I'm trying to do text outline, however I'm having trouble making the outline exactly the same shape as the text itself. When you do an outline stroke, the edges appear soft which I don't want. Any ideas? Thanks
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3Welcome to GD. Can you describe in greater detail what you mean by "soft"? It would be great if you have an image showing the problem. Even though you cannot post images yet, go ahead and put the url in your question and somebody will edit it to display the image.– FarraySep 1, 2011 at 23:38
3 Answers
You tagged this question as both photoshop and illustrator so I'll address each individually as each do stroke in their own way:
Photoshop handles stroke through Layer Styles which can be accessed by double-clicking on a layer in the layers palette. (Right-clicking and going to "Layer Properties..." also works.
The following image shows where stroke is located in the Layer Style window:
From here you can make adjustments to the stroke. Stroke is hard and sharp by default.
In illustrator stroke is handled much more directly. Ever shape has a "Fill Color" and a "Stroke Color". In the following image the blue color is the fill and the green is the stroke. (Do note that these are most easily set by double clicking the colors in the bottom-left)
From within the stroke menu you can adjust the peculiarities of the stroke.
Again, the default stroke is not soft.
I'm not sure exactly where your issue regarding "soft stroke" comes from so hopefully this answers your question. But some greater clarification would be good!
I am guessing that pufAmuf is responding to the stroke placed on an anti-aliased or softened edge: the stroke itself becomes irregular and is not anti-aliased. If that's the case, a little outer glow of the stroke color might touch up the edges.
In Illy, outline the text then copy it and paste it behind, then stroke that type to any size you want. The stroke will show as a perfect outline of the type above it. The stroke will be crisp at any size.