TechNote (Archived)

Bitmap fonts appear blurry

Issue

Small fonts in Macromedia Flash may appear blurry.

Reason

When a text field's X and Y stage coordinates are non-integer values (for example X: 102.4 and Y: 301.3) the pixels at the edge of the font suffer from over anti-aliasing.

Solution

Using the Info panel (Window > Panels > Info), change the text field's X and Y coordinates to whole integer values (for example, X: 102 and Y: 300). You will notice that the anti-aliasing no longer blurs the font.

Example

Compare the following screenshots. The first shows a text field positioned at non-integer X and Y stage coordinate values. The seconds shows the same text field repositioned at integer X and Y coordinates.

Text field positioned at non-integer X and Y stage coordinates:

The text field appears blurred. Note that the text field's X and Y coordinates are non-integer values.

Same text field positioned at integer X and Y coordinates:

The text is now cleaner and sharper once the text field's X and Y positions have been adjusted to whole integer values.

Additional information

See the Using Type section of the Flash support center for more information on using fonts in Flash. For more details on managing and installing fonts see Font installation on Windows TechNote 3649) or Font installation on the Macintosh (TechNote 3648).