Author Topic: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text  (Read 27612 times)

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gwideman

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Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« on: January 16, 2012, 09:12:16 PM »
I'd love to hear any input on how to defeat the crappy anti-aliasing of text in Visio 2010 (on Windows 7). Well, this has been an ongoing issue for many versions, but so far as I have found, there are now no options to choose between unsatisfactory alternatives.  :-)

First off, the attachments show a couple of images that demonstrate the problem.

[Click the attachment images to see at full size.]

The stencil ("Shapes") area shows relatively crisp text, but the closest font equivalents I could find, when displayed on the drawing, look substantially fuzzier and indistinct.  The 200% image shows in more detail the much splatterier antialiasing on the drawing.

So, has anyone found either a font that is less bad, or a setting for either Visio or the desktop that doesn't have this effect?

-- Graham
« Last Edit: January 16, 2012, 09:37:34 PM by gwideman »

gwideman

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2012, 09:34:18 PM »
... and for comparison, here's what the same text looks like in Word 2010. (See attached.)

saveenr

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2012, 01:09:53 AM »
I don't think this is controllable at all within Visio. And actually I am a little surprised that Visio 2010 renders text by default differently than Word - generally Microsoft Office applications try to be very consistent.

I believe the anti-aliasing  was controllable in Visio 2007 and it would be cool to have that option back.

I haven't tried it, but maybe the ClearType tuner in Windows 7 may affect Visio rendering. (Control Panel > Adjust ClearType text)

For the record, my personal preference is to see the text the way Visio 2010 renders it; but I know many people dislike that style intensely.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2012, 07:47:52 AM by Visio Guy »

gwideman

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2012, 01:56:26 AM »
I know that there is some variation on preferences for sharp/fuzzy text, and in the interests of calibrating our impressions of what people like...

in your case, when you look at the screen cap in my last post, the 100% size version, do you actually prefer the text in the right portion of the cap (Visio drawing area) or in the left portion of the cap (Visio Shapes area, and representative of the text in the UI)?

For that matter, do you prefer the Visio drawing area text, or the Word text in the screen cap attached to my second post?

Thanks,

Graham

I don't think this controllable at all within Visio. And actually I am a little surprised that Visio 2010 renders text by default differently than Word - generally Microsoft Office applications try to be very consistent.

I believe the anti-aliasing  was controllable in Visio 2007 and it would be cool to have that option back.

I haven't tried it, but maybe the ClearType tuner in Windows 7 may affect Visio rendering. (Control Panel > Adjust ClearType text)

For the record, my personal preference is to see the text the way Visio 2010 renders it; but I know many people dislike that style intensely.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2012, 02:40:56 AM by gwideman »

vojo

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2012, 09:05:50 AM »
FYI... libreoffice, google sketchup, etc make visio look pristine in this respect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(especially remarkable since sketchup is used for all kinds of layman 3D detail drawings).

Visio anti alising looks like a mechanical penciel to those crayons.

You dont know how good you got it buddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

saveenr

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2012, 02:28:20 AM »
@gwideman - I actually do prefer the Visio text rendering in the right part of the screen capture compared to the left. The primary reason I prefer it is that I am more sensitive to the color fringes that appear on the text on the left which is the result of Cleartype subpixel antialiasing.  Also, compared to the Word's rendering which I admit looks *crisp*, I prefer the Visio version because its rendering is more true to the orginal letterform in the typeface (but of course this comes at the cost of some blurriness.)

What I'd *really* like though is for Visio and other applications to do something more like what is described here: http://www.antigrain.com/research/font_rasterization/


gwideman

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2012, 04:48:56 AM »
Very interesting link to AGG, thanks for posting it.

-- Graham

@gwideman - I actually do prefer the Visio text rendering in the right part of the screen capture compared to the left. The primary reason I prefer it is that I am more sensitive to the color fringes that appear on the text on the left which is the result of Cleartype subpixel antialiasing.  Also, compared to the Word's rendering which I admit looks *crisp*, I prefer the Visio version because its rendering is more true to the orginal letterform in the typeface (but of course this comes at the cost of some blurriness.)

What I'd *really* like though is for Visio and other applications to do something more like what is described here: http://www.antigrain.com/research/font_rasterization/

gwideman

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2015, 10:14:58 PM »
... and me of three years later with an additional note. (Possibly for me in the future.)

One particularly unusable scenario is Courier New at 8pt. Why is this even a thing? Because it's especially useful for making boxes-and-arrows diagrams in which the boxes represent text files, and actually contain a representation of source code or other plain text. Example: Diagram shows which file contribute to a software build process.

Courier New looks light weight at the best of times, but in Visio, at 8pt, the thin lines translate to light-grey fuzz. Could use bold, but that is too heavy and distracting, and precludes using bold selectively.

Would-be solution: Get a copy of the font "Dark Courier" (TTF), which apparently originated with HP. This seems to work well in, for example, Word. However, in Visio 2010, while it shows up on the font list, Visio doesn't want to actually apply it.

I loaded that font into FontCreator,  and noted that there was one incomplete glyph, which I deleted. I then exported the font as an OTF. Not sure which trick made the difference, but now Visio can use Dark Courier, and it looks considerably better. Bold version also looks OK.

-- Graham

wapperdude

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #8 on: April 06, 2015, 11:34:49 PM »
I think you either need a new ribbon on your typewriter or better quality paper.   Or, perhaps upgrade that dot-matrix printer.  :o   ;D

At 8 pt, Visio 2007 rendering seems worse than Word2010, both Courier New and Arial.  But Comic Sans fairs reasonably well, much better than the the Courier and Arial.

Wapperdude
« Last Edit: April 06, 2015, 11:52:14 PM by wapperdude »
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gwideman

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2015, 12:51:17 AM »
I think you either need a new ribbon on your typewriter or better quality paper.   Or, perhaps upgrade that dot-matrix printer.  :o   ;D

At 8 pt, Visio 2007 rendering seems worse than Word2010, both Courier New and Arial.  But Comic Sans fairs reasonably well, much better than the the Courier and Arial.

Wapperdude

Hahaha -- agreed on all points :-).  Though I'm not about to use Comic Sans to represent source code. After all, it's not monospace!  ;-)

wapperdude

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2015, 01:46:36 AM »
Paper tape?   ::)

Oh!  Pass the Comic Sans thru FontCreator and convert it t o monospaced.

That's about all of the bad ideas I can think of.
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Yacine

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2015, 02:22:18 AM »
Yacine

wapperdude

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Re: Visio's crap anti-aliasing for text
« Reply #12 on: April 07, 2015, 09:38:20 AM »
OK.

First, I may be getting older, but I refuse to grow up.   8)

Second, I thought my target audience, all these years, was under 11 years old!!!   ???

Wapperdude

PS:  Thanks for the link!    ;D
 
« Last Edit: April 07, 2015, 09:40:38 AM by wapperdude »
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