LR web galleries and text quality

[pixel wrangler]

Hey gang, I was wondering what I can do to achieve the best looking text in a LR web gallery. I made a bunch of text documents in PS/CS3 as either .psd or .tif files, then imported them into LR, where I mixed them with some photos and made the gallery. The text looks just OK in LR, but not so good in a browser. I'm using the highest quality output settings in LR.

Here's a link to the gallery. Note, I'm not pimping my business here, just looking for tech help.

http://homepage.mac.com/fastpics/doc/

I'm beginning to think maybe I shouldn't be using PS for the text. Anyway, thanks so much for your advice.

Ron

[wolfnowl]

This might be of interest to you: http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/2009/vi...s-and-printing/

Mike.

[Rhossydd]

I'm beginning to think maybe I shouldn't be using PS for the text.

Using LR to build 'normal' web sites is a bad idea for many reasons, like legibility of text and indexing of content.
There may be a case for adding some text into a LR photo gallery to help explain content(but that could be done in a more elegant way too), but as a business showcase it reflects poorly on the professionalism of the operation.

[Robert Spoecker]

This is not a text issue. When text is added to a page in photoshop and saved as a tiff or any other type of file it becomes a graphic file not a text file. Your images are just fine so LR is doing its thing well. Take a look at your tif files at the same size as they appear on the web site and see if they look good. I think you will see if you carefully choose an appropriate page size and text size in photoshop things will look better. I made several attempts and cant get them to look bad. Maybe it would help if you posted the image size, text size and font. Then I will make a tif file in photoshop and see if I replicate your problem

Robert

[Rhossydd]

Take a look at your tif files at the same size as they appear on the web site

That's the problem. It's impossible to predict how people will see the text on their screens.
The flash gallery resizes images to fit whatever size the viewer has their browser window. In some situations the text will look as intended, in others it will be illegible.
It's just very poor practice.

[pixel wrangler]

Hey everyone, thanks very much for your prompt and candid replies. As I state on the intro page of the gallery, it is a short-term temporary solution. I think very temporary.

This has been an interesting learning experience however. Robert, you're right, when I used the term "text document" I meant a .tif or .psd with text in it, not a text document like a Word, or AppleWorks, or InDesign document. And Paul, I think you've hit on the main problem, they way Flash resizes to fit the browser window. The pages look pretty good on my 21" Eizo, and a client's 23" Apple Display, but who knows what they look like on a laptop, or a lesser monitor. A friend of mine to whom I sent the link for feedback alerted me to the problem, but I don't know what monitor or resolution he was using.

My original tifs are somewhere in the vicinity of 10x6@300ppi, I originally created them at print res.  Now that I think about it I probably would have been wise to prepare the originals at closer to the final web size. The downsizing taking place in LR when it creates the galleries may well contribute to the problem.

Anyway, I'm the first one to admit I'm neither a graphic designer, nor a web person.   I do a much better job at processing RAW files and retouching LOL. I think I'll be reaching for my checkbook very soon. Any suggestions, perhaps some kind of template site to start with?

Thanks again,

ron

[seanmcfoto]

Ron,
The flash gallery creates a number of different sizes depending on the screen/window size. The images are inside the exported folder bin/images in the large, medium, small and thumb folders. Depending on screen size, Lightroom uses different images in the browser. So even if it looks good at one resolution, it may not look good at the others. On top of that, once the size is below that of the small image, it scales the image down in a very unsightly manner.

There are a number of Web developers about, myself included.. I'm at http://lightroom-blog.com, but you'll find great stuff at http://theturninggate.net and http://lightroomgalleries.com.