Expert: Glen Demers - 1/5/2010

Question
Hi Glen - I am working on a project where I am both removing backgrounds from images and creating text on transparent backgrounds. When I try to save my images as .gif, they look terrible. Jagged edges and almost like a halo of white around the image so I'm wondering if it's my setting for gif that are the problem.

For example, I created a transparent background and put the word "portfolio" in text (color #333333). When I click on "Save for Web & Devices" and select gif, I can immediately see the text get "scratchy" or jagged looking.

Here are the current settings:
Adaptive
Diffusion
Transparency (checked)
No transparency
Lassy - 0
Colors - 256
Dither  - 0
Web Snap - 0

I have been playing with a few of these options the past few days but have not found a solution for smooth looking text. When I save this file as .jpg, it looks awesome. The text I'm using is Eccentric Std but I've experimented with other fonts as well with no better results.

Any guidance or advise is much appreciated. I am pulling my hair out with this one! It's probably something small, just can't figure it out. I'll send you the image as well!

Please let me know if you need more information on my process. Thanks so much!
Anna

Answer
Hi Anna,

Is there a reason not to use jpg? GIF compression is more suited to Illustrator type graphics with large areas of flat color. The only things I can think of to try are increasing the dither, even up to 90% to see if that helps. Try flattening the image before saving for web to rasterize the type. You may want to try increasing the resolution of your file when you start, you can always downsize later to reduce file size.

Sorry I'm not much help, but I'm not that familiar with GIF,

Glen Demers
Adobe Certified Expert, Photoshop 7
Prepress Technician, Best Printing Online
www.bestprintingonline.com

For more Photoshop tips please visit our help pages here: http://www.bestprintingonline.com/photoshop.htm