best font for text without noise

[Scot Sheely]

Any Sans Serif font, regardless of your platform (OS).

In other words, Arial or Helvetica, depending if you are using Windows or Apple OS, respectively.

Also, depending whether you used imported objects from Photoshop, or the built in title generator, graphic objects are handled differently. If coming from PS, try to always use .PSD files if you are in PPRO, then .PNG, in that order of priority. You will find the greatest clarity that way in the image quality.

Something else to try that never fails: if you need a nice title roll or fly-in text, AE is the way to go. You can use the Dynamic Link feature found in PPRO’s File menu to create or import an ultra-clean title that isn’t rendered until you render your timeline.

[Andy Prada]

Undoubtedly some fonts appear clearer than others on the timeline.

But have you noticed that some text, particularly in DV projects, seems to collect artifacts or pixelation when rendered, but looks quite clean in preview mode?

The compression setting of the sequence reflects the amount of bandwidth available for text clarity. Uncompressed SD sequences should generate no pixelation because, at 20Mb per second or so, they are not trying to compensate for lack of bandwidth. DV operates at 3.6Mb per second so cramming in all those little drop shadows and outlines is a tall order.

HDV is more robust – even though the Mb bandwidth is similar to DV.

If I’m doing complex titles or text that needs absolute clarity I tend to create an un-compressed sequence which I then export to a DV timeline as a composite.

FWIW I noticed that CS4 rendered text with less clarity than CS3. That might be a function of Media Encoder because a direct export was not available from the timeline in the former. Just my opinion.