Low DPI Pixel perfect preview and render

[Chevdor]

I am facing a little challenge for which I did not find a good solution yet.

I need to make a "pixel perfect" PNG for printing on a low DPI device (180 DPI).
My doc is 4.5m x 60mm @ 180 DPI.

I am using a low DPI friendly font.
If I don't enable pixel view mode, things look great.

Unfortunately, my final PNG will not look like that.

Turning on pixel view mode gives me a better preview of what will be rendered:

I tried a few options to snap to whole pixel and such but no option worked well.

Force pixel alignment is consistant..ly bad:

Without forcing, I get more control.... but that's hell to manage:

and can even lead to very bad results (below is a 45...):

How could I get a render that is exactly what I see when not turning pixel view mode ?
I am not trying to get subpixel details to show as whole pixels. I am not trying to make pixel art, just trying to have a doc that will render best on my low DPI printer.

I am currently using the C&C Red Alert font, maybe another one would do better ?
My export is 31x425 px and I would be happy if I would not have to "draw" my letters per hand

 

[Old Bruce]

6 hours ago, Chevdor said:

I am using a low DPI friendly font.

Not sure what that means. Back in the day there were fonts which were Pixel aligned. The glyphs and letter spaces were made to be Pixel perfect, as long as you used Pixels for the size of the font. Try that. Change your Preferences to not use Points for lines and fonts.

[Chevdor]

That unfortunately does not seem to cut it.

[Oufti]

12 hours ago, Chevdor said:

I need to make a "pixel perfect" PNG for printing on a low DPI device (180 DPI).
My doc is 4.5m x 60mm @ 180 DPI.

I would begin by setting the document size to pixels (entire values) and keep its "dpi" to 180 (if you only use solid black, K100).

 

5 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Back in the day there were fonts which were Pixel aligned. The glyphs and letter spaces were made to be Pixel perfect, as long as you used Pixels for the size of the font. Try that.

For example, from the excellent Dutch Underware foundry, there's this font: 
https://www.underware.nl/fonts/unibody/features/

You can use it at 8 px or whatever multiple of it (16, 24,…) It's free but you have to comply to the EULA.

[NotMyFault]

I recommend good old PC Bios Pixel fonts, see link below.

Create a grid in the exact pixel size of the font. set snapping accordingly.
Set the size exactly in pixel. Plan pedantically.

sizes may need to be adjusted by +1px 

 

[Chevdor]

I tried some unibody bu the issue remains.

Here is the preview (unibody at the top).

but as soon as I turn on pixel view mode (which is a good representation of how the output will be rendered), I get the same issue again:

 

If I dont force pixel alignment and move by 0.1mm, it gets totally screwed up:

[NotMyFault]

1. You must enforce pixel alignment (starting position of layer)
2. you must use the font in the exact size specified.
3. you cannot stretch it, aspect ratio must stay 1:1

and better deactivate anti-aliasing in layer blend settings.

Why do you think you can move it to non-pixel aligned positions without getting a mess? This is not meant in any way offensive. Keeping the layer pixel aligned is essential precondition for avoiding the issue.

use px as document units will help you. Anything else will not work in practice 

 

[Chevdor]

> You must enforce pixel alignment (starting position of layer)

I do and that makes sense. However, since it does not work so far, I am experimenting...

> You must use the font in the exact size specified.

I am using 5pt

> you cannot stretch it, aspect relation must stay 1:1

no stretching, no rotate.

> and better deactivate anti-aliasing in layer blend settings.

Yes, I did force it to off.

> Why do you think you can move it to non-pixel aligned positions without getting a mess?

I don't but as mentioned so far I had little success following that I think makes sense

> use px as document units. Anything else will not work.

Ok, that may be the issue as I need to use mm here. I will try px though.

 

That unfortunately does not seem to cut it.

[NotMyFault]

 

[NotMyFault]

Just now, Chevdor said:

I am using 5pt

Depending on document dpi this gives 10px. The font is designed for 8px.

[NotMyFault]

The font is a bit tricky. 
I suggest to create a text layer, and enter letter X only.

then use move tool to size the letter in 1px steps until you get a perfect sharp rendering. Then enter additional letters.

if you add Q, the size increases. The issue is that the. Font does not fill the px completely, instead it leaves about 1/8px unfilled. This irritates the transform panel, so it reports only the „used“ size.

i don’t like this font for this technical property.

the bitmap fonts I listed earlier don’t have this issue.

 

[NotMyFault]

The sligh dark halo around the fonts is eliminated when deactivating AA. Another issue with this font.

