The Ails Of Typographic Anti-Aliasing
An article I crossed by via Twitter by http://www.smashingmagazine.com this month that I wanted to share was :
"The Ails Of Typographic Anti-Aliasing"
Blog Article By: Thomas Giannattasio | Date: November 2nd, 2009 | Published by: Smashing Magazine
Snip 1 from blog article:
"As printed typography enjoys the fruits of high-DPI glory, proudly displaying its beautiful curves and subtleties, its on-screen counterpart remains stifled by bulky pixels, living in a world of jagged edges, distorted letterforms and trimmed serifs. Until display manufacturers produce affordable 200 or 300 PPI monitors, we’ll have to rely on software advances to fix these problems."
Snip 2 from blog article:
"Enter anti-aliasing: the next best thing to a world of higher-resolution monitors. The concept of anti-aliasing is fairly simple: add semi-transparent pixels along the edges of letterforms to smooth the appearance of the “stair-step” effect.
However, many factors and technologies determine the actual effectiveness of the process: hinting, subpixel rendering, software capabilities and operating system specifications, to name a few. Here, we’ll look at what you as a designer can do to improve the results of anti-aliasing with Photoshop, Flash and CSS. Plus, we’ll explain the constraints of hardware, browsers and operating systems."
I suggest a read - good explanations regarding Technologies, Output....such as:
Technologies:
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Aliased vs. Anti-Aliased
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Font Hinting
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Subpixel Rendering
Output:
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Displays
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Operating System
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Browsers
"Conclusion: until everyone has a 200 PPI monitor sitting on their desk, it will be up to designers and developers to use the proper technologies to ensure legibility without degrading the design of the typeface."
Note: It is also very important for any team of designers and developers to understand and respect, so to ensure our top most user interface (UI) (also known as human computer interface or man-machine interface (MMI)) for any online project, whether for a small retail outlet or a robust solution for education & healthcare.
We, as digital architects, together will be constantly continue to push technology to see our creative design solutions come to furition - I look forward to the future and working in collaboration.
... Design + Technology - Together forever :)
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