Inflated font

[Nicohk92]

This is rather strange, I'm using the font "Brandon Grotesque" and it comes out a little inflated, while I need my lines to be straight and not as curvy (The difference between the "i" is striking).
See the difference for yourself between my fontbook and the result in asp. It occurs whether I use a text layer or make it into a shape.





Any idea what's causing this?


Thanks

[slowtiger]

Try to select the affected points only and set them to "Peak" (Draw Menu, cmd-P).

[Nicohk92]

That's what I did. It took me a little while and remains a dodgy workaround while my fonts should display normally from the get go. Should I understand that it's really a bug of anime studio?

[slowtiger]

I guess it depends on the quality of the font. I just did a quick test with several fonts, and official ones did a bit better. This said, I noticed all fonts were a bit wobbly when a curve blends into a straight line: the straight line was a bit curvy. However, I found no example of a straight line between two points sheering out as much as in your example.

[edit] Just checked your font: I think the problem comes from those "slated" edges. These translate poorly into AS.

In general I recommend to render text as bitmaps, much easier to handle in AS.

[Nicohk92]

Thanks for testing it out.

This is really a really sad limitation of Asp. I also discovered yesterday the inability to have true square and sharp corners.

Just when I though I had been around all of its perks, I find myself stuck at some of the most basic things, yet again...


This should definitly be adressed in an update or it makes no sense having a text option at all.

[slowtiger]

You can have perfect squares, it just takes more points. Anyway, I don't need it to be mathematically perfect, I just need it to look right. I use the grid and reduce shapes to get what I want.

[heyvern]

This may help...

Open properties of the text outline layer. Select the "Vectors" tab.
Check the box "Legacy Curves".

A while back (I forget which version) the properties of curves for a vector layer were modified. This dramatically improved/changed curve behavior, especially between peaked points. One unfortunate aspect of this is that a square vector shape with all peaked points is not a perfect square. There is a slight curve between two peaked points. I believe this may be the cause of the text "bloating" but it's just a guess.

To avoid "breaking" projects created with the "legacy" curves, the developers added a "legacy curve" setting for vector layers. Setting the text vector layer to "legacy curves" will create "sharp straight" edges between peaked points. Since this is a text layer and the points themselves probably won't be animated, using legacy curves shouldn't cause any adverse effects. The "new" type of curve helps with animation. When a vector layer is "static" with very few points and I need those "straight" lines I will usually set the layer to legacy curves.

I have done this trick myself when vector outline text layers don't look "exactly" right. It doesn't always work. It depends on the font design. Each font has it's own point placement and outline definition. Some fonts are "better" than others.

[JCook]

I've found that ASPro doesn't do text all that well. It depends on the font. So the way I do text in ASPro is to make the text in Photoshop and save it as a .png file with transparent background, then bring it in as an image. A little more work bur much better results that way.

Jack

[Nicohk92]

The Legacy curves solved the pb, thanks a lot Heyvern!

[Víctor Paredes]

The Legacy curves solved the pb, thanks a lot Heyvern!

Yes, nice tip, Vern, thanks!

[heyvern]

Not to point fingers or complain about the vector change, but it did seem like way back when the change was made to vector curve performance, the slight "curve" to completely peaked points and shapes jumped out to me as a potential problem. I never had an issue because on the rare occasions I used fonts inside Anime Studio I always create vector layers used legacy curves.

So what happened to compensate for these issues with existing or "older" projects was to add the check box for "legacy curves". An older version file would automatically have the box checked on vector layers. New layers would be created with the NEW curves, this includes the new text layers.

The problem now is that the "new" text layer type uses the NEW curves to display fonts. This can't be changed in the layer properties so you get the odd "bloating" on some fonts when using a new text layer. Only text that is created as vectors can have the legacy curve feature checked to fix the points for smoother fonts. In my mind I think that font outline layers should always use legacy curves.

I made the mistake this whole time, assuming that the new text layers were displaying fonts using the system or actual font outline display. In reality text layers, which can be changed after they are created, are displayed as Anime Studio outlined vectors, using the application curves. What you see with a "live" text layer is actually the same as a regular vector layer but it uses the new curve and has no option for legacy curves.