AA active

AA off

[Chevdor]

Thanks for your help and patience

Still no success but your linked document seems to be spot on.

From my test, using a document in mm is ok if "force pixel alignemnt" is on.
I set DPI to 180 to match the printer I am using.
That is probably what leads to the issue. I checked many of the other options and they look fine.

 

[NotMyFault]

Do manually calculate the pixel size based on mm and dpi. Setup the document to use px. Forget about physical units when trying to get pixel perfect designs. Use 144dpi, so 1pt = 2px will avoid some issues.

 

[NotMyFault]

These seems to be the required settings for the font to work.

1. add text frame
2. enter letter capital X
3. use move tool to get 5x7px 
4. font size shows 8.09 (ignore it)
5. paste your text into the frame (plain text. No formatting)
6. set AA to off

 

[Chevdor]

I don't care much what font I'd use. I mainly care about rendering numbers.
So if you say this one font is not appropriate, I will gladly move to another one !
I will start bothering about "nice" fonts once I get the issue fixed

[NotMyFault]

These fonts work perfect

https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/fontlist/

[NotMyFault]

The Toshiba 8x8 must be sized 7x7px to get perfect result.

The limitation: all letters have same width. 
If you need a variable width fonts, I have not yet identified one wich I can recommend (just no need/time spent on that topic)

[NotMyFault]

On 4/11/2025 at 11:22 PM, Oufti said:

I would begin by setting the document size to pixels (entire values) and keep its "dpi" to 180 (if you only use solid black, K100).

 

For example, from the excellent Dutch Underware foundry, there's this font: 
https://www.underware.nl/fonts/unibody/features/

You can use it at 8 px or whatever multiple of it (16, 24,…) It's free but you have to comply to the EULA.

You recommended the unibody font.

I find it almost unusable with Affinity because the font does not render 7px (in font size 8 and 72dpi document) and it intentionally leaves a small edge around every block.

this leads to tons of issues:

• impossible to get the size right
• you get halo as antialiasing kicks in
• black becomes slightly grey.

if you found a way to practically use this fond please share.

in my experience it is no good choice.

[Chevdor]

OK, making slow progress
I used a font you mentioned Mx437 ATI 8x8.
I had to use the artistic text tool to make it fit.
I manged to get a X to render as expected. However, adding more letters shows I am not there yet.

Example:

shifted 1 px down:

Shifted 1 px right:

So getting closer but I guess I am still missing something.
To be honnest I did not expect to need so many trickery to get a "pixel" font to render perfect given the target DPI of my printer.
I am using 144 as you suggested, I yet need to test what my 180 DPI printer will do with that.

[NotMyFault]

Can you please

upload the affinity file

and the text you want

i will put it in for you

and a rectangle as placeholder where to put

 

 

[loukash]

36 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

the unibody font.

I find it almost unusable with Affinity because the font does not render 7px (in font size 8 and 72dpi document) and it intentionally leaves a small edge around every block.

this leads to tons of issues:

• impossible to get the size right
• you get halo as antialiasing kicks in
• black becomes slightly grey.

if you found a way to practically use this fond please share.

I have followed some of the advice you've linked to earlier these days: https://affinityspotlight.com/article/hi-res-iconui-design-can-be-pixel-perfect

This works alright for me with Unibody:

1. created an ADe artboard at 72 ppi (or 144 for retina displays)
2. antialiasing forced off on the whole artboard
3. everything pixel aligned, of course
4. use artistic text frames
5. always align them at top left corner
6. text typed at 8, 16, 24, 32 etc. pt (or start at 4 pt for retina)
7. export as PNG, for instance Nearest Neighbor, Paletized B&W

ade_unibody_pixelperfect.afdesign

ade_unibody_pixelperfect.png.zip

[loukash]

1 hour ago, NotMyFault said:

it intentionally leaves a small edge around every block

This is very likely a "design gimmick" when used as a regular font at odd sizes where "pixel perfection" doesn't matter and only has to be emulated or faked for an effect. With Antialiasing Force Off, these gaps between the squares will be filled.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, Chevdor said:

I used a font you mentioned Mx437 ATI 8x8.
I had to use the artistic text tool to make it fit.
I manged to get a X to render as expected. However, adding more letters shows I am not there yet.

Works for me, using the same procedure as above:

ade_mx437ati8x8_pixelperfect.afdesign

ade_mx437ati8x8_pixelperfect.png.zip

^ Note that this preview may appear blurry in browser. Download the zip instead and open it offline in APh to check for "pixel perfection".

[loukash]

1 hour ago, NotMyFault said:

https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/fontlist/

Great resource, danke!
The font fetishist in me appreciates it very much!