Clean DVD fonts?

[speedbump]

I have a client who is insisting that they author content for a DVD that they will put in the public in kiosks.

Naturally, they want to create as nice a presentation as they can.

The software they will use is either Powerpoint or Photoshop. I've been lobbying for Photoshop of course.

Anyway, I want to give the client a quick n dirty tutorial on how to create PSD files which will look sharp and clean when used as a slide show on their DVD.

I am going to tell them about title-safe areas, NTSC-safe RGB ranges, putting text in high-contrast areas, effective use of drop-shadows, etc.

But I don't know what to tell them in terms of what fonts to use, minimum sizes, anti-aliasing on or off, that kind of stuff.

Does anyone know of an online resource that covers this information, so I can condense it for the client?

Thanks

[kai]

http://www.jasonsantamaria.com/archive/2005/02/08/automation_will_kill_us_all.php

[speedbump]

Preaching to the choir, Kai. Ain't my call though.

If they'd just supply the text, and let me do it with the tools I have, we'd have been done by now and on to the next thing. But noooooooo.

Anyway, some creative googling has gotten me some generic tips:

o Be aware of action-safe and title-safe zones

o Use sans-serif fonts, such as Ariel, Helvetica, Verdana

o Use Bold or Black weight, not regular or thin weights for fonts

o Dark backgrounds, light text is best

o Avoid thin lines, use at least 3 pixel

o Avoid patterns like checkerboards, thin grids

o Disable anti-aliasing for text

o Use NTSC-safe color ranges

[kai]

Sounds about right, I never disable antialiasing on fonts though... might just be me.

[Neil Rowe]

..somthing ive found to work very well is reducing the luminance of the text. espescially if its white and smaller in size. when white text is at full luminance it tends to have a sort of halo effect which reduces the overall appearance of sharpness and resolution. if you reduce its luminace (or its opacity if its over black) to between 75 and 50% the text will still appear to be pretty "white" looking on an NTSC set as long as its over black , but it wil appear much sharper and more defined. on a computer screen it will just look a little grey is all. .. so you have greyish text on a computer.. ive never cared because 90+ percent of the time its going to be watched on a dvd player and a TV. try it out and do a little experimenting .. even if you only bring the luminance or opacity down by 10% it makes a difference. .. just a small suggestion anyway.

[David Jimerson]

Yeah, a light gray works a little better than true white -- and a light yellow works better against black. (This is a phenomenon I discovered when playing Omega Race on the old VIC-20 on a B/W TV . . . when I went to color I was astonished to find the color setting I had been using with the best contrast and detail was black on yellow, not black on white.)

[HorseFilms]

when I went to color I was astonished to find the color setting I had been using with the best contrast and detail was black on yellow, not black on white.)
Which is the reason why certain road signs are designed with that color scheme.

[David Jimerson]

Yellow is just a highly-visible color.

[Neil Rowe]

thats a good point david, ive done one DVD with yeller texts and it did look pretty nice and crispy. never considerd the color difference though.. but after all, thats why the yellow pages are yellow. .. makes sense.

[kai]

Think that's why God made pee yellow? So you could spot it when it snows?

[Neil Rowe]

(homer simpson) yuuuuuuummmmmmy ... yellloooow snooooowwwww..
*drools* arghhhlll !!

[WaveRiderXIX]

I've gotten to the point where I have made more DVD's than I can remember. Everything from personal demo reels, to blockbuster titles.

My advice.
A SOLID THICK FONT will give you the least amount of problems. Your hum will be reduced, 8-bit layers will be easier to work with, and everyone can see it. The worst thing the client do is have some kind of cursive font in case-sensitive. (God I hate those). Then when they see it on the DVD, it looks like crap and they complain. As a general text-readable safe button selection... I try to keep my average text size at 23.

My favorite is when people try to squash 20 chapter selects each in DETAIL of what is in the act... they try to squash it on one friggin' page. And expect it to be legible on a TV. This is after I tell them to try to keep a max of 10-15 links per page with minimal title description.

As for highlight layers. Yellow can almost always work, but even on some menus it can ruin it. I personally see what the background color looks like, then match the RGB of a color that stands out and compliments the selected object.