[Gimp-user] why crappy text?

[Evan Kroske]

Dave Stevens wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I only very occasionally use the Gimp and am trying to do something that looks 
> as if it ought to be straightforward but which isn't working.
>
> I need to make a text box for a web site that will have a transparent 
> background. I can make the box, type in the text, set the background 
> transparency and export the graphic as a gif.   All works as expected except 
> that the text is horribly coarse and grainy. Deja Vu Serif 18 point using 
> gimp 2.4.5 in Fedora 7. I've tried with anti-aliasing and hinting both on and 
> off with no difference.
>
> Ideas?
>
> Dave
>
>   
Two things could be causing this effect. First, you have more than 256 
colors on your GIF image. GIFs simply can't do large gradients thanks to 
the 256 color limit and the ugly striping it causes.

The other problem might be that you forgot to leave a little background 
around your text. GIF images can do transparency, but they only have two 
levels of it: fully transparent and fully opaque. This means that if you 
completely crop out the background of some text, leaving the edges of 
the letters partly transparent, you will have raged, pixel-y edges on 
your text.

The solution is to leave a little bit of your desired background color 
around the edges of your letters. Now, instead of trying to store 
transparency, the GIF stores the combination of the letter color and the 
background color.

Evan Kroske