turning off anti-aliasing doesn't work

Flash CS3 ignores rendering settings

[Joey33]

Hello,

On the main stage I have a simple mc with a textfield inside the mc. Despite 'no-antialiasing' option for the textfield, the text is blurry.

When is it placed on the main stage, the text is crisp and fine, but being nested inside the mc, it goes blurry.

What have I tried so far?

I've placed the text inside the mc on integer values, then the mc itself on integer values as well. Nothing works. The labels under buttons look awful...

Any idea how to make it look crisp?

Rgrds,
Joey33

ps. I'm using flash cs3 and Verdana fontface.

[owika]

Make sure both your mc and textField is aligned LT. If a textField (or a mc with a textField inside) is center-aligned and the width is an odd number/integer, you will end up with a .5 pixel placement problem, and blury text.

[Joey33]

I'm not sure if I understand correctly, but the textfield and the mc are supposed to be aligned TOP LEFT with respect to each other...? Or am I wrong?

(the registration points are TL in both)

I've checked the text orientation in the textfield - it is left (default).

I've also tried to make the width of the textfield into an integer, as well as the width of the mc.

Nothing works... :(

I just have no idea what causes the problem.

It is a simple mc with just a line of text.

Maybe it's Flash bug?

If you happen to have any other idea I'll be grateful.

Thanks for the response,
Joey33

[owika]

Strange...

Alignment is not as big a problem as it used to be, so you should be fine whatever the position. But it's generally good practice to position everything inside mc's at x=0,y=0.

Is the textField static or dynamic?
Is everything scaled 100%?

If you place the mc on stage programatically, use Math.round() to force it to a non-decimal pixel-position.

[Joey33]

What a coincidence, just before I entered the forum to see if there's any reply, I checked forcing the coordinates of the mc by AS:

my_mc._x = Math.round(my_mc._x);

as well as _y but no change.

I found a thread on kirupa, the same problem with a bit different form:

[kirupa.com...]

As you said, the coordinates are not that important now.
When I place a textfield on the main stage and set rendering to bitmap, it is crisp and clear no matter if coordinates are double or int.

I'm also surspised and a bit dissapointed to have to struggle with such trivial issues in the ninth version of flash...

It totally ruined my curriculum of my project.

Regards,
Joey33

[owika]

Did you check the scaling on the textField? Must be 100% if you are using static text.

[Joey33]

You mean if I made the textfield larger or smaller by transformation tool?

If yes, then no. I just used the text tool and entered some text on the stage.

I know, I'll prepare a snapshot and post a link or .fla for download. I'll get back to you.
Joey33

[owika]

Ok, get a link to a .fla up, and I will take a closer look on it.

[Joey33]

hello, here it goes:

finished anim:
[englishcafe.pl ]

source
[englishcafe.pl ]

I stripped down my anim by deleting all the other buttons, background images and so on leaving just one example button. And consequently I deleted from the lib all unnecessary items BUT the .fla size did not shrink... another surprise

Anyway, I'm impatiently looking forward to your opinion.

Regards,
Joey33

[owika]

It's the scaling/placement of but1.

1. Select but1 on stage
2. Select the transform menu (Ctrl+T)
3. Mark the constrain box
4. Click the reset button (lower right on the menu)
5. Select the info menu (Ctrl+I)
6. Set X/Y to whole pixel-vals, like 151 and 86
7. Run, and it should be OK :)

[Joey33]

I tried your solution on the sample I sent you and I JUMPED UP on my chair. It worked. Filled with hope I quickly opened my project and here is what I discovered:

(there are 5 such buttons in the panel)

1. for two of the buttons (but3 and but4), reseting scaling to 100%x100% forces coordinates to double numbers and vice versa - when I change coordinates to integer, scaling is not 100%. However as long as they are 100%x100%, the text is crisp no matter if coordinates are integer or not

2. two other buttons are reset to 100%x100% as well as placed on integer values but still the text is blurry (but2 and but5)

If you still feel up to looking into the .fla, I have uploaded the whole final version of the project (the same size ~700kb).

[englishcafe.pl ]

If you could give it a final look.. I mean these two buttons at the bottom - but 2 and 5.

My idea is that some clips have a better geometry for bitmap text than others. I am curious if you will confirm it.

I think I am not going to struggle with this anymore and just leave the text rendered 'for readability'.

Regards,
Joey33

[owika]

I don't immediately see anything wrong here, but the problem might be that you mix animation, masking and textField in the same movieclip. From experience this can lead to strange things happening. In general, seperate stuff as much as possible, especially working with animation.

A simple solution in your case, is to make the textField dynamic and embed the labeltext (like 'kontakt'). Then the labels should appear pixel-crisp.

Cool menu by the way :)

[Joey33]

As to the dynamic text, I've discovered that by making the text selectable even when it's static, anti-aliasing will be off no matter what the coordinates are.

Anyway, as to the final shape of my project, I've followed your suggestion about separating pieces of the anim and I've placed the text on separate layers in the clips - it works:)

T H A N K S for help, interest and time!
Hope to be able to lend you a hand on some issue in flash one day:)

Regards,
Joey33

ps. and thanks for the motivating comment;)

[owika]

No problemo! Good to hear you solved it. The more happy flash developers, the better :)