[Gimp-user] Re: Text tool problem

2004-10-14 Thread olivier ripoll
Balas Mark wrote:
Hi!
What versions of freetype and
fontconfig are you using?
How could I find this out? (Sorry for being so amateur, but I switched 
to Linux only three months ago.)
Go to the mandrake control center, package category, and launch the 
remove package tool. There you can search for "fontconfig" and 
"freetype", and it should return you the name of the rpm packages 
installed on your system.

DO NOT UNINSTALL THEM. just note the name of the packages
On a Mandrake 10.0, you should have:
fontconfig-2.2.1-7mdk.i586.rpm
libfontconfig1-2.2.1-7mdk.i586.rpm
freetype-1.3.1-21mdk.i586.rpm
freetype-tools-1.3.1-21mdk.i586.rpm
freetype2-tools-2.1.7-1mdk.i586.rpm
libfreetype6-2.1.7-4mdk.i586.rpm
also, there are packages called gimp-freetype (don't ask me what they 
do, I think it is the freetype plugin, so there are not relevant)
gimp-freetype-0.2-3mdk.i586.rpm
gimp2-freetype-0.5-3mdk.i586.rpm


Thanks,
Mark Balas
Just as a data point, I have gimp 2.0.5 installed on my Mandrake 10.0
Could you also give the version of your gtk2 package called 
libgtk+2.0-versionnumber-numbermdk.i586.rpm
On an original mdk 10.0, it is 2.2.4, which I am not sure is enough for 
gimp 2.0.5.

Best regards,
Olivier.
PS: there are some rpm of gimp 2.0.3 here:
http://wwwra.informatik.uni-rostock.de/~waschk/Mandrake/10.0/
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Re: [Gimp-user] Re: Text tool

2004-09-23 Thread Sven Neumann
Hi,

Michael Wagner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> or> Yep, these fonts should be perfect. But indeed, 16 pixels is a little 
> or> troublesome to have nice text: I have tried with Nimbus and Vera, and 
> or> the result is not satisfying...
>
> I tried Tahoma and Verdena and the result gets better...

The quality of the font becomes more important the smaller you render
it. Good fonts have hinting information that improve the rendering at
small sizes. If you get poor results for small font sizes, there are a
couple of possible reasons:

(1) The font sucks. This is very common as there are only few good
fonts and almost all of them are expensive.

(2) There's no hinting information for the particular font size you
are trying to use. Sometimes it helps to make the font slightly
larger or slightly smaller. Some fonts only have hints for
standard sizes like 10pt, 12pt, 17pt.

(3) Your font has hints but your version of the Freetype library
doesn't have the TrueType bytecode interpreter enabled. Due to
patent problems (see http://www.freetype.org/patents.html), many
distributions disable this code in the Freetype library. You won't
be able to use the hints embedded into the font then. Recent
versions of Freetype have a fairly good auto-hinter but for very
small sizes it can hardly compare to hints choosen by the font
designer.


Sven
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[Gimp-user] Re: Text Tool

2004-09-23 Thread Jim Clark

I have used a font called Ergoe for 12 pt text buttons, and it worked great. I cannot tell you from where I installed it, but any time I need small text it is the one I choose as it is clear and legible.

Here is a web site I did many years ago, much has changed but the mouseover on the left is still the same buttons I made in '99 with (I think) 12 pt Ergoe.

http://www.rma.usda.gov/

Thanks-

Jim Clark

And for the fellow with the missing pixels in his (very attractive) sister's image: It may not be the best way, but a simple way to fix that is to leave a duplicate of the original beneath it and just erase around the edge in a manner to make sure nothing shows through. All the erased pixels will have their original source behind them.

Re: [Gimp-user] Re: Text tool

2004-09-23 Thread Michael Wagner
Hallo,


[snip]

or> Yep, these fonts should be perfect. But indeed, 16 pixels is a little 
or> troublesome to have nice text: I have tried with Nimbus and Vera, and 
or> the result is not satisfying...
I tried Tahoma and Verdena and the result gets better...

