Need help with fonts in Photoshop & making them look good

[SheriffG.Guirguis]

Hi,

I have Photoshop 6

I got a new design for my site which you can see at http://bullseye-website-optimization.com/test.html

If you look at the text on the banner--especially the blue text on the right--you'll find that I need to work a little more on them.

I see a lot of corporate sites that have their image texts looking smooth and nice. How do they do it? What is it that I am not doing? I basically tried all the type options listed.

Sheriff

PS: I have a mental block for my logo on the left side of my banner--Any ideas?

[SheriffG.Guirguis]

Sorry, I must've press the wrong button.

[goma]

You can try fiddling with the anti-alias of the fonts and see if that improves.

Here's one technique I use but I'n not sure if it'll work in this case:

a) After putting in the text, rasterize that layer and select it with the magic wand. This will select just the text.

b) go to select/ modify / expand and expand the selection by 1 pixel.

c) make a new layer and apply black to this selection.

d) arrange the order of the layers so this new black outline layer is right below your text. If you're doing this right so far, you'll get a black outline over your text.

e) adjust the opacity of the black outline layer so you get just a little darker outline on the text. What is this does is apply a darker outline to text, making it stand out more against certain backgrounds.


hth

[moonman]

I've always found ImageReady to be better than Photoshop for doing text. The anti-alaising aslways seems to be cleaner. That might be just me though.

[SheriffG.Guirguis]

Thanks,

I'll be experimenting with these new Ideas.

Sheriff.

[tdev]

lose the globe and just stick with the bull image

[Forlorn]

One word. ILLUSTRATOR!

Illustrator I dunno why it is but it can do amazing things esp with text. I looked your logo and it is really hard to see the bull. Its a good design but its really hard to see it.

[fdeaton]

Yeah, I do all important type in Illustrator although Photoshop is getting much better in dealing with type. I'm not really sure if Imageready is better at saving for the web now or not. In 5.5 it was, but I would imagine the algorithems are the same now. Hmmmm, gonna have to test that one!

[webmarkart]

here are a bunch of tutorials for text fx...

http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/phot...t-effects.html

[pata]

Definitely lose the Globe, keep the Bull. Also, IMHO, the type color for weboptimization.com just looks funky (I think it's the gradient thing I don't like). I would make it a solid color, maybe the color of the bull, and, if anything, experiment with maybe a slight, barely noticeable, emboss effect on the text.

As for Photoshop text, I have to say that older versions of Photoshop did a much better jog than the latest ones. Sure we now have all those anti-aliasing effects you can change but I'm never happy with those settings, ever.

I invariably use "none" for small type for the anti-aliasing options for text, or "crisp". I think those 2 give the best results.

Illustrator does do a better job, but not everyone has it. I haven't tested the latest version of Imageready (frankly I stopped using it for web work when I found it didn't have a lot of tools that Photoshop did and I needed, but the latest version has gotten better).

[SheriffG.Guirguis]

Thank you all,

I'll work on the globe and get rid of the effects on it. If I can't make it look good, then I'll get rid of it.

Thanks for all the information on the fonts.

Sherif

[PalmerB]

I can't help you with the text but how about this for a logo idea?

Can be an arrow hitting the target (optimization metaphor) and a bulls eye with a horn.

http://www.morningstarwebdesigns.com/logos/be.gif



Feel free to use it, copy the idea, or say thanks but no thanks

Palmer

[Spiff Dog]

About the logo, what I would do is:

I. Flatten the logo. Toss out the beveling. It's the only beveled element on your page and it looks out of place.

Logos shouldn't be beveled for a number of reasons (beveling doesn't translate well to letterhead, faxing and business cards for starters). Look at some corporate websites and you will note that you will *almost* never see a corporate logo that is beveled. One reason is that it's nearly impossible to pull off a nice looking beveled web logo that remains consistant with their flat letterhead logo.

II. Drop the globe back some by making it a darker color (perhaps the faded blue and olive color scheme you have for your font colors for the sea/land. Play with that a bit...) and make the bull a light-colored or white cut out. This will make the bull pop off the page.

Or as other people have suggested, you can drop the globe. Right now, your bull looks kinda lost.

III. Another general thing to try would be, play with stroking the blue picture of the girl in the text body. While the feathering is nice, a sharp, clean, 1px black border would look more professional inside a body text.

Hope these suggestions help!

Originally posted by Forlorn
One word. ILLUSTRATOR!

Illustrator I dunno why it is but it can do amazing things esp with text. I looked your logo and it is really hard to see the bull. Its a good design but its really hard to see it.

I must agree that Adobe Illustrator is, by far, the best tool ever design by man or machine (and some fungii) for creating web site layouts. This is simply because it is all vector-based art. No pixel artifacts from tranforms, you can drag elements and element points around to alter a layout with out penalty, the stroking control is just wonderful, nothing about the layout is "set in stone" like you get with rasterized art (i.e. Photoshop, PSP, etc..). It is completely high resolution art. Fonts and elements are crystal sharp at any zoom level.

What I usually do is create my site in Illustrator, get it just how I want it and then, if I have to, export it into Photoshop for the very few element effects that may be wanted.

<rant>
(Edit: The following is directed at no one in particular and should probably be in a seperate post, I'm sure.. but I'm lazy. It's just a general personal observation from my years on the 'net. No warranties implied or any of that jazz.. )

Speaking of very few element effects, can someone tell me what the deal is with the plethora of "award-winning" sites I see now days that over use Photoshop effects to the point that they are eyesores? Does anyone remember the adage, "Less is more"? Not every element needs a dropshadow.. and a bevel... and a lighting effect. Oh, and while we are on the topic, remember this rule of thumb, "The 'lensflare' effect is from the Devil". heheh
</rant>

Ok.. I'm done. Have a good weekend all!
Spiff