Poor Text quality

Hi Steven- is the text in question in a table?

Text in table appears blurry or fuzzy

Or is it on an object with some kind of 3D effect? Moving the text to a text box on top of an object can improve the quality. Or maybe it's a reflection effect?

Do you have an example you can share? Or if not a link to an actual course, a .PNG screenshot of a slide in question?

I don't expect that there will be any improvements with this until Articulate moves the product to a newer version of Flash for published output...

I too have experienced problems with this for sometime...  I have a couple of courses I just bit the bullet and used web objects on every slide calling custom HTML pages because I needed to use a smaller sized font and Presenter rendered it almost unreadable.  Creating custom Flash movies as you mentioned would also be a viable option if you were desperate.

Thanks for replies folks. The text I'm using is just plain old slide text - no effects. As you say Brian, this probably won't improve until we have a publish to Flash 8 or higher option to make use of the better anti-aliasing. 

I've attached an image that highlights the difference in quality between Articulate and Flash 8 text.

The Articulate text is perfectly readable, but it's of noticeably lower quality and as I said, clients are picking up on this.

Are there any plans to include an option to publish to Flash or higher from Articulate in the future?

Maybe it's my imagination but it seems when I save a text object as a picture as is recommended for other reasons, that the text in the picture looks a little better. I don't always do this because it makes revisions more time consuming. If you think the 2nd version looks a little better, you might consider that solution.

Text object published...

Picture version of same text published...

Hi Donna. Where / how are you saving the text object as a picture? Also, if it means the text is no longer editable then it's not really an option for me I'm afraid.

Hi!

I would file a feature request to Articulate for their consideration and ask them to output in Flash 8 or greater.  Presenter (and other Articulate prodycts) currently outputs in Flash 6.  Flash 8 brought improvements to some renderings.

Thanks Gerry. I've taken your advice and filed a feature request.

Steven, if you right click on a text object, then you have the option to save it as a picture. I assume that in anticipation of edits, you would need to save the original text versions of text objects to be able to go back and edit and then resave as a picture so it would add steps to editing for sure. The other consideration would be that if you were going to apply animations to text objects, they would have to be redone too.

Does sound like a better solution would be the option to output to a newer version of Flash.

You raise a great point, Donna.  I do this all the time (save out as a picture, especially with SmartArt objects) but I create a copy of the slide I need to do this on and use that to generate the picture.  I then hide that slide in PowerPoint (different than hiding in the Presenter navigation) and make a note on the slide what I'm doing. 

Then if I ever have to make changes to the object saved out as opicture, I can use the slide hidden in the PowerPoint for that and not re-create things from scratch.

The save as image work-around could work but for me it's too much - takes the rapid out of rapid development. 

+1 for Flash 8 or Flash 9 export.

I am new to Articulate and would also appreciate the export to a more recent flash-version.

Actually for me the poor text quality is the only downside in this great tool.

Fred

Hi!  Good news coming here. Articulate has announced support for  Flash 10 in their new Storyline product (due out this summer) and the next version of the Suite (due later in the year after Storyline).

I need to create a quick electronic course portfolio, and turned to Powerpoint / Articulate as I knew it would providse a solution that would be clickable, and also have a built in search function.

HOWEVER, the text rendering is making the result look very unattractive - please hurry up with storyline, or fixing this as an update to studio 09.

I have used Articulate in my previous job, and want to introduce it here, but this is a real weakness - also I feel that the delay in storyline is causing some concerns over Articulates usually solid reputation. It would be great to nhave a date for the release.

Hello Ian,

As I was reading your post I got to your second to last sentence and thought "wait a minute...  delay?"  Because before there could be a delay in Storyline, there would need to be a release date...  Then I got to your last sentence where you then confirmed that there hasn't been a release date yet, and I felt better (thought I might have missed that if there were a release date!).

I personally like the way that Articulate has brought the community into beta testing so early in the process of developing storyline.  By bringing  your customers into the development process earlier,  you end up developing a product that, when released, is really a product largely designed by the input of your customers.  Not every company does this, but good companies do.

Obviously the risk that can be had in bringing your customers into the development process earlier is the perception that your product is delayed or behind schedule because it has been in beta for what some people may feel is too long a period of time.  The reality is that, for all we know, Storyline could be right on target with Articulate's original forecast for release.

In the end, from what I've seen, Storyline is going to be a very solid, very impressive version 1.0 product, which is actually what I would expect from an Articulate release.

Hi Ian. I would suggest you send us your project files so we can help you out. There really isn't a delay in releasing Storyline. We have never announced a release date.