Definitions

Outline Fonts
Are print-style fonts designed for the digital realm.
They are hand crafted to be pixel perfect at a certain size, throughout all applications that support TrueType and bitmap files.

Pixel Fonts
Pixel Fonts are old screen-style fonts. They are designed on a grid at one size. They can be more clear than Outline Fonts, when aligned to the screen grid.

Ultrafonts™
Ultra Fonts™ (UF) are pixel fonts with black, white, and gray pixels produced by controlled antialiasing. These are the sharpest of all fonts, when correctly used. Ultra Fonts™ are compatible with many programs and platforms. This guide is about how to use UF's in Photoshop, Flash, MacOS and Windows.

USER GUIDE

Ultra Fonts™ are designed to be used at 8 point, no matter how big the letters are. This aligns the font grid to the screen, which is usually all you need to do to make a UF work perfectly. Although the font must always be sized at 8 point we can make Ultra Fonts™ in any size.

Many graphics programs allow sub-pixel positioning, that is, placement at a half or fractional pixel position. This will blur a UF. Make sure all text objects are positioned on whole (integer) pixels, and not scaled or rotated.

Also, the space between letters (tracking) must be set to multiples of 125, such as 250, 375, 500, … . This is because tracking is measured in Em units, and each pixel of the font is 125 Em units wide.

For multiple lines of text, the space between lines of type (leading) must also line up with the grid. Set it to any integer value, that is, any number without a decimal.

If you adjust tracking or leading on a regular font, then choose a UF font, it may blur strangely, going in and out of focus. Set tracking to 0, and leading to the default, to start over.

Photoshop and Illustrator

Photoshop and Illustrator are high-resolution tools. Before you can use a UF correctly, you must set the document resolution to 72 dpi. Then,
-set UF's at 8 point
-turn OFF fractional spacing
-turn ON smooth or crisp antialiasing
-In Illustrator, turn ON the 'anti-alias artwork' option.
If you want to enlarge the resulting image, take a screenshot, then enlarge the screenshot. The UF looks best at even multiples like 8, 16, 32 point.

Flash 3, /4, /5, /Mx and /Mx 2004

Although Flash is designed for screen size, it allows text and artwork to be placed on the subpixel. So, you may have text that is 'slipped' halfway between one pixel and another! Round X and Y to the closest pixel (for example, round 5.4 to 5.0). When you animate UF text, make sure it finishes on a whole pixel position.

One of the best parts about Flash is that movieclips may contain other movieclips. Whenever you have UF in a movieclip, remember, it must be pixel aligned to the _root to look perfect. Misalignment of a parent or child movieclip will cause blurring.

Make sure to embed your UF font into Flash. Embedded UFs work as static or dynamic-type text. Input-type text is drawn by the host OS, so it may appear lighter or darker.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X supports UF TrueType fonts directly with no alteration or conversion required. Simply use the fonts at 8 point and turn on antialiasing.

For the best results, Set systemwide anti-aliasing of text to Medium, do not anti-alias 8pt or smaller, and use the CRT rendering profile instead of LCD rendering.

(Thanks to Jon Whipple for this report.)

Windows 95,/98,/Me,/2k, /Xp and /Xp Pro

The default system DPI (dots per inch) of Windows is 96 point, as opposed to the conventional 72 DPI. Therefore, outside Flash, Photoshop and other graphics programs, you must use UF fonts at 6 point to compensate. For best results, turn off LCD subpixel rendering, if you notice font color distortion.