The Web Design Bureau of Mauritius. Bringing web design back home since 2008.

The aliasing issue.

Web Design Mauritius | 23/10/2008 | no comments

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I was reading Anthony Zinni’s post on aliasing in design comps. This might seem to be a minor issue to many a mauritian, especially budding, designer but experience has proved that there is more to it. The main problem is that,as a designer replying to an offer, you don’t know what type of web/graphics habits and gear your client might have.

In the case of MS Windows users, some use the “cleartype” option while others don’t. This means that the client will have the habit of either seing aliased or anti-aliased type. Those using Apple gear are used to having Helvetica and all with sharp anti-aliasing. So what is aliasing choice to make when setting up a comp?

For me the answer is simple as I have experienced client anger due to non 100% comp copy site integration namely when it comes to fonts and gradients (as I wasn’t the person having done the comps). Many clients do not understand the issues related to using images nor do they understand everything about standards or CSS. You can’t blame them, its not their field. If you have time to explain in details that the website will not be a 100% copy of the comp, good for you, but be sure to have the right arguments for this. So if you show heavy anti-aliased fonts in your comp, be sure to explain that fonts will not be the same.

For me, the best solution is to leave aliased text as it is and let the client have either a good surprise when seeing the site with cleartype activated, else no surprise but you’ll still be on the right track transforming your comp into HTML/CSS.