Archived: Tip

Yes, add subpixel-hinting to your Photoshop text layers [Update]

March 17th, 2010 in Adobe, Downloads, Tip, Typography |

I finally figured out a way to add sub-pixel hinted font-rendering to text in Photoshop. For those of you not knowing what that means, please read The Ails Of Typographic Anti-Aliasing.

The usual way, to smooth text in Photoshop, is to choose one of the different anti-aliasing techniques in the drop down menu. The downside as you know is, that the smoothing of the text is done by greyscale and not by blending different channels.

But it’s doable. And I saved my workflow as an Action. All of you can download and use it for free. But the trick has a downside, too: You receive three text-layers just for one piece of text. The reason for that is, that I needed to blend the different channels and it’s not even rasterizable.

It is still editable, but you need to edit everything three times. My recommendation: Before you run the Action, copy the layer and make one of them invisible. Then, if you need to make an edit on the subpixel-hinted text, delete it, make the edit on your old text layer and then run the Action again.

Double-click the file to load it into Photoshop. Then select your text layer and run the Action. Done. Zoom in to see the difference. Now you have font rendering how it actually is.

Update: 26.03.2010, 1.05 am

This technique is great for your concepts when you want to simulate actual text in your Photoshop file (e.g. on a new blog template or so). This was what I had in mind as the most common use. But in some cases, when the output device has screen-rotation, the pre-defined sub-pixel hinting shouldn’t be applied (to images). So: Just for your concepts when you want to see text like the system renders it, but not for images you use in a final project (e.g. I didn’t use sub-pixel hinting for this Download button).

Chuck Skoda explained the issue very well. (Thanks)

HOWTO: CSS for the iPad [Update]

March 4th, 2010 in Apple, Mac, Tip, Web design |

The iPad is coming and the developers already received the iPhone Simulator Extension. The new XCode beta also includes Safari Mobile.

If you want to use a CSS modification for the iPad (as I do), this is how you tell the iPad to use an additional CSS file:

<link rel="stylesheet" media="only screen and (max-device-width: 1024px)" href="../ipad.css" type="text/css" />

Because of the other browsers not knowing how to handle this type of media string they won’t interpret it. The ipad.css will be interpreted by the iPhone, too. So if you need some specific CSS also for the iPhone, you proceed equally but with max-device-width: 480px.

Update

This site shows how to implement the rotation mode (portrait or landscape).

Shooting crisp indoor photographs without using a flash

February 24th, 2010 in Photography, Tip |

When you are shooting photographs it’s all about light. Light is the content. And as we know using a flash has the advantage that we can shoot sharp photos in a low-light environment. The disadvantage is that a flash is too harsh for the most time. The light gets to hard and photos look clinical and cold.

So what can you do when you are in a pretty low illuminated room and you want still smooth, warm but crisp photographs?

I want to give you some tips on how to shoot sharp and beautiful photos without using a flash like I did on my last Berlin vacation:

1. The correct holding of the camera: Mr Freeze

In low-light situations you have to be “frozen”. To ease your posture keep your arms holding the camera near the body. Your elbows should be parallel to your torso.

The most common mistake is the trigger: By pushing the trigger button the camera moves exactly when you shoot the photo. To avoid that, roll the fingertip over the trigger button instead of moving it down – like you would create a finger print.

2. Keep an eye on the shutter speed

Play with your shutter speed but remember: Increasing it means less light, decreasing it means more vibrations.

3. Choose the biggest aperture of your lens

The bigger the aperture – the more light can go through the lens. So go all the way down to the lowest f.

Even better: Buy a fixed-focus lens with a big aperture. My one has f/1.8 and costs around 100 bucks. The f/1.4 model costs around 400 bucks.

As you know, a big aperture means more depth the field means that only your focused object is sharp. The background and foreground is blurry (like on the image above).

4. Still to dark? Try the ISO

If the photo is still to dark you have another possibility: The ISO. Usually the setting is on “Auto” which means 400 ISO for the most time. Choosing a higher ISO (e.g. 800) will lighten up your photo. But be careful: Too much ISO will increase the noise of the image.

If you have a good camera you can choose ISO 800 without worrying. Others even have good results with ISO 1600.

5. White balance adjustments avoid “red photos”

In a darkened room with synthetic light from bulbs you will get photos which are pretty redish. The reason for that is the wavelength of this kind of light. While the light from the sun is white, this one is very red. To remove this red tone – if you don’t want it – you can change the White Balance (WB on your camera). For instance 3200 K or 4000 K.

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