 >> or> 2- antialiasing: in the text tool options (double click
 >> or> on the text tool if you do not already have this dialog
 >> or> in your windows), check that the  "antialiasing" option
 >> or> is selected. Play also with the "hinting" option.
 >>
 >> I already have done this: Depending on the used font the result
 >>  gets a little better but is still far away from beeing good.

or> Could you put a screenshot somewhere. I guess that since you are talking 
or> about a web site, you have one somewhere ;) So we can see what you call 
or> "better".
or> [snap]
[snip]

I will do this, but I am writing this from my working place so I can do this
tomorrow at the earliest. As soon as I have done this, I will post again.

Thanks so far

Ciao
Michael

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[Gimp-user] Re: Text tool

2004-09-23 Thread olivier ripoll
--- Michael Wagner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> a écrit :
> Hallo again,
I send this mail back to the list (maybe my reply-to is not correct... 
you replied directly to me, not to the list).

> or> Michael Wagner wrote:
> >> The button should have a total height of 16 pixels and so
> >> I start with an empty
> >> image of that height. Every time I use the text tool
> >> the resulting text looks really ugly.
> >> I already have a running web page where the navigation bar is
> >> created of text links
> >> (only using the  tag) and the fonts rendered there are
> >> looking much better (using the same height of course)
> >> How can I create good readable font buttons?
> or> Hello Michael,
> or> Do you mean that the font looks "jaggy", "pixelised", blocky,
> or> not smooth? Or do you find the text too blurred?
>
> The text is mainly pixelized or blocky
>
> or> Do you mean the result is ugly in gimp, or nice in gimp
> or> and ugly in the browser?
>
> In both. The view in gimp seems to be exactly like in browsers (IE
> and Netscape). I have used jpg as file format to avaid the png
> problems
>
> or> There may be several reasons in this:
> or> 1- the font: choose a vectorial font, not a fixed/bitmap one
>
> I am already trying with several True Type fonts (which are
> vectorised as I understand).
Yep, these fonts should be perfect. But indeed, 16 pixels is a little 
troublesome to have nice text: I have tried with Nimbus and Vera, and 
the result is not satisfying...

>
> or> 2- antialiasing: in the text tool options (double click
> or> on the text tool if you do not already have this dialog
> or> in your windows), check that the  "antialiasing" option
> or> is selected. Play also with the "hinting" option.
>
> I already have done this: Depending on the used font the result
>  gets a little better but is still far away from beeing good.
Could you put a screenshot somewhere. I guess that since you are talking 
about a web site, you have one somewhere ;) So we can see what you call 
"better".
[snap]
> What still bothers me is: Why do I have a different result when I use
> the same font and settings as in the web page as text?
>
> Thanks
> Michael
>

A not very elegant way is to work on bigger text images (32 or 64 
pixels) and rescale them to what you want (scaling with the cubic 
interpolation).

Best regards,
Olivier.
PS: when replying, check that the list is at least cc:ed
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[Gimp-user] Re: Text tool

2004-09-23 Thread olivier ripoll
Michael Wagner wrote:
The button should have a total height of 16 pixels and so I start with an empty
image of that height. Every time I use the text tool the resulting text looks
really ugly.
I already have a running web page where the navigation bar is created of text
links (only using the  tag) and the fonts rendered there are looking much
better (using the same height of course)
How can I create good readable font buttons?
Hello Michael,
Do you mean that the font looks "jaggy", "pixelised", blocky, not 
smooth? Or do you find the text too blurred?
Do you mean the result is ugly in gimp, or nice in gimp and ugly in the 
browser?

There may be several reasons in this:
1- the font: choose a vectorial font, not a fixed/bitmap one
2- antialiasing: in the text tool options (double click on the text tool 
if you do not already have this dialog in your windows), check that the 
 "antialiasing" option is selected. Play also with the "hinting" option.

3- the image format (in case the image is nice in gimp and looks like 
crap in the browser): if you create small images transparent with only 
text, and then put them on a pre-existing background, you will have 
problems. GIF does not support true transparency, and you will need to 
use PNG to keep the text smooth. However, you will have to change your 
HTML for IE Win32 does not display crappy text. See:
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/pngopacity/
http://dean.edwards.name/IE7/
Another solution is to use the semi-flatten plugin 
(filters->colors->semi-flatten) after having set as background colour a 
colour which is a good average of your background image.

I hope one of these point can help you.
Best regards,
Olivier.
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