PSP X2 issue

[soleil00]

For the past couple of weeks, every time I save a JPEG file in PSP X2 it ends up with these.. pixel dots all over it. I'm not even sure how to describe it so I will post a pic following this to show how it looks. It has never done this before and I dont know if I messed with something and screwed it up to where it does this now, but I've saved in other formats and the GIF files have the dots also but they are spread out and less noticeable.

The JPG files, the pixel dots are concentrated around the text, especially if I use the outer glow option. I use that option a lot with banners that I have been practicing making for a friend's forum, and its getting annoying when I save and I can see this almost rainbow of pixels around the text, they're distracting to me at least. I've tried saving them by running the JPEG Optimizer wizard in PSP but it doesn't seem to help anything. The only way I can get rid of the pixels is to save as PNG file and those are too large to be uploaded to the forum.

Here is an example of an image I just made. I saved it as two different files, one saved as JPEG and one saved as GIF, made exactly the same as I have been making the banners:

JPEG:





GIF:



You can see the grainy look around the writing on the GIF, its not as noticeable on the JPEG with that color so I also made it with a different color font & outer glow. The grainy pixels are between the letters but I have banners made that you can see it a lot worse than that.

Like this one below, its really grainy around the writing, its just bad and I had to give in and use a GIF because she girl didn't like the grainy look of this JPEG:


I can't really tag a pattern on whats going on. Sometimes it only shows up on dark images, sometimes it only shows up on really bright images. Any ideas on what is going on?

[zuluclayman]

When you insert the text are you using the antialiasing feature? it smooths the text out - same when you apply the glow - if it has an antialiasing box tick it.
Also - are you dragging the size of the text up after making the text layer - this will cause jagged edges and expand the gaps between pixels in the glow as well.
I don't use PSP - I use Photoshop so am not so familiar with its text capabilites (or failings)
At that size difficult to see what you mean with grainy look (yes I do have my reading glasses on ) - can see on last image graininess around edges of writing and in glow area)

[soleil00]

Sometimes I do drag th size of the text up after I have it entered, that may be what the issue is.

The Anti-aliasing is set to "Sharp" on the box, should I change it to "Smooth" or turn it off completely?

ETA:

I went into PSP and played with the Anti-Aliasing and resizing the text, the ones on the right were resized, the ones on the left weren't. The top ones were with Sharp and the bottom ones were with Smooth:




I don't see the pixels anywhere on that image except around the small white font and so I have no clue what is going on lol

[zuluclayman]

Anti aliasing should be set to smooth - some fonts will scale better than others (TrueType fonts are best) - this could explain the examples you have posted.
Fonts when scaled (either up or down) can lose clarity easily in non-vector based apps such as Photoshop, Corel etc. as they are relying on pixel rendering.
It may be a case of "taste and try" - try different fonts and see which ones work best for the methods you are using.

[soleil00]

Alright I think setting it to smooth may have helped a lot. Thank you so much! I would have never known to mess with the anti-aliasing!