[Ready2Rock]

Not sure what I'm missing but hopefully someone can help.

I am using CS6 and I notice jagged edges on some letters like the M and R, C, E to name a few. The font I was working with was Raiders and Impact.

We are using an arc effect on it but it still shows those jagged edges even before applying an effect or creating outlines. You can really see it on outline mode. I am looking at this at a magnified view but I can see it on film once printed also which translates to rough edges on film.

I have looked at other fonts also just to see if it was quality of font and the ones I have checked all have it some. Check out Arial Bold for example in outline mode and I can see those edges on the M a lot and the edges of the S, around the C.

I have searched and found some people saying Corel gives better edges than Illustrator?

Any help?
Thanks

 

[Ripcord]

I have searched and found some people saying Corel gives better edges than Illustrator?

This is not true. A font is vector artwork and can be enlarged to any size in any vector program (AI, Corel Draw, etc.) with no difference in the smoothness of the edges. If you are noticing a pixelated or "sawtooth" edge, your font has either been converted to a raster (bitmap) image, or you are viewing and printing it through a raster program, such as Adobe Photoshop.

 

[Ready2Rock]

This is not true. A font is vector artwork and can be enlarged to any size in any vector program (AI, Corel Draw, etc.) with no difference in the smoothness of the edges. If you are noticing a pixelated or "sawtooth" edge, your font has either been converted to a raster (bitmap) image, or you are viewing and printing it through a raster program, such as Adobe Photoshop.

Hi Neil and thanks for the confirmation as I too questioned that. I'm printing it through Illustrator and create the text from type and have that saw-toothing on the letters mentioned above. I must have missed something although I've went through prefrences, document setup and checked other fonts. I think maybe I'm over looking something in Illustrators print dialog.

With the naked eye it looks OK but when looking with a loupe you can see it along with seeing it with the naked eye a little bit once printed.

I will see if I can get some good pics and post them. Thanks again for any and all input.

 

[danslave]

If you are working for print be sure you are not anti-aliasing the text. That will make your edges fuzzy.

 

[Ripcord]

Many of the early laser printers (I'm talking about the ones in the 1980's) had an output resolution of 300 dpi, which would give a noticeable jagged edge to fonts and graphics. Laser printers today have a resolution of 600-1200 which produces a smooth edge (to the naked eye...) Now, your printer may have a "fast draft" setting which would output a low res image...but it doesn't sound as though you are using that setting...

 

[Ready2Rock]

If you are working for print be sure you are not anti-aliasing the text. That will make your edges fuzzy.

Thanks and I'm not using that at all

Many of the early laser printers (I'm talking about the ones in the 1980's) had an output resolution of 300 dpi, which would give a noticeable jagged edge to fonts and graphics. Laser printers today have a resolution of 600-1200 which produces a smooth edge (to the naked eye...) Now, your printer may have a "fast draft" setting which would output a low res image...but it doesn't sound as though you are using that setting...

It's not a printer problem, this is an art problem. I have the Epson 1430 and it prints great but the source is the problem. Has anyone tried what I suggested above and seen what I'm talking about? Am I being to picky. I have seen others in this forum have the same issues so I know I'm not alone. We want the best possible shirts we can print and it just seems these lines shouldn't show the saw toothing like it does.

 

[selanac]

This is interesting. Someone sent me a file and it has Jagged Edges. I couldn't get rid of it.

 

[selanac]

Did you check out this YouTube video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEN0zP1pqPU

 

[ribber]

This is interesting. Someone sent me a file and it has Jagged Edges. I couldn't get rid of it.

I had a similar problem with a free font I downloaded. So I exported it to Photoshop, rasterized it there and brought it back into Ai and did an image trace using corners and paths to remove the rough edges.

 

[danslave]

You might want to check and see if you have your fonts installed corrctly. If you have a postscript font that requires two different files be installed (an outline and a bitmap) you might only have one. Hunt down a truetype or opentype version of the same font, install it and then rerender the text.

i

Thanks and I'm not using that at all



It's not a printer problem, this is an art problem. I have the Epson 1430 and it prints great but the source is the problem. Has anyone tried what I suggested above and seen what I'm talking about? Am I being to picky. I have seen others in this forum have the same issues so I know I'm not alone. We want the best possible shirts we can print and it just seems these lines shouldn't show the saw toothing like it does.

