Trouble making edges of text look smooth

I am trying to make the text on a Type Layer appear smooth in the *.GIF file I am creating from it. The type is 16pt with an anti-aliasing method of Smooth. I tried many different setting combinations for the optimization settings, although I think I used the most appropriate ones the first time. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong, does anybody have any ideas? If it will help anyone to have the file I am trying, just send me your email and I will send you the file in an email. Thank you all in advance. --
Nathan Sokalski

http://www.nathansokalski.com/

Nathan Sokalski wrote:

I am trying to make the text on a Type Layer appear smooth in the *.GIF file I am creating from it. The type is 16pt with an anti-aliasing method of Smooth. I tried many different setting combinations for the optimization settings, although I think I used the most appropriate ones the first time.

The problem is that you cannot have smooth edges in a .GIF image with a transparent background. GIFs only allow pixels to be either fully transparent or not transparent at all. The solution is to set the "Matte" colour to the colour of the background that you will be putting your GIF onto.

Cheers,
Nicholas Sherlock

Nathan Sokalski wrote:

I am trying to make the text on a Type Layer appear smooth in the *.GIF file I am creating from it.

Create the image in RGB mode (save intermediate versions as TIFF).

When you're done, convert the image from RGB to Indexed mode. If you want less than 256 colors, you'll have to experiment how far down you can go without things starting to look overly ragged.

Finally, save as GIF.

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