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legal type size?
Hi all,
Don’t know if this is relevant/applicable outside the UK, but I’m wondering if someone can settle something for me?…
I’ve worked for a post house in broadcast design (TV ads mainly) for the last 6yrs and I started out on a Quantel Paintbox (the old school variety!) and minimum legal type size was always 17 TV lines high. So, I’d zoom right in on the P/Box and count the vertical lines on a lower case ‘x’. Standard pratice yeah?
Well, I moved onto Photoshop for most of my GFX work about 3-4 years ago and now onto AE mostly..I transferred over a still that I knew was legal size from the PB and put it into a DV PAL 1.42 comp/PSD, zoomed in and counted the *PIXELS* on that same X…17 it seems, so I’ve carried on that way ever since..
Recently though I’ve heard someone saying that TV lines and pixels are NOT the same thing.
i.e: PAL = 625 lines. PAL PS comp = 576 pixels.Have I been getting this wrong and doing my legals too big?!?
Any advice really appreciated. I’ve got meself worried now!
Jim.
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8 Replies
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from app to app, and sometimes even font to font, numeric values of sizes vary. It’s hard to say “18” is your legal limit in an NLE’s titler or that “6” is in PS. The bottom line is ya gotta look at it in titlesafe on an NTSC monitor. I have this hyothetical size etched in memory but if you don’t hop up, walk ten feet away and read it.
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Sorry if I wasn’t clear…by “18” I meant 18 pixels high when you zoom in and count the pixels..NOT 18 points in type size.
UK legal TV line size is 17 lines, I am just trying to work out if TV lines relate directly to vertical pixels in a D1 PAL composition?
Cheers.
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Here’s an article that may shed some light on the issue:
https://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidres.htm
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV -
Thanks Joe, but my brain is fried after reading that!?!
I still can’t quite figure out if 17 vertical pixels is the same as 17 TV lines! I fear I may be being incredibly thick here…
Does anyone who knows the $64,000,000 question fancy spelling it out for me?
🙁
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A good scope is great for this. You put it on vertical mode and put your legal graphic up over black for ease of readability. You can then count horizontally the number of lines the graphic occupies.
Charlie
ProductionKing Video Services
Unmarked Door Productions
Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel
Las Vegas, Nevada -
Lines of resolution are definitely not pixels. Digital pixels are converted to lines for broadcast or at the receiver with standard NTSC. You may be building your type larger than the minimum required size. But they are probably close enough for this purpose since the ‘legal’ size seems to be very subjective.
Can anyone provide me with the name of the body or document that laid out the guidelines or rules for legal type size – I can not ferret it out with my googling skill or by asking around Los Angeles? Maybe I don’t know the right people.
Further, I believe that potentially HD line do equal pixels since the broadcast is digital. But that’s just a hunch. Does anyone know?
thanks a lot
frank -
Yes, I think I’m making my titles a line too big – bettersafe than sorry!
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Frank –
The only document I could come up with is with regard to political advertising. It’s on the third page here:The key words appear to be “equal to or greater than four percent of the vertical picture height” and of course “at least four seconds long”. It then gets into color contrast issues as well, leaning toward black text on a white background, but then laying out some other possibilities. This is by the Federal Election Commission, in a document issued in 2002.
Joe Bourke
Art Director / WMUR-TV
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