Photoshop Tip # 2

The Importance of Being Anti-Aliased

I work at screen resolution a lot, and I've discovered and learned a few tricks along the way about making low-resolution graphics look as good as possible.

Probably the most important tool to use in creating low-res graphics is anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing makes the stair-stepping, or "jaggies" of diagonal edges less apparent.

For a quick visual lesson in anti-aliasing in Photoshop, follow the steps below.

1. Open a new file, by selecting File > New say about 30 by 200 pixels. Choose black as your foreground color. (The foreground color is the color the type will be filled with). You can switch the automatic preset colors of black and white by clicking the letter x on your keyboard.

2. Click on the type tool, then click on your file. You'll be able to see the type options in the options bar. You'll see several options in the dropdown box marked AA: none, sharp, crisp, strong. Select anything but None.






Set the type size to about 14 points, and type out, "This is anti-aliased type."



3.Now, for comparison, open another new file, also 30 by 200 pixels. Click on the type tool, then click on your file. From the options bar, select None. Type out "This is not anti-aliased type."



4. Compare the two files. See the difference a little anti-aliasing can make! You'll want to anti-alias all type that is 12 points or larger. For very, very small type, you'll want to use type that isn't antialiased. At very small sizes, fonts are a little blurry if anti-aliasing is applied.

Part II - Anti-Aliasing Other Stuff

Okay, so this is great. You can get nice, readable type. But what about that company logo, clip art, and so on? You've brought that great little logo onto your web page and it looks like it was cut out with pinking shears. It has a worse case of jaggies than the Grand Canyon.

Chances are, you have your logo in .eps format. If you do, open your .eps file in Photoshop. A dialog box will pop up asking the size you want to import. Be sure to select RGB color if this will display on the web. Select the Anti-aliasing checkbox. When your file opens up, zoom in, and you'll notice that Photoshop has neatly anti-aliased all of your edges for you.

Pretty nifty, huh?

And for those little touch-ups, I've found the smudge tool in Photoshop to be perfect.

To find the smudge tool, click and hold on the Blur tool in the Photoshop toolbar. Next, just draw the smudge tool, set to about 50% pressure in the Options bar, across the offensively jaggy edge. In the example below, the left edge has been antialiased using the smudge tool.

What about those situations where you have a big, old, ugly gif file that you have to use? Convert the image to RGB color Click Image > Mode > RGB then size the image down, using Image > Image Size. Photoshop will automatically anti-alias all the edges for you.

Adobe Photoshop Tip # 1

Create the World in Sixty Seconds (and without drawing a circle!)

1.From the menu bar, select File/New, and make the file size about 200 pixels by 200 pixels. Make sure that the file is in RGB mode.
2.Select a light blue for the foreground color, (I used #cff8fc) and a darker blue for the background color (I used #010d62). Of course, you can select any colors that you prefer, but for best results select two colors that have a high constrast.

3.Select Filters > Render > Clouds.

4.Behold! The heavens appear within your file. The clouds filter uses the foreground and background colors you have chosen to create the clouds in your file. If you don't like the first effect you get with this filter, hit Ctrl + F on Windows, Command + F on the mac, which will reapply the filter and give a slightly different result each time.

5. Return to the Filter menu. Select Render > Lighting Effects.

6. In the Light Effects menu, change the shape of the ellipse to a circle that is centered within your file. Use the Default   Spotlight setting, but change the Narrow setting to 39.

  Voila! You have created the world in six easy steps.