Trying to generate crisp text (se examples)

[zlitrox]

Hello,

I'm using ImageMagick (ImageMagick 6.6.2-5) and trying to generate sort of crisp text. Se below for example images.

My goal is to have the text look like this (created with Photoshop):
(http://d0h.us/example_photoshop.png)
And having the result (created with ImageMagick):
(http://d0h.us/example_imagemagick.png)
convert -antialias -background transparent -fill '#000000' -font Arial -pointsize 12 label:'name@domain.com'

If i try without antialias it seems to miss some pixels:
(http://d0h.us/example_imagemagick_noaa.png)
convert +antialias -background transparent -fill '#000000' -font Arial -pointsize 12 label:'name@domain.com'

So what i want is the text to look like the one that were created in Photoshop. Can someone please help me?

[fmw42]

try adding -strokewidth 0 and see if that helps (not sure if that works with label:), but you could try using either -annotate or -draw and see if they do what you want.

see http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/text/

[anthony]

-strokewidth will not do anything (except posible minor size effect) without -stroke {color} also being set.

stroke values below 1 do not seem to work very well, but may work in this case.

[zlitrox]

try adding -strokewidth 0 and see if that helps (not sure if that works with label:), but you could try using either -annotate or -draw and see if they do what you want.

see http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/text/

Thanks for the tip, but unfortunately "-strokewidth 0" didnt do any change to the text even with or without "-stroke #000000". Also i've tried -draw but didnt work with that.

I thought that maybe it could be "-style", "-weight" or "-stretch" but when i looked fast at them it didnt do any change. Maybe i'm doing something wrong...


Do you guys have any other tip?

[el_supremo]

This produces an image that looks identical to the photoshop version (using IM 6.6.5-8 2010-11-10 Q16 on Win 7 Pro x64):

Code: Select all

convert +antialias -background transparent -fill '#000000' -font Arial -pointsize 12 -strokewidth 1 label:'name@domain.com' label.png

[EDIT] ERK - no it doesn't. There's a few bits missing. I'll play with it some more.[/EDIT]
Pete

[fmw42]

Is it possible that PS and IM are using two different fonts, even if named the same? Perhaps PS has its own imbedded fonts? Or they are the same named fonts but slightly different versions and are in different directories.

[anthony]

I think the real difference is in the selection of the font.

You can get fonts that are designed to be a 'bitmap' when drawn. That is no anti-aliasing pixels included.

It really depends on what you mean by 'crisp'.

[zlitrox]

I think the real difference is in the selection of the font.

You can get fonts that are designed to be a 'bitmap' when drawn. That is no anti-aliasing pixels included.

It really depends on what you mean by 'crisp'.

Oh ok, so photoshop uses a different font than i use on my imagemagick server?

What i tried to show with crisp is that a generated image should look more like html-text if you know what i mean. The text in html are not like smooth as sIFR text or any text created with antialias. Maybe its just the thickness of the generated text that makes my images look different...

[zlitrox]

This produces an image that looks identical to the photoshop version (using IM 6.6.5-8 2010-11-10 Q16 on Win 7 Pro x64):

Code: Select all

convert +antialias -background transparent -fill '#000000' -font Arial -pointsize 12 -strokewidth 1 label:'name@domain.com' label.png

[EDIT] ERK - no it doesn't. There's a few bits missing. I'll play with it some more.[/EDIT]
Pete

Thank you, let me know if you do any success

[zlitrox]

Is it possible that PS and IM are using two different fonts, even if named the same? Perhaps PS has its own imbedded fonts? Or they are the same named fonts but slightly different versions and are in different directories.

I'm using TrueType-font with full specified path then generating ImageMagick image. But that could be a possible problem, i'll try to copy the font that PS is using to my server that generates ImageMagick image and see if it works.

Thank you for your suggestion.

[zlitrox]

Is it possible that PS and IM are using two different fonts, even if named the same? Perhaps PS has its own imbedded fonts? Or they are the same named fonts but slightly different versions and are in different directories.

I copied the font that Photoshop uses to the server that generates ImageMagick images but the same thing. Looks like the examples i included in my first post.

Any other ideas?

[anthony]

As the TTF font file is the same, the difference will be down to the way the font is 'rendered' or drawn onto a raster image.

ImageMagick calls on a separate library, freetype, to do this. It basically passes the text and the parameters to this library and gets back a raster image, and actually does not have control of how the font is rendered.

Different versions of that library have resulted in different results. Maybe you can upgrade that library.