Really small text in Photoshop/FSX?

[Beavis]

Hello-

I visit this site often, but I do not post very much. Thanks to all of the contributors on this site who have been such a great help to me and to the community!

I have access to Photoshop CS2 as well as Photoshop CC. I have done a lot of searching on the internet and I have never found a good answer to my question, which is this:

I am doing repaints for Microsoft Flight Simulator x (FSX). Whenever I try to apply really small text to my paints, such as stencils, they always turn out really blurry when viewed in the sim. I have turned off mipmaps, tried various amounts of antialiasing, created very small text, created large text which I shrank down, and I have also tried to vectorize the type - nothing seems to work.

I am wondering if anyone would be willing to point me to resources that would help me with this problem, or could offer some suggestions. I apologize if this is easily available somewhere and I have somehow missed it.

Also, if the dds file type or amount of bits is critically important to the appearance of the text, I would appreciate some suggestions on the optimal format.

Thank you in advance for all of your help!

VR,

Beavis

[inkworm]

What setting do you have for the font as there are a few rasterization options such as crisp, sharp etc that you can apply to the font which when they are small will make a noticeable difference and could help.

[Beavis]

Inkworm-

Thank you so much for your reply! I remember playing with this setting before, but I don't remember it improving the appearance of the text in the sim.

I will definitely run through these options again. Maybe the fonts I used did not take advantage of this setting.

Thanks again!

Beavis

[adlabs6]

Hi,

When you output your final repaint file, open it (not the working layered template) and count and see how many pixels tall the font letters are. Sometimes if they are displayed as vector in your image editing software, they will be sharper in the image editing software display than the actual working resolution of the texture file can actually support.

The only way around that is to increase the resolution of the texture file, but that is not always possible.

I can remember a few cases years ago where my fonts were reduced to just 3 or 4 pixels high when I exported the final 1024x1024 texture file.

[Beavis]

adlabs6-

Thank you! Nailing the right font size in photoshop, getting antialising correct, choosing the right compression and getting the font to look right in the sim have been elusive for me.

I appreciate your reply and your suggestions. Will definitely give this a shot!

VR,

Beavis

[Beavis]

I have been playing around with creating clear, small text in photoshop. Here is something I have learned that I want to share with the forum.

Here is the process: Create your text, convert your text layer to a shape, save the shape as a custom shape, then apply the custom shape to your work. Here goes...

1) Create your text in a text layer



2) Right Click your text layer and choose "convert to shape"



3) Your text shape is highlighted



4) Click EDIT > Define Custom Shape



5) Name your custom shape and click OK. Your text is now saved as a custom shape. You can use it any time and make it any size you want.



6) Now, when you want to place the text into your work, create a new layer and select the custom shape tool



7) And select the text that you converted into a custom shape



8) Now, place your cursor into your work. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the shape to your desired size.



9) Release the mouse and your custom shape will be selected



10) Deselect the shape and your text shape will appear in your work, small and clear!



I hope this information was helpful!

Beavis

[Mangas]

Beavis, where have you been 5 years ago when I was obsessed with making 1024x1024 skins? Jokes aside, thank you so very much for this small tut, mate!

[Beavis]

Thanks, Mangas!

There is probably a lot more that can be done with shapes and work paths. This is a good start, though.

-Beavis