Pixel-styled font not rendered pixel-to-pixel

1

I designed a pixel typeface and used the Pixel Tool add-on to made up the font. I meant to use it in 8-bit art, but it behaves strange when used.

  • I didn’t use Auto Hinting.

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image1268×1650 180 KB

In Photoshop, it cannot be aligned to pixels (i.e. have some translucent pixels). If I disable AA, it becomes black.

To make sure it’s not the problem of Photoshop, I tried also in the MacOS Font Book. It’s also not aligned to pixels.

I don’t know the reason why, but I really want it to be a crisp pixel font even in small size. Anyone can help? Thank you!

2

You can only make it work on very few specific sizes. There is a tutorial about the details: https://glyphsapp.com/tutorials/pixelfont

3

Sorry but I didn’t quite understand. I did follow that tutorial to build my font, but I didn’t find anything in the tutorial talking about the rendering issues.
Or do you mean it’s only crisp in specific sizes? Can I decide these sizes by myself?

4

Yes. It will only be crisp at the target size. The calculation of UPM and grid size determines the target point size.

5

Yes, I got it. So for my case the result is 10pt, but it’s still unclear at 10pt. It just shifts a little.

6

What is AA?

7

Anti-aliasing, the setting here:
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(Sorry for my Chinese version of PS)

8

What the renderers do may be a different thing altogether, because they also take assumed and actual ppi and resolution scalings into account. It depends on where and which way you use it: the renderer needs to be able to apply the pixels 1:1 onto the actual device pixels.

9

Well, you always need to disable anti-aliasing if you want a sharp image.

10

There is one thing that confused me is that IT USED TO work well in Photoshop, but someday it went wrong. :joy: And I don’t know why.

I made this in Dec. 2018, and you see it’s perfect.

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image974×884 303 KB

11

Comparison:

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