Drop shadow makes text JAGGED...why?

[Biz_Notch@adobeforums.com]

Using InDesign CS 3.01 and I noticed that when I try to use drop shadow on text, the text becomes all jagged and looks awful. Has anyone else seen this?

This is especially noticeable on white text over a colored box.

Try it -- make a 100% cyan box and then over it, put some white text.

Now apply a drop shadow to the text and you'll see it loses its crisp, anti-aliased look. It suddenly appears aliased and nasty looking.

Even stranger is that if you have other text where this effect is NOT applied, it also loses its smooth, anti-aliased look.

This, to me, is a bad bug that needs to be fixed!!

For the record, I also noticed that this happens when you use blending modes with the text. (color, overlay, diffusion, etc...). The nice, smooth, anti-aliasing completley disappears and ALL TEXT looks jagged. Truly awful!

Can this please be fixed??

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

I'm not seeing it here. Could be a video driver issue.

Bob

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

Zoomed in very close, I can see a very slight aliasing of the text, but
nothing that I would describe as nasty.

Bob

[Biz_Notch@adobeforums.com]

it's nasty here... i am doing this with Adobe Jenson Pro -- if you tried it with a SANS SERIF font, it doens't appear as bad. but try it with this font or maybe something similar like Garamond and see what results you get then...

[Lucien_Schilling@adobeforums.com]

What does the printer print with those effects? They need to be rendered for output. It my be that only a low quality proxy image displays.

Lucien.

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

Same thing. A slight aliasing effect but definitely not jagged or nasty.

Bob

[Jonathan_Balza@adobeforums.com]

I think Lucien has got it right. Try this: right click on the text-box, and go to "display performance". Click on "High Quality Display". Does that help?

If it doesn't, then there are other more serious issues here.

[Biz_Notch@adobeforums.com]

No, it isn't the display perfomance. I have everything set to HIGH at all times.

This is the text aliasing. And I guess you could say it's a "slight aliasing" but it appears worse on different fonts. I just tried this with Adobe Jenson Pro Light. The type is placed over an embedded, 300dpi EPS file and as soon as I do any transparency effect(drop shadow, opacity, blending modes, etc...), the type gets aliased. It doesn't look so bad with sans serif fonts but with Jenson Pro Light it looks pretty bad to me.

I suppose it's somewhat subjective how bad you think this really is. I for one love how InDesign renders type -- it's smooth and clean. So when something upsets it even a little bit, I go crazy!!

So if this is happening a little for you or a lot for you, I still think this is a bug that needs to be fixed. Also, there is no reason why other text frames that are not using any effects should be affected and also get aliased.

[Robert_Levine@adobeforums.com]

Edit>display performance.

Do you have enable anti-aliasing checked?

Bob

[Biz_Notch@adobeforums.com]

You mean EDIT-->PREFERENCES-->DISPLAY PERFORMANCE??

Yeah, Anti-Aliasing is CHECKED. I have decided to put up some images so you all can see what I mean. This is driving me mad. Check out the link below and make sure your resolution is at least 1024x768 so you can see the images side by side.

Check this out:

<http://216.157.102.130/IDCS-JAGGED-TEXT/>

Hopefully, you can all see what I am talking about now!!!

[Joe]

I see the same problem and am looking for a solution. However, you can try to turn on Overprint Preview to give you a better look. It probably wouldn't be wise to keep it on all the time due to memory but it keeps me from worrying about if the type will look right or not down the road. I'm using CS3 too.

You mean EDIT-->PREFERENCES-->DISPLAY PERFORMANCE??

Yeah, Anti-Aliasing is CHECKED. I have decided to put up some images so you all can see what I mean. This is driving me mad. Check out the link below and make sure your resolution is at least 1024x768 so you can see the images side by side.

Check this out:

<http://216.157.102.130/IDCS-JAGGED-TEXT/>

Hopefully, you can all see what I am talking about now!!!