User Guide

88 Chapter 4: Using Text
Smoothing text edges
To smooth out a text edge, you anti-alias it. This makes the edges of the text blend into the
background so that the text is cleaner and more readable when it is large.
Original text; after smoothing
You use the Property inspector to set anti-aliasing. If the Property inspector is minimized, click
the expander arrow in the lower right corner to see all properties. Anti-aliasing applies to all
characters in a given text block.
No Anti-Alias disables text smoothing.
Crisp Anti-Alias creates a sharp transition between the edges of the text and the background.
Strong Anti-Alias creates a very abrupt transition between the edges of the text and the
background, preserving the shapes of the text characters and enhancing detailed areas of
the characters.
Smooth Anti-Alias creates a soft transition between the edges of the text and the background.
System Anti-Alias uses the text smoothing method provided by Windows XP or Mac OS X.
Custom Anti-Alias provides the following expert-level controls over anti-aliasing:
Oversampling determines the amount of detail used for creating the transition between the
text edges and the background.
Sharpness determines the smoothness of the transition between the text edges and
the background.
Strength determines how much the text edges blend into the background.
To apply an anti-aliased edge to selected text:
• In the Property inspector, choose one of options from the Anti-Aliasing pop-up menu:
Note: When you open vector files, such as FreeHand files, in Fireworks, text is anti-aliased. You can
edit this attribute using the Property inspector.
For more information, see Fireworks Help.
Expanding and contracting character width
You can expand or contract the character width of horizontal text using the Horizontal Scale
option in the Property inspector.
Horizontal scale is measured in percentage values. 100% is the default.
Horizontal Scale option in the Property inspector
If the Property inspector is minimized, click the expander arrow in the lower right corner to see
all properties.