fuzzy text using GD??

[Anon]

I've been using the GD library to create images with text drawn from a database and am using a small 6 point ttf font known as ROTORcap.

My problem is that the text comes out fuzzy/blurred in seemingly random places. In a random string of words one word even appears to be bold. Has anyone else had this problem and if so, is there a way around it??

I've noticed the problem seems to go away if I take the font up to say 8pt, but of course by that stage the font is displaying incorerctly.

[[deleted]]

Can it be due to anti-aliasing?

[Anon]

i was wondering about some kind of anti-aliasing issue, but the problem is that the blurring is seemingly random across a string of words. the same word can appear both blurred or crisp.

[[deleted]]

That's what happens with small print and anti-aliasing.

[Anon]

but any antialiasing applied should surely be uniform? i.e. the word 'and' should not appear firstly without antialiasing and then further on in the same sentence blurry and illegible?

[Anon]

i am thinking this is just an area where i will have to accept the shortcomings of using the GD library and perhaps use a different size / font, yes?

it was probably not originally intended to be used with these small fonts. am i correct in thinking that gd doesn't normally apply any antialiasing to fonts though?

[[deleted]]

I'm not sure.

But if you make things very small you can run out of pixels. If your need 6 pixels and there are only 5, something will go wrong.

[Anon]

yeah thats true. thanks for your help anyway. i might just go down a totally different route to achieve what i wanted! it's all a learning experience 🙂