Text is distorted

DP
Posted By
Deborah_Palmer
Jun 10, 2004
Views
1602
Replies
13
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Closed
Can anyone help me? I’m sure it’s something very simple.

I used Photoshop CS on windows XP.

I use Photoshop for, amongst other things, designing adverts. whenever I produce an advertisement, and it goes to print, the images, colour, effects, logos etc are all fine and reproduce more or less exactly as I expected. However, the problem lies with the text. It is often, but not always, distorted. By this I mean grainy as though it were newspaper print. The letters are not solid and clean.

As I said before it only happens sometimes, but I can’t work out why this is. It makes no difference if it is white text on black or reverse or colour text on colour.

Thanks in advance.

Deb.

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

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DM
Don_McCahill
Jun 10, 2004
What resolution are you working in? It sounds as though you might be at a low number like 72. Try a resolution of 300 for sharp type.
DP
Deborah_Palmer
Jun 10, 2004
I have checked the finished flattened psd. file I sent off to the magazine it is at 300dpi. Only the text is distorted, the image and logo are ok.
L
LenHewitt
Jun 10, 2004
Deborah,

I have checked the finished flattened psd<<

When you flatten the PSD the text will be rasterized at the image rez, and 300 ppi isn’t really sufficient for quality ‘text’ in print. Ideally you would require the same rez as the output device which will probably be in the region of 2500dpi or greater for best quality text.

If you sent the file as an unflattened PSD, EPS or PDF then the text would remain as text and appear much crisper on output.
SM
Sandie_Mullins
Jun 10, 2004
Okay, here’s a question for you… I run into a similar problem with text as well. I usually add a chrome effect to my text. When I flatten the image, I lose a lot of the effect that I see on screen (res. 300). So, I decided to print without flatenning the image and the same still happens. What I lose is the high shine chrome effect and it just looks flat as opposed to more realistic. Is there any reason for this? You mentioned about boosting text to 2500dpi, but I tried that once (actually the whole image) and it just about crashed my computer (I’m in the process of upgrading – I’m sure it was a hardware problem). When it did finally finish resizing the image, the text looked as though it was falling apart and the chrome looked like crap. Any suggestions?
San…
DP
Deborah_Palmer
Jun 11, 2004
Yes, sending the un-flattened file would make a difference as you suggested but often It’s not practical, logistically, because the file is too large to email, at short notice, which is often what’s required. Some firms wont accept files larger than say 5-10mb emailed.

And why does this text problem only happen sometimes, even though the files are set up the same way and flattened.

You say I need to save my text at 2500dpi. I don’t understand. Please excuse my ignorance here but I’m relatively new to this.

When I set up a new image I do all the usual things, i.e. set the height, width, background colour, colour mode etc. and the res. normally 300dpi. I then drop in my images, logos etc also 300dpi. I have always assumed, please correct me if I’m wrong, that my text would automatically be 300dpi also. How then do I change just my text to 2500dpi without changing the whole image to that size and then create the problem of not being able to email the file with file size restrictions etc.
L
LenHewitt
Jun 11, 2004
Sandie,

With effects applied you are no longer talking about text, but a ‘picture of text’, so higher resolutions aren’t going to make any difference whatsoever – the image will be screened and by creating huge over-sampling ratios you are more likely to harm the image quality than improve it, to say nothing of creating images that take forever to rip.

It sound as though the problem you are seeing is largely one of the difference between the CMYK and RGB gamuts, and there is little that you can do about that.
L
LenHewitt
Jun 11, 2004
Deborah,

300pi is ‘correct’ – if a little higher than strictly necessary – for the halftone screen that will be used in printing. However, 100% areas – such as text – will be solids, and not screened. Therefore they need to be (ideally) at the resolution of the output device.

Now you can’t do that from Photoshop with a flattened file. Either it is all at 300 ppi or it is all at 2500 ppi etc.

With an unflattened file , where text remains as text, the text will be rasterized by the RIP at the output device resolution.

Some firms wont accept files larger than say 5-10mb emailed.<<

That is why I suggested PDF to you as an alternative format. Text will remain as text and the file size will be much smaller.

You could also zip an EPS file for e-mailing
DP
Deborah_Palmer
Jun 14, 2004
Len

Thank you. I understand now.

I feel someone needs to sit me down in a quiet room and explain things to me v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. Then again i’m probably better off just doing what i’m doing, having a go, and hope it all falls into place brick by brick.

Cheers!!
DP
Deborah_Palmer
Jun 14, 2004
Me again!

Ok, I understood all the earlier bits and it made perfect sense. However, I saved a 41mb psd. as a pdf with all its layers and zipped it. It zipped it to 38.7mb, still too large to email. I then saved the same file as a Photoshop eps, it saved it to 68mb.
I tried again with several other files and got similar results

What am I doing wrong?

Is saving the pdf to zip and not jpeg in Photoshop not enough, do I need to zip it again, in say winzip for example, for further compression?
L
LenHewitt
Jun 14, 2004
Deborah,

Using JPG compression in the PDF will considerably reduce file size. It is unlikely that zipping a PDF will have any noticeable effect upon file size.

The amount of compression you obtain by zipping will depend a lot on the image in question. Flat areas of colour will compress very efficiently, for example.
DP
Deborah_Palmer
Jun 15, 2004
I have now reached ‘that stage’ I’m sure everyone who has attempted something new(ish) knows what I mean!

This is what I have done:

Saved my 41mb file to pdf with layers and jpeg compression both max and min, both files reduced to 28mb some 30% compression. Still too large to email but I now realise I’m getting into the ‘moving mountains’ territory if I want it any smaller.

I cannot open pdf’s in my page layout program(Serif Pageplus 9.0), but opened in Acrobat Reader 6.0 the text looks ok. I’m hoping this means they will be ok in print!

The images, when opened in Photoshop, were still at 300dpi, and the text looked distorted, but I understand re-opening them in Photoshop raterizes the text, hence the distortion.

So, my conclusion is this. TEXT IN PHOTOSHOP CAUSES PROBLEMS. So, if it is a large full page colour ad. I will have problems emailing the file as I cannot flatten it. Therefore, when the psd file is small enough to email, I will. Otherwise, I will save as a pdf with layers etc and then email that. If that is still too large I will drop it to disc and post it. All before or on deadline, of course.

I will then pop along to the wig shop to replace what little hair I will have left by then.

Can you recommend any good wig makers?

Thanks for your help and your patience

Deb.

p.s I know, I know, before you even say it, I know I should produce ads with lots of text in my page layout program. The older version would not output to pdf and the eps output and tiff had problems etc. However, PagePlus 9.0 outputs to pdf and is a lot more stable.
B
BobLevine
Jun 15, 2004
TEXT IN PHOTOSHOP CAUSES PROBLEMS.

Shout as loud as you want, but you’re wrong.

If you want to save a Photoshop file as PDF for press, you need to realize that it just may be too big to e-mail. This holds true for a PDF out of any application.

The best way to save a PDF from Photoshop for press is to save without layers and with text and vector data maintained. Fonts should be embedded.

I do this a lot. It works…all the time.

Bob
DP
Deborah_Palmer
Jun 15, 2004
Bob,

Directly after posting my last mail I read yours and realised I didn’t need to save with the layers, which made a huge difference to the file size. I did reach the conclusion I was asking too much to expect the file to reduce by upto 90%.

I’m learning as I go along and I’m sure I will soon come to realise all the ‘photoshop’ problems I’m having are actually ‘me’ problems.

Thanks

Deb.

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