Re: Transparent Gifs and Text

Your problem is with dithering, I think, which is easily overcome.  Doing 
so is the first step to text-as-image happiness.
This method has worked for me since Photoshop 4.x and it essentially works 
in almost any graphic editor.

1. Sample the prevalent color on the background of the page the text-image 
will appear on.

2. Make that color the background of your photoshop image. Seperate layers 
are OK but you'll flatten them anyway...

3. Create desired text. Save work into a temporary file.

4. From the menu bar, Select All/Copy Merged into a new image file with a 
transparent background, or Merge Visible Layers if the file you're working 
with already has a transparent background.

Here's the trick:  you want to remove the background color without removing 
any of the SHADING or TRANSITIONAL colors between the text and the 
background.  The end result is a graphic, a transparent gif, which looks 
like crap on any color except the one it's designed for...where it looks 
exactly how you intended.

5.  With Flattened image, from toolbar, Select Color Range, move the 
eyedropper's tolerance level lower (I play with this setting) and select 
the background color of the image + text.  Alternatively, use the Magic 
Wand tool (with lower tolerance level) to select the background 
color.  Save work as finished gif and place on webpage. Be amazed at how 
easy this was.

Without specifying the text's background color, your beautiful text is 
being shaded into that nasty grey/pink "invisible" color known by browsers.

Collette


At 09:42 AM 1/18/02 -0800, you wrote:
>Hello all:
>
>I'm working on a new site that has various graphical text elements to 
>it.  I'm making the text
>graphics in Photoshop 6.  In Photoshop they look nice and smooth, just 
>like I want them.
>However, when I save them as transparent gifs either through save for web 
>or the
>transparent gif wizard thing, the text comes out all jagged.  I've tried 
>every option I can think
>of to try and get this to come out smooth, but no luck.  I've also tried 
>the same in Illustrator,
>with the same results.
>
>Is it just not possible to have smooth text in a transparent gif (I find 
>this hard to believe)?  Is
>there something I'm missing?  Is there some graphic wiz out there that can 
>give me some
>pointers?
>
>Thanks much,
>
>Doug Dossett
>MiscSites.com
>
>------------------------------------
>Get your .com, .net. or .org now!
>http://domreg.miscsites.com

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