Re: Drop Shadow Jaggies

Spandex Rutabaga wrote:
> smartin wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> PSP8 user here. At one time, I thought I knew of a way to make drop
>> shadows from vector objects (such as text) that blended nicely with no
>> jaggies. My memory must be failing me because now I can't seem to
>> reproduce the technique.
>>
>> The attached image shows some vector text (blue) with a drop shadow
>> (black) pointing southwest against a mottled tan background. The pink
>> arrows highlight the jaggie problem.
> 
> The problem isn't with the drop shadow. The problem is that
> your text has jaggies. Put it down as anti-aliased text and
> make sure there are enough pixels to render the edge of the
> text properly.
> 
>> I created the drop shadow by first creating a mask from the vector
>> object (source opacity). Next I created a selection from the mask,
>> applied the drop shadow, then moved the shadow raster layer underneath
>> the vector text.
> 
> Good grief! Why not just do Effects > 3D Effects > Drop Shadow
> on the text layer? It will tell you it has to convert the text
> to raster so just go ahead and do that. (You can always do it
> on a duplicate layer to preserve a layer with vector text.)
> 
>> I /thought/ this was the way to go, but as you can see, jaggies are
>> quite prevalent along the southwestern edge of the vector text,
allowing
>> the light background to show through. Ideally I would like the drop
>> shadow to have more opacity along this border.
> 
> The jaggies are apparent not just on the southwestern edge but
> on any edge that is at an angle to the image edges. This is
> probably because there aren't enough pixels to render the edge
> correctly. However, it's hard to be specific because you are
> preoccupied with the drop shadow (which isn't the problem) to
> the exclusion of describing what you did to place the text. See
> the attached image for an illustration of the effect that
> changing the number of pixels has on the appearance of angled
> edges in an image. You might want to reveal to us the size of
> image you are using as well as the size of the font. Bear in
> mind that you can always create a large image and, once it is
> complete, you can flatten it and resize it smaller for the
> purpose you need.
> 
> 

Many thanks for that, SR. I think I see the error of my ways... I did 
have anti-aliased text, but I was being unrealistic about the number of 
pixels I was using.

As for the circuitous method of using a mask, etc., I have no idea where 
that came from, and it clearly has no improvement over the simple 
approach, so I will stick with simple!