KVR Audio

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 11:59 am

None of the antialiasing modes in PS look even halfways decent?

martin_l · Post by **martin_l** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:02 pm

ENV1 wrote:
EvilDragon wrote:Hm, indeed. But they are bold!
Yeah, they sure are.

And it pees me off to no end that i cant even get non-bold fonts in that size that dont look like crap.

(The small ones i mean.)

The only thing that would help here was a larger fontsize, but then we have the problem of not enough room again, so everything would have to be abbreviated.

It remains a dilemma, unless Martin decides to make the whole UI a good chunk larger. In that case everything could be made to proper scale and look good at the same time. But im sure he has much more important things to take care of right now, so its not something id expect to happen anytime soon.

The dilemma here is that then one should have a scalable GUI. Already with the size I have now, I had comments that it is too large for some (I guess older) laptop displays.

At the moment, all dimensions and positions of GUI elements are defined through an enum construct. This could easily be changed to normal variables, which could be read from a skin file. I have to look further into how to make skin-able plugins. I guess you would only include the default skin bitmaps (or pngs) into the binary, and would read them from some predefined directory otherwise?..

crimsonwarlock · Post by **crimsonwarlock** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:05 pm

ENV1 wrote:And it pees me off to no end that i cant even get non-bold fonts in that size that dont look like crap.

Here's a trick: design (and/or render) the backplate at twice the size, after that resize the generated graphic to it's correct size using a good interpolation algorithm (if available use Lanczos). This will anti-alias your fonts towards the final resolution.

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:08 pm

Teksonik wrote:Your artistic and design talents continue to impress a great deal. Fantastic work !

Hopefully this will be the default GUI sometime soon........

Thank you.

As a bloody amateur with no training in the field of image art whatsoever im always glad if others like what i cobble together via trial and error.

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:14 pm

EvilDragon wrote:None of the antialiasing modes in PS look even halfways decent?

No.

Its hopeless.

The only AA that is actually worth a damn when the fontsize goes below 10 is Microsofts own (which is also used in MS Paint), but even that will begin to struggle at such small fontsizes and the text will look rather 'oversharpened', which can look really annoying. (And i mean annoying. Literally. It pokes in the eye.)

crimsonwarlock · Post by **crimsonwarlock** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:16 pm

ENV1 wrote:
EvilDragon wrote:None of the antialiasing modes in PS look even halfways decent?
No.

Its hopeless.

Get a copy of GIMP (it's free), it smokes PS and the likes for graphics processing

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:26 pm

martin_l wrote:Already with the size I have now, I had comments that it is too large for some (I guess older) laptop displays.

Yeah. Its that resolution thing. People on low resolutions will damn you if you make the UI large, the folks on high resolution will damn you if you make it small. Its a bloody drama.

martin_l wrote:At the moment, all dimensions and positions of GUI elements are defined through an enum construct. This could easily be changed to normal variables, which could be read from a skin file. I have to look further into how to make skin-able plugins. I guess you would only include the default skin bitmaps (or pngs) into the binary, and would read them from some predefined directory otherwise?..

Most of the time the layout and the images are in the DLL. In more rare cases the layout is in the DLL and the images are in a folder, whose location varies. And in very rare cases you have everything you need outside the DLL, like for instance Atlantis, Oatmeal and ADM. The system used by ADM was the best to work with so far because i could define the size and location of each and every object, plus it was easy to do. (Oatmeal for instance is not so easy, it would take a long time to finish a complete skin for that one.)

If you need assistence with making you plugin skinnable, maybe you could contact Mike from AudioRealism. Thats the guy who made ADM, and if he isnt in stress due to project work hes usually a very nice guy to talk to. Im sure hed be willing to give you a pointer or two.

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:27 pm

crimsonwarlock wrote:
ENV1 wrote:And it pees me off to no end that i cant even get non-bold fonts in that size that dont look like crap.
Here's a trick: design (and/or render) the backplate at twice the size, after that resize the generated graphic to it's correct size using a good interpolation algorithm (if available use Lanczos). This will anti-alias your fonts towards the final resolution.

I tried that, but i found the results unacceptably blurry.

I could give it another shot though.

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:28 pm

crimsonwarlock wrote:
ENV1 wrote:
EvilDragon wrote:None of the antialiasing modes in PS look even halfways decent?
No.

Its hopeless.
Get a copy of GIMP (it's free), it smokes PS and the likes for graphics processing

Has the same crummy AA as PS on small fonts, in some cases its even worse.

Been there, done that.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:30 pm

Blurry when resizing to half the size? That's weird... usually blurring happens when increasing the size, and things get sharper when you reduce the size (depending on the algorithm, yes). Lanczos resize filter is available in IrfanView image viewer, for example (free).

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:41 pm

EvilDragon wrote:Blurry when resizing to half the size? That's weird... usually blurring happens when increasing the size, and things get sharper when you reduce the size (depending on the algorithm, yes). Lanczos resize filter is available in IrfanView image viewer, for example (free).

It gets blurry because the pixels are being smashed together.

Thats hell on definition and sharpness, especially with small objects, and there especially with fonts.

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:47 pm

Resizing anything, whether smaller or larger, can play havoc with fonts. Photos, not so much. But fonts are just the worst.

bftucker · Post by **bftucker** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 3:57 pm

Totolitoto wrote:Very nice skin!

Yes! I agree. Very nice. Now the GU'I's quality matches that of the software.

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 4:54 pm

OK, ive found some odd font (Khmer UI) which would let me use bold and retain the original width without looking totally messed up. It came at the cost of quite a bit of sharpness though, so thats still far from what i would call optimal. Please let me know what you think, and if you think it looks crap, just say it looks crap. I wont take it personally.

PS: Martin, if youd rather i take this to my own thread, just let me know.

click for fullsize

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Sun Feb 08, 2015 4:58 pm

ENV1 wrote:OK, ive found some odd font (Khmer UI) which would let me use bold and retain the original width without looking totally messed up. It came at the cost of quite a bit of sharpness though, so thats still far from what i would call optimal. Please let me know what you think, and if you think it looks crap, just say it looks crap. I wont take it personally.

PS: Martin, if youd rather i take this to my own thread, just let me know.

click for fullsize

im not knocking your work, but its all a bit too much of the same...gets hard to look at very quickly. Some colour of some sort for say the sliders or something would be 'nice'

its good quality, but its just too much of the same colour for me

PG8X (inspired by the JX8P): new beta version uploaded