Expert: LizaL - 6/21/2005

Question
Hi-

I have a text logo in TIFF form and I need to take the white background out of it.  Using the magic eraser tool makes it look nice and smooth, but when I save it, the background is always there when I try to pull it into Quark.  I've tried to use a clipping path, but they have come out ugly, despite what tolerance i set.  Some of the text is very fine.  Is there anyway to keep the true text form, the form the magic eraser tool leaves?  I have read something about "anti-alias" but nto sure what that means or where to find it.  Thanks!

liz

(i need to put the text logo into a Quark document and i'm using Photoshop CS 8.0)

Answer
Hi Liz,

Couple of things first: When saving as a TIFF, make sure you don't save layers.

Also -- Have you tried saving your file as an EPS? What happens then, when you place it into Quark?

"Anti-aliasing" is the act of smoothing the edges of your type, and it may not help you here. If you type something in Photoshop and then zoom in on it, you'll see the jagged edges of the letters. Anti-aliasing, in a nutshell, is simply a way of smoothing those edges.

To anti-alias in Photoshop, just select your text with the text tool, then look at the top of the screen at the options bar for text. You'll see two little a's, and that's where you have your anti-aliasing options.

Take a look at this:
http://little-works.com/all_experts/antialias.mov

As you can see, I just typed an 'e' and went through the anti-aliasing motions. Anti-aliasing is a good thing to do especially when working with text that will appear on the Web.

That said -- I should point out that Photoshop is NOT the best place for creating or editing text. Even logos. Anything that requires crisp, clean type, especially for a logo, should be done in a vector-based program, not a bitmap program like Photoshop. If you create the logo in a program like Illustrator, you can export your file without the background, and thus avoid this situation you're running into.

But if you have to do this in Photoshop, make sure you have no background layer showing (and I'm sure you've done this!), and try saving as an EPS.

Another thing to try: Select your text layer in your layers palette and try rasterizing the text. Then try saving it as a TIFF, and if that still retains a white background, try EPS.

What would really help is if you could send me a copy of your file -- I'll be glad to take a look at it and see what the optimum method of saving would be in Photoshop. You can email it to lizal@little-works.com, and please be sure to put something in the subject line about All Experts.

I used Quark from the time of its release up until about five years ago, and now I'm an InDesign convert! But I'll be happy to help you work through this.

Thanks,

Lisa