Choose Oddysey,

http://www.ultrafonts.com

Best,

mh

Don, for small-to-medium text in Flash there's only one way you can get the most of the screen: grayscale pixelfonts. And by far the best to get them is Ultrafonts.

Besides Miguel's Odyssey (Bold or Black in this case), you can really push the limits of handcrafted grayscale text with my Mana, which however is currently too big for setting what you showed. The good news is that the 11 point version is almost ready*. The Mana fonts are pretty narrow, which can be both good and bad, but it uses generous letterspacing to greatly increase readability. Plus the different sizes are visually highly compatible, allowing for "total" screen typography.

*
Here's a quick preview of the Bold for you:


hhp

Tried several from ultafonts they were no better

You mean no better than what you have now? You complained of not having enough "sharp detail", and to me any of the Ultrafonts seem better that the blurry stuff you're currently showing. Especially the ones that use grays in subtle ways (without however going too far in blurriness).

hhp

I have contacted ultrafonts about the Odyssey,
I would like to get a sample to try, do not mind paying if it looks sharp

The only free font from ultrafonts to try was
Silkscreen, it is no better, I have been trying different fonts for months, its wearing me down

http://www.theinsidegroove.com/charts/year_stats/special/nascar-driver-season-average-finishing-position.php

Don, I can tell from that test that you're simply using the wrong point size. A pixelfont has to be set at a single given point size (at a certain dpi) to work. UPFs are pixelfonts - and they need to be set at 8 point (no matter how many vertical pixels the font spans).

If you're still unconvinced by the Ultrafonts site (or my sample), you can choose a font and go into "Sample", and set your own text. In this case I guess you'd also screen-grab then reverse-field it, which however brings up the possible need for gamma correction*. So don't despair, I think you're almost there. :-)

* Note that Mana comes with two versions (for each size & weight), one for positive setting, and another for higher-quality negative setting. The latter version can also be used as a native Windows font (like in a word processor) to great effect.

hhp

The attachment shows the chart program and how the selection and size settings are made, you will also notice how much sharper the fonts on the right side appear, this is because it is in full screen view, and it is not a Flash file yet,
when you change it to flash, the problem begins.

I can also print these out as a JPG and no matter
what font you use it is crystal clear, that's because it has not been converted to flash

How do I set it to 8pt

Please hang in there with me, this is something I have been trying to fix for to long, the frustration level is very high

Don Miller

> what font you use it is crystal clear, that's
> because it has not been converted to flash

Nope, that's exactly how it looks in Flash.
Because it's made to work just right in Flash.

> How do I set it to 8pt

In the box next to "Sui Generis", choose 8 instead of 10.
HOWEVER: Sui Generis has to be a pixelfont, and one that's made to "snap in place" at 8 pt. Is it?

All the Ultrafonts snap at 8 pt.
Try it with Silkscreen.

--

The degradation you're describing when you output an actual Flash movie does happen with "normal" outline fonts (not pixelfonts), although it's actually pretty faint: what you're seeing instead is mostly resolution limits wreaking havoc on letterform fidelity. Like you suggested earlier, it's a bit like "mixing oil and water". But grayscale pixelfonts give the best possible results.

hhp

Here is Oddyssey in action,



Cheers,

mh

8pt way to small

http://www.theinsidegroove.com/charts/year_stats/special/nascar-driver-season-average-finishing-position.php

Here is the font California, in the same size, 8 pts.



Best,

mh

You should definitely make sure, that the .swf / flash file you export ( from Swiff Chart.? ), is sized at 100 % when embedded.. ( It seems your embedded chart is smaller than the original one you created, thats why the text may appear too small.. )

Because you are using a third party application to produce your charts, I don't think you'll be able to get the control you need over the exact pixel placement of the textfield.

This means that you can't ensure that your pixel font is on a whole pixel (eg. 2 rather than 2.3). So, even if you correctly use the right font size, you'll still get blurry characters.

Sorry for the bad news.

And Android, at 8pts too.



mh

>Because you are using a third party application to produce your charts, I don't think you'll be able to get the control you need over the exact pixel placement of the textfield

1.- Set all text to 8pt
2.- Justify texts at left
3.- Set document at 72 dpi
4.- Use zero not decimals (x=1.0 is god, x=1.3 is bad)
5.- Embed All text.

mh

Don, I don't know what to tell you - there's some incorrect setting on your end. Many people use pixelfonts (b&w or grayscale) just fine and it doesn't blur (when set correctly). The Ultrafonts site is Flash itself, and you can see everything works fine in there. Maybe read the User Guide on the Ultrafonts site? I know, I know, reading a manual when you're frustrated is not easy. :-/

Note that everything in your "text box" has to be in integer pixels for a pixelfont to snap. Like if you have a line of 13.7 Arial on the first line and then a pixelfont below it, it'll blur. Another thing I noticed is that you have Bold checked - try turning that off. It actually works with Mana, but from what I understand most pixelfonts put their weights under different entries.

Don't fret, once you get the hang of it you'll relish the big quality increase.

hhp

Hummmmmmmm
Those fonts are a great improvment. I dont want to be too picky here but a little more high tech font would be nice.
The larger font Android seems to be the best size
Would some of you give your final recomendation
on some of the fonts at ultrafonts with the size as a consideration

The charts are embedded at the corect size 400x600px

Geatting great help here and it is appreciated

Don Miller

The setting of 13.7 is on a display that is not on this chart, but I will change it

I have read on the fonts for flash site that when
using the macromedia flash program you need to round off the the X and Y axes interger to make them look crisp ie: 8.35 back to 8.0, but in this program there is no way to set the X and Y

The font you choose depends on a few things, including the importance of legibility versus style.

It's conceivable that many people will be looking for their favorite racer, and since your tables have a lot of entries, you might like to facilitate that by having a font that makes it easy to scan-and-find names quickly. This means a font with: structures that people are used to seeing (considering that most reading is done in print where fonts have a certain "traditional" look), so for example having a "y" with diagonal arms helps; sufficient interletter spacing (which is actually where most pixelfonts fail); and capital letters that have some presence (since this is all about proper names).

Very tight and "geometric" pixelfonts are great for buttons and short headings, but not reading tasks that are performance-based. You don't race a Miata on a oval, dude. :-)

hhp