RGB transparent PSD with rasterized smoothed font won’t save as gif for web

JM
Posted By
Jean_Matua_Bustamant
Jan 24, 2007
Views
482
Replies
9
Status
Closed
Hello. I have a psd with nothing but two lines of smoothed type now rasterized, transparent background. Trying to save this as a gif with transparency for web, I get a gif with two colours (although colour number set to 256), namely black and transparent. The smoothing is gone and the font is illegible. This never happend before, I can’t find out why it happens, I have no idea what to do.
Working PS 9.0.2 on OS X 10.4.8
thanks a lot
jmb
Related Tags
font raster rgb save transparency

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EH
Ed_Hannigan
Jan 24, 2007
Not sure what the color problem is, but the sad fact about gif is that it does not support antialiased edges, thus the smoothing will be gone.

You could try png instead. What is the final use of the file?
B
Buko
Jan 24, 2007
gif needs to be index color
JM
Jean_Matua_Bustamant
Jan 24, 2007
Hello Ed, thanks for your reply.
The final use is type on grey. I could do a grey bachground in the gif instead, but most of the grey around is produced by the browser by hex value, and I fear the interpretations of those hexes may differ from what shows in a gif.
Plus, I think this did work once. The website I’m about to update is somewhat older, but it definitely uses gifs with antialias over transparency. Please cf. <http://www.holter-internisten.de/webapp/start.php> or directly <http://www.holter-internisten.de/pics/10Punkt/Titel.gif>. Or do I get something wrong here?
JM
Jean_Matua_Bustamant
Jan 24, 2007
Hello Buko, thanks to you, too
when I convert the psd (just one rasterized layer, formerly antialiased type, transparent background) to indexed colour, no matter what I set in the conversion panel, I always get that exact same result: the anti alias disappears, what remains is ragged black type and transparent surroundings.
EH
Ed_Hannigan
Jan 24, 2007
That’s not antialiased. It LOOKS like it but they are just blocks of different solid grays simulating antialias. There’s no translucency there.

You can get that effect by Making a selection and filling with white or gray behind the graphic. Also, Choose a Matte color the same as your web background and play with Dither settings in the SFW dialog.
B
Bernie
Jan 24, 2007
I could do a grey bachground in the gif instead, but most of the grey around is produced by the browser by hex value. I fear the interpretations of those hexes may differ from what shows in a gif.

Have you tried it?
JM
Jean_Matua_Bustamant
Jan 24, 2007
Ed, indeed, you’re right. And Mr. Nomad, that’s a good question—I haven’t, and I think it would be hard to, because there’s a lot of browsers on a lot of systems—but since, as Ed pointed out, the technique formerly used implies a specified matte anyway, it seems to be an unsound fear, and a risk I’ll have to run anyway.
Ed’s proposal seems valid. It’s what I’m doing now.

Thanks a lot guys. You really did help me out here.

best

jmb
EH
Ed_Hannigan
Jan 24, 2007
Another way to approach this might be to make a screenshot of the antialiased type against a white background, open the screen grab in Photoshop and Magic Wand the white area and mask or delete it (or specify it as the transparent color) and Save for Web.

May seem odd, but when you think about it, it’s for screen display so you will get exactly what you need.
J
jonf
Jan 24, 2007
When you save for web, did you choose a matt color other than black? Ideally it should be the background color of the image over which the gif will appear. Using Black (or your text color) as your matt color will leave you the jaggy edge you describe. White would probably leave a gray "antialias" outline if you place it over any color other than white. "None" should work but sometimes it depends on the color of the text as to whether it’s what you expected to see.

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