Is there any way of improving the quality of small text?

[amadeus]

I've been using PDN for quite some time, now, mainly for updating old street maps for my website. I have two queries. In some cases, quite frequently, actually, I have to use fonts as small a six point. Unfortunately, this degrades the quality of the resulting text and I'd like to know if there is any way in which it can be improved?  Are there any small, high definition fonts available? My second query is about rotating text. When I have to re-write the name of a street or road, I first erase the old text, put down a new layer, and manoeuvre the new text into place with the aid of rectangle select, etc. This also degrades the characters. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. 

 

[MJW]

I think it may be difficult to find a font that displays well at six point. In the end, the text is made up of pixels, and for normal pixel resolution, six-point characters don't consist of very many pixels.

 

For rotating the text, instead of using the Text Tool, you can try dpy's Text+ or Rotate Text.  Because they render the text at the specified angle (or at least I assume they do), they should produce better results.

[BoltBait]

Be sure to tinker with all the text settings:

 

[Djisves]

7 hours ago, amadeus said:

Are there any small, high definition fonts available?

I think the best font you can get to display at such a small size is Visitor TT2.

This was (is?) the standard font for userbars, when userbars were the standard for signature graphics. 

[amadeus]

Many thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I didn't realise, for instance, that there were ways of influencing font quality available in PDN. I shall be playing with these ideas to-morrow, providing that my wife doesn't have other things in mind. She managed to blow the fuse in the wallpaper steamer, today. Never a dull moment!  I'll let you know how I get on. Oh, and I've downloaded the TT2 font, by the way. Looks quite promising.

[amadeus]

Just about a month late with this reply.  Humble apologies. Looks like there's not a lot can be done for my low resolution problem, although MJW's reply does look as though it could be the answer to the rotating text query. The TT2 font looks fairly reasonable, too. Not had time to investigate them thoroughly, yet. One problem I have with print is that, in the sixties, I worked for Varityper as a service engineer, and dealt with metal type fonts. A different kettle of fish when it came to small print. Once again, my thanks to all who offered advice.