 

[Ready2Rock]

Did you check out this YouTube video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEN0zP1pqPU

This will come in handy when we use Photoshop.

You might want to check and see if you have your fonts installed corrctly. If you have a postscript font that requires two different files be installed (an outline and a bitmap) you might only have one. Hunt down a truetype or opentype version of the same font, install it and then rerender the text.

i

This is interesting. I have to read up on this but I did find this site that explains the different font types at a basic level.

Everything You Need to Know about Fonts and Printing

 

[Beaker]

As mentioned, check the font and try another for comparison. Create outlines from the text in Illustrator.

 

[KillaKeem]

Hi Neil and thanks for the confirmation as I too questioned that. I'm printing it through Illustrator and create the text from type and have that saw-toothing on the letters mentioned above. I must have missed something although I've went through prefrences, document setup and checked other fonts. I think maybe I'm over looking something in Illustrators print dialog.

With the naked eye it looks OK but when looking with a loupe you can see it along with seeing it with the naked eye a little bit once printed.

I will see if I can get some good pics and post them. Thanks again for any and all input.

I had this problem the other day. I found if i selected the text i'm working with, then click Create Outlines (cmd+shft+o), the problem is solved.

 

[MaximRecoil]

If you are working for print be sure you are not anti-aliasing the text. That will make your edges fuzzy.

Text (and vector objects in general) that isn't anti-aliased has very jagged edges when viewed on a monitor (on all edges that aren't perfectly vertical or horizontal). For example, this is a 72-point Times New Roman capital letter 'S', exported to a 1200 ppi raster file without anti-aliasing:

Text without anti-aliasing is what you see when you type in e.g., Notepad, or what you would get if you drew the letters in older versions of MS Paint. It is also what you see in CorelDRAW if you select View > Normal instead of the default View > Enhanced. In Abobe Illustrator you see text / vector objects without anti-aliasing if you go to Edit > Preferences > General and uncheck Anti-aliased Artwork (it is checked by default, for good reason, i.e., everything but perfectly horizontal and vertical lines are ugly onscreen without anti-aliasing). The OP should check to be sure Anti-aliased Artwork is checked in Illustrator.

The concept of anti-aliasing only applies to raster images. Vector files (which includes most fonts, i.e., all fonts except for archaic bitmap fonts) aren't really images at all, i.e., they are descriptions of images, and they don't include anti-aliasing, because anti-aliasing has no relevance to descriptions of e.g. perfect curves.

Vector files are only usable after they have been rasterized (unless you have an XY monitor, AKA: "vector monitor", like oscilloscopes and certain arcade machines such as Atari Asteroids used). So when we work with vector files in e.g. Illustrator or CorelDRAW, what we see onscreen is real-time rasterization of the vector information, and that rasterization can be displayed with or without anti-aliasing. The same deal applies to digital printing, i.e., vector files have to be rasterized before they can be printed; this is done automatically by a RIP if you print directly from a vector file. There is usually an option in your printer's preferences for whether or not you want anti-aliasing. Epson for example, calls it "edge smoothing". I leave "edge smoothing" checked for my film positives (Epson Stylus Photo 1400) and to the naked eye, the edges are perfectly sharp and smooth.

With that said, anti-aliasing is most useful for display on a monitor, because the low default 72 ppi makes non anti-aliased text and vector objects ugly/jagged. When printing from a vector file at 600 dpi or higher, you'd probably never see the difference between anti-aliased and non anti-aliased on the printout with the naked eye.

 

[skarekrow]

I have found that a lot of fonts once enlarged do look rubbish.

Most font were designed years ago and were never designed to be blown up to the size I use on vehicles for instance.

I reckon that a lot of these fonts were just scanned and then automatically vectorized instead of being hand drawn.

When they are used as they were designed ie on the printed page they are fine. When you blow them up for use on garments or vehicles/signs they can look shocking.

I usually just redraw words that need to be large

skarekrow

 

[miktoxic]

just might have bogus fonts.

i would guess that this hasn't happened with all the fonts, so why question the program or process when it's obviously a prob with the font itself.