Hi Hyland,
Every few months you drive yourself crazy trying to make a super-sharp PDF presentation.
You spend many hours on ID Secrets reading fascinating bits by DB, AMC, Bob Levine, Eugene, Jongware, et all. Then you create dozens and dozens of test files. But a week later you have zero recall of the entire experience–much less the results.
Here is the info you seek:
Screen vs. Print
- Output is a separate issue. When you are deep in google / ID Secrets, remember that most “fixes” are geared toward ripping files and generating correct film. Output? We don't need no stinkin' output! Not today, anyway.
Lotta bang for the buck
- Reduce contrast between type and background. Black on white looks particularly atrocious.
- PMS Cool Gray 11 on white looks decent. And white on Cool Gray 11 looks good, too.
- Even docs without images and/or blending effects are vastly improved with this easy fix!
Fonts that look decent onscreen
- You would think Myriad would look better than Helvetica Neu, but Hel is (slightly) sharper. Go fig.
- Crud… you forgot to check Myriad Web Pro. But you shunned Helvetica for so long that you sorta owe it to Max and Eduard to go crazy with it now.
- When you suss out fonts, check out the vibration between two zeros. And the terminals of upper & lower C–those really get trashed on Myriad.
Other than that, it's a raster/vector clash
- It has nothing to do with missing fonts, corrupt files, subsetting, good Helvetica, bad Arial, fake bold, or the phase of the moon.
- I know this because I made a tiny, intricate vector object and ran it with my font tests. Its rendering improved / degraded exactly like fonts.
Sorry, lady—you DO have to flatten your P-Shop files
- I know… it's a drag because your PS files are a disaster.
- One of these days we'll research/ create an organized workflow and naming convention; and/or start using adjustment layers.
- For now, just find the files, save 'em as filename_flat.psd and relink 'em.
- Do NOT monkey with these images! Knowing you, other docs link to this file and you'll be hosed.
- Yes, flatten even if image and text do not overlap.
Good news!
- Layer and/or stacking order have no effect on how fonts render onscreen.
- This goes for both flattened and layered PSD files.
These settings seem to work for you:
- Acrobat 6
- Compress color & grayscale 300; mono 600.
- Convert to Destination (preserve numbers)
- Destination: sRGB
- Subset Fonts: 100%
If you post this on ID Secrets, then the next time you search for fuzzy blurry crappy font type ID5 PDF export settings raster vector screen render grrr, you'll find this. And/or maybe it will help someone else. And/or maybe people with better solutions will school you.
.
