Expert: Scott Valentine - 12/18/2009

Question
Dear Scott,

Please can you shed some light to my problem. I am creating a document in Photoshop CS4 with text but the text is all fuzzy and pixelated. I am using a resolution of 300dpi and have just finished an A3 poster which had 129 words and that was all fine, but this next document seems to be a problem. I am only using the letters at 40 pt, even smaller points like 12 has the same issue. Can you help?

Answer
Hi Jayson,

The first thing I need to point out is that Photoshop rasterizes all text when it outputs to print (even PDF in most cases). This is different than applications like Illustrator or InDesign, which preserve the font outlines as vector information.

If your first document looked OK to you, check the anti-alias settings on the options bar when you have the Text Tool selected. Use Crisp if you are positioning the font with respect to some background element or rotating it, but try Sharp if you can tolerate the text snapping to the actual pixel values. Note that 'Sharp' sometimes causes odd shifts in the font width, and 'Crisp' has a tendency to alter the baseline a little when you rotate or transform the text.

You can also try switching anti-aliasing off. It really depends on your font, the size, and other elements around it which affect legibility.

Ready for my real recommendation? If you plan to do any kind of typesetting or design that requires text blocks (that is, anything more than just titles or design elements), use Illustrator or InDesign. I prefer InDesign, as it is a real layout application, intended for producing literature and complex page styles. Illustrator can do text, but it's meant for single-sheet works, and does not have all the text flexibility that InDesign has. But both are leaps and bounds beyond Photoshop's text capability.

I hope this helps - if you have further questions, or would like some clarification, just ask!

Kind regards,

-Scott