Jagged edges on shape and text

C
Posted By
CEV
Dec 4, 2007
Views
320
Replies
1
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Closed
I am trying to create a logo. My document size is 3.5 inches wide by 0.75 inches high. The pixels dimensions are 252 wide by 54 high. The resolution is 72 pixels/inch. It looks fine on the screen at 100%, unless I enlarge it to add text making it easier to work on. When I print it though, the edges of the text and the oval shape I made are jagged thus making it blurry. What am I doing wrong? I’m using CS3.

Thanks,

CEV
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P
PeterK.
Dec 4, 2007
72 ppi is ok for viewing on a monitor, but you need a much higher resolution for print. (Monitors are low-resolution and they add tricks like font-smoothing and anti-aliasing to make things look crisp)
Generally speaking, you want 300ppi for hi-res images. Logos, however are a bit different. Usually they are created in vector-drawing software like Illustrator, which will give you the sharpest edges and details that your printer can output, and will allow you to change the size of your logo without degrading it’s quality.
If you only have photoshop to work with, you may want to look into using Shape Layers. With the pen tool you would draw paths as shape layers, which will give you vector-quality edges. If your logo is all done with bitmap pixels though, you’ll just have to make sure that you have a really high-resolution. Even 300ppi may not be enough if your logo has a lot of fine detail in it. 600ppi, 1200ppi, whatever gives you the result you need considering the detail in the logo.
Most printing presses, for example, will output at over 2000ppi, and this is where the advantage of using illustrator would come in, because it is vector information that would be output at whatever resolution the printer is capable of. (and the files are much smaller, and could even be scaled up to the size of a billboard ad without losing quality)

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