A situation with some mid-coloured pixels
Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 2:57 pm
Some readers may have already noticed the following graphic in the Gallery thread about my Sonnet Calligraphic font.
As part of my evaluation of the graphic prior to uploading it to the forum, I had a look at the graphic in Microsoft Paint, including using the 8x magnification.
I noticed something that seemed strange to me, yet, as the image seems, to my eyes at least, to look good at 1x magnification I proceeded to use it.
What seems strange is an effect that seems to appear throughout the graphic.
Please consider the main vertical part of the letter i of the image at 8x magnification in Microsoft Paint.
If one looks at the glyph for the i in the font using FontCreator, the vertical of the i is 64 font units wide, going from an x position of 64 pixels to an x position of 128 font units, with the glyph having an advance width of 128 font units, and by my calculations should display at precisely 3 pixels wide in the graphic, with 3 pixels of background to its left. This is because 72 points will be displayed as 96 pixels in a Windows display and for this font 2048 font units is thus 96 pixels at 72 point, so 64 font units will display as 3 pixels: that is, 96 times (64 divided by 2048) pixels.
Using the Pencil tool of Microsoft Paint with red ink on top of a copy of the graphic display at 8x magnification shows that this calculation of 3 pixels is correct.
What puzzles me is as to why all of the pixels of the vertical of the i are not pure white with all of the pixels of the gaps each side of that vertical all being the same dark blue colour.
This type of effect seems to happen with many of the verticals of the letters. The left side is always crisp, yet the right side often has a mid-coloured pixel. The letter w has multiple effects.
I note that the upper and lower ends of the vertical of the letter i are displayed crisply. The effect that is puzzling me seems to be an effect along the horizontal direction only.
I am wondering if this is an effect of something in the font or something that is happening as an effect of the PagePlus X4 program - maybe it is something being done automatically by PagePlus X4 to improve the look of the result.
Anyway, I am puzzled by this effect and wonder if anyone can throw any light on what is happening please.
William Overington
30 March 2012
As part of my evaluation of the graphic prior to uploading it to the forum, I had a look at the graphic in Microsoft Paint, including using the 8x magnification.
I noticed something that seemed strange to me, yet, as the image seems, to my eyes at least, to look good at 1x magnification I proceeded to use it.
What seems strange is an effect that seems to appear throughout the graphic.
Please consider the main vertical part of the letter i of the image at 8x magnification in Microsoft Paint.
If one looks at the glyph for the i in the font using FontCreator, the vertical of the i is 64 font units wide, going from an x position of 64 pixels to an x position of 128 font units, with the glyph having an advance width of 128 font units, and by my calculations should display at precisely 3 pixels wide in the graphic, with 3 pixels of background to its left. This is because 72 points will be displayed as 96 pixels in a Windows display and for this font 2048 font units is thus 96 pixels at 72 point, so 64 font units will display as 3 pixels: that is, 96 times (64 divided by 2048) pixels.
Using the Pencil tool of Microsoft Paint with red ink on top of a copy of the graphic display at 8x magnification shows that this calculation of 3 pixels is correct.
What puzzles me is as to why all of the pixels of the vertical of the i are not pure white with all of the pixels of the gaps each side of that vertical all being the same dark blue colour.
This type of effect seems to happen with many of the verticals of the letters. The left side is always crisp, yet the right side often has a mid-coloured pixel. The letter w has multiple effects.
I note that the upper and lower ends of the vertical of the letter i are displayed crisply. The effect that is puzzling me seems to be an effect along the horizontal direction only.
I am wondering if this is an effect of something in the font or something that is happening as an effect of the PagePlus X4 program - maybe it is something being done automatically by PagePlus X4 to improve the look of the result.
Anyway, I am puzzled by this effect and wonder if anyone can throw any light on what is happening please.
William Overington
30 March 2012