When I add some text in Microsoft Paint, it gets overly pixelated:
I used the Times New Roman font.
How can I prevent some added text from becoming pixelated in Microsoft Paint?
Image used in the example:
Asked
Active
Viewed 4,367 times
13
Franck Dernoncourt
- 20,384
- 48
- 186
- 322
-
1What font are you using? Have you tried a different photo editor? – Ramhound Mar 06 '22 at 22:40
-
@Ramhound I used the `Times New Roman` font. I'm trying to stay on MS Paint as it's simple. – Franck Dernoncourt Mar 06 '22 at 22:42
-
14Microsoft paint is a turd. There are so many free editors that have WAY WAY better features and outcomes. Why not paint.net or gimp? Paint.net is also simple (IMHO) but I get that this doesn't contribute to answering your question. :) – Señor CMasMas Mar 06 '22 at 22:53
-
@SeñorCMasMas thanks, if the answer is that paint is crap and doesn't support it, that's a valid answer. – Franck Dernoncourt Mar 06 '22 at 22:57
-
7BTW @FranckDernoncourt , your animated graphic of your problem is BOMB! +1. – Señor CMasMas Mar 06 '22 at 23:10
-
What photo format are you using. I haven’t been able to reproduce the behavior – Ramhound Mar 06 '22 at 23:49
-
@Ramhound Image used in the example: https://i.stack.imgur.com/BRELh.png – Franck Dernoncourt Mar 06 '22 at 23:55
-
So the answer to my question is .png? That’s the original format of the image? – Ramhound Mar 07 '22 at 00:12
-
@Ramhound correct – Franck Dernoncourt Mar 07 '22 at 00:24
-
1@FranckDernoncourt what's the size in pt of your text? By default the text renderers won't use anti-aliasing for sizes below a set limit – phuclv Mar 07 '22 at 09:56
-
Are you on Windows XP? The old version of MS Paint doesn't support text anti-aliasing. It might also be a problem if you're using indexed colours in the source image (check the image format). – Luaan Mar 08 '22 at 09:26
-
4@SeñorCMasMas How can you recommend Gimp as a Paint alternative with a straight face? :D I'm a long-time user of Gimp, and it can do a lot of stuff... but it's not a replacement for Paint. Paint.NET is a much better alternative for the OP, IMO - still much more complicated than Paint, but miles ahead of Gimp in that regard :D – Luaan Mar 08 '22 at 09:28
-
@FranckDernoncourt Mind me asking what you used to make the GIF? – Hashim Aziz Mar 08 '22 at 15:56
-
@HashimAziz [ShareX](https://github.com/ShareX). I use to use [LICEcap](https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/a/24774/903) before it stopped working for no reasons, but ShareX is better anyway. – Franck Dernoncourt Mar 08 '22 at 17:47
-
@Luaan Gimp isn't a general replacement for Paint, due to being more advanced. But its text tool is a lot better and isn't really any more difficult to use. The main thing is remembering to Export the Image when you're finished. – trlkly Mar 09 '22 at 03:00
-
1@Luaan , I was trying to provide a cross platform alternative as well. I have done amazing things with gimp but it is kindof a PITA. And a straight face? :D Nobody said that I have one of those. – Señor CMasMas Mar 09 '22 at 06:50
3 Answers
15
It depends on the size of the image. If you're stuck editing a very small image, you can try increasing the size, as shown below, then add text, and then shrink the image somewhat. If resized too small, text will be blurred.
As others mention, you might try another image editor. Free IrfanView, or one of the many alternatives, might do better. However, even with an alternative tool, you may still need to work with an expanded image.
DrMoishe Pippik
- 25,661
- 4
- 36
- 54
-
12Additional clarification: Paint isn't aliasing the font. A good editor will still pixellate, but it will alias [blur the edges, cleverly] to make it look more like your other text. Your actual pixel dimensions are too small for this to not be an issue. Your 'fix' is to use a much larger initial image, as suggested by DrMoishe Pippik, which will hide that deficiency. It perhaps would look less jarring if you were using a similar sans-serif font too, rather than a serif such as Times. – Tetsujin Mar 07 '22 at 08:12
-
Simple supersampling approach (which is what this answer suggests) will still give unsatisfactory results, because normal antialiased font rendering uses hinting to somewhat align the glyphs to the pixel grid to improve readability. As for "expanded image", GIMP can work without any expansion: its text layer, when merged down, looks like normal antialiased text. – Ruslan Mar 08 '22 at 00:21
-
@Tetsujin You have it backwards. Aliasing is the problem, not the solution. But Paint _is_ doing text anti-aliasing (in the updated version from... was it Windows 7 and later?). – Luaan Mar 08 '22 at 09:21
-
@Luuan - yeah, I kind of realised after I'd written it - but by then it had so many upvotes I didn't want to lose it ;) I think people get the idea, even if the terminology ended up backwards. – Tetsujin Mar 08 '22 at 10:45
10
if the answer is that paint is crap and doesn't support it, that's a valid answer.
Paint is crap. If you want a similar and gratis software, try Paint.NET instead.
It has 3 options for dealing with how the font is pixelated and you can enable or disable antialiasing as well. You will see the pixelation in preview, i.e. while you're still editing the text.
Thomas Weller
- 5,704
- 11
- 55
- 100
9
Presumably, you want your text to look similar to the existing text ("Overall clinical ratings of"). Note that this text itself is pixelated, but that's because of the image's resolution, leaving only 8 pixels for the text height.
So, you want MSPaint to render text using ClearType. I've tested on my machine's MSPaint (using Times New Roman), and it does apply ClearType.
I believe MSPaint uses your display's ClearType settings to render text. You should check your computer's ClearType settings: search for ClearType in the start menu and you should find the "Adjust ClearType text" app.
