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Anna Capili writes about Anti-Aliasing with Fireworks -- The anti-aliasing capabilities in Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 helps users create great looking text graphics.
Macromedia has a wonderfully improved anti-aliasing capability that helps users create great looking text graphics, which can result to a more readable and attractive text.
According to the dictionary, the two words making up "anti-aliasing" means: anti: Opposed to; against. aliasing: The appearance of jagged distortions in curves and diagonal lines in computer graphics because the resolution is limited or diminished.
In layman's terms, anti-aliasing means making the text graphics more readable. This can be done by substituting shades of the font color around the lines and curves to avoid text that looks broken or craggy from pixel to pixel.
Anti-Aliasing with Fireworks Previous editions of Fireworks have anti-aliasing capabilities that have become very popular with designers and artists. With Fireworks MX 2004, it has four new anti-aliasing features that enhance on the existing options. The anti-aliasing options include None, Crisp, Strong, and Smooth. In addition, Macromedia provided "System" (Quartz on Macintosh) and "Custom" anti-aliasing features.
None Anti-Alias- disables text smoothing.
Crisp Anti-Alias- provides the sharp transition between the edges of the text and the background.
Strong Anti-Alias- creates a very abrupt transition between the edges of the text and the background, while maintaining the shapes of the text characters, and improving on the detailed areas of the characters.
Smooth Anti-Alias- provides a soft transition between the edges of the text and the background.
System Anti-Alias- utilizes the method of text smoothing found in Windows XP or Mac OS X.
Custom Anti-Alias- has expert-level controls over anti-aliasing such as Oversampling, Sharpness, and Strength.
These controls determine the use of the different elements to create the transition between the text edges and the background.
The new anti-aliasing features and capabilities provide users with a complete toolbox of "sandpaper" that can be used to smooth the edges of any working text, quickly and efficiently. Users can apply text anti-aliasing options by selecting the Property inspector or the Text Editor after choosing the text object to work on.
Just a few suggestions from the developers of Fireworks:
"Anti-aliasing is useful with larger fonts. And despite its capacities, always try one of the Fireworks MX 2004 pre-set anti-aliasing options first to achieve desired appearance."
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The author is a 30-something, professional web content writer. She has created various web content on a diverse range of topics, which includes digital printing topics, medical news, as well as legal issues. Her articles are composed of reviews, suggestions, tips and more for the printing and designing industry. Her thoughts on writing: "Writing gives me pleasure" pleasure and excitement that you have created something to share with others. And with the wide world of the Internet, it gives me great satisfaction that my articles reach more people in the quickest time you could imagine." On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.
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