Fuzzy Text in PDF From Indesign

[plumpan]

I just created a page layout in Indesign CS3 containing both white text over a black background and black text over a white background. The fonts I used are Adobe Garamond Pro and Times. When I export the file to PDF (1.7), and open it up in Preview, all the text appears slightly bolded. When I open the file in Acrobat, it appears as it does in Indesign.

Is there a way to make it appear as it should in both Preview and Acrobat Reader, or is this an issue with how Preview renders fonts?

 

[adrianblaine]

I think there is a difference as to how each render a PDF. Preview seems to "flatten" the page as if it were a jpg or something while Acrobat seems to view it as vector graphics thus making it appear much more crisp.

 

[JasonElise1983]

preview uses apples font smoothing settings.... Just like safari does.

-be

 

[Jim Campbell]

I just created a page layout in Indesign CS3 containing both white text over a black background and black text over a white background. The fonts I used are Adobe Garamond Pro and Times. When I export the file to PDF (1.7), and open it up in Preview, all the text appears slightly bolded. When I open the file in Acrobat, it appears as it does in Indesign.

Is there a way to make it appear as it should in both Preview and Acrobat Reader, or is this an issue with how Preview renders fonts?

There's an "Anti-alias Text & Line Art" option in Preview's preferences under the PDF tab. It appears to be on by default - does turning it off make any difference?

Cheers!

Jim

 

[plumpan]

turning that option off makes the text very jagged (and in turn slightly less bolded), but still does not make the display of the characters accurate to the way the font should look.

does preview support embedded fonts like acrobat?

 

[pujapuri]

Preview uses mostly the Quartz composing engine for PDF's and renders them completely different from how Acrobat does.

Ideally you don't notice a difference, except when you make use of typefaces. We extensively use types in a lot of our design so Adobe Reader is usually used for presentations etc.