 Jun 2004 — 5:29am
For the new version of http://www.typofonderie.com/alphabets/
I have built the gifs that way:
-Indesign setting
-created pdf of the pages
-screen capture of the pdf (before adjust the screen display setting in Acrobat)
-resized in Photoshop 7, then export as colored gifs
This method give the best results i know, because of the use of CoolType and such things that creating a simple gif don't offer.
(don't tried Photoshop CS)
30 Jun 2004 — 5:41am
Stephen, now I'm really curious -- where can I find Stefan's Delicato specimen?
-- K.
30 Jun 2004 — 6:33am
Jean- That's the exact way I've been doing it actually. It turns out nice (your site is evidence). But the process takes time. That's my only qualm.
30 Jun 2004 — 8:22am
Jon, I agree very much, but with some PS scripting, it help a bit.
30 Jun 2004 — 9:05am
Jean, do you mean you are automating that process? That would be nice
30 Jun 2004 — 3:35pm
I am on version 7, not CS yet...
29 Jun 2004 — 8:32am
Doing anything with type in Photoshop is like hiking thru tar.
Use Illustrator. The Save For Web command is virtually the same
as Photoshop's and does the job for me: clean, small GIFs.
29 Jun 2004 — 1:24pm
>>Doing anything with type in Photoshop is like hiking thru tar.
Stephen, that is hilarious (and so true)! I might have to use that line.
Jon, seriously go with Illustrator. If you are using CS, you will have a bit more typographical control than previous versions of AI (like a fancy glyph window and OpenType features), however it certainly isn't necessary to export very nice type specs.
Zara
29 Jun 2004 — 8:07pm
Jon - For cropping, use slices and Save For Web.
I didn't have much to do with Stefan's Delicato PDF other than
a few suggestions here and there. I know he was heavily
influenced by Kent's Whitman book.