DVDLab Why does my hi-lighted text look like crap?

[SmooBG]

Everything that is hi-lighted looks very jagged and crappy. Is there any remedy for this, or is this just the way it is?

[mkelley]

There are a few issues here.

First is you need to use NTSC (assuming that's where you live) safe colors. Other colors will not alias nearly as well. In particular, avoid reds and saturated colors in general.

Next, make sure you're using a TV font, and at least at 24 points (larger is better). There are many fonts which will not work well on television, and some of it is trial and error (you could, of course, burn a DVD with many fonts on it and see which ones look best).

Finally, DVDLab doesn't do as smooth a job at aliasing text as some programs. For critical work you might consider making your text buttons as subpictures in Photoshop -- save them as PNG files and bring them into DVDLab for use there (nearly all commercial DVDs use a variation of this technique).

[SmooBG]

Thanks for your reply. My text is white, I'm using Megahurtz, and I wanted the text to be invisible until the user passes over or clicks on the coresponding button, then the text describing what's 'in' that button would appear. I think DVDlab especially has a hard time with italicized text. I wish there was a way to have the text appear only when passed over. Would subpictures give me that functionality?

Thanks,

There are a few issues here.

Finally, DVDLab doesn't do as smooth a job at aliasing text as some programs. For critical work you might consider making your text buttons as subpictures in Photoshop -- save them as PNG files and bring them into DVDLab for use there (nearly all commercial DVDs use a variation of this technique).

8)

[mkelley]

Don't use white -- that's another no-no. Try gray, or at the very least an off-white or cream.

You can do what you want by "faking it" -- using an autoactivate button or area which then switches another menu in its place (this is described well in the tutorials under the menustrip usage). However, there may well be a noticable lag when this happens (YMMV).

[Thinkoba]

The subpicture on DVD can be created from only 3 colors or "shades". This is what you see as highlighted button. The 3 shades is not enough to do antialiasing.
The trick that is used on many DVD's is not use the full opaque highlite. Use it at 50% or so and this will basically change color of the button beneath but it will not look so jagged.
If the hi-lite is a standalone (has no button underneath) then you may consider full 100% opaque, but use simple shape, not text. Pro DVD's uses a simple dot or square or underline.

[SmooBG]

Thanks for your replies,
The less opacity I use, the better it looks, but I need to use text for descriptive purposes. I'm sure someday down the road, they'll add that functionality.
I haven't tried any other authoring software, but I'm pretty happy with what I can do with DVDLab. I think the trick is getting your files converted into the right format, once you figure that out, everything else moves along easily.

The subpicture on DVD can be created from only 3 colors or "shades". This is what you see as highlighted button. The 3 shades is not enough to do antialiasing.
The trick that is used on many DVD's is not use the full opaque highlite. Use it at 50% or so and this will basically change color of the button beneath but it will not look so jagged.
If the hi-lite is a standalone (has no button underneath) then you may consider full 100% opaque, but use simple shape, not text. Pro DVD's uses a simple dot or square or underline.