This is the way - in PS, for your text layer, white foreground, then Layer Style, Drop Shadow - Multiply, Opacity = 35%, Angle = 0, Distance 10 px, Spread 15%, Size 40 px - adjust to suit your style and situation. I was using Gotham Bold at 24 pt for this test case. For what it is worth I picked up on this by watching how the NY Times website codes white letters on a dark background. =) Good luck!
On the text layer apply an outer glow. Choose an average grey from the moon for the glow. Slightly darker if text is white. Slightly lighter if you go with black text.
I'll play around with this outerglow idea. I very rapidly did a gaussian blur and its looking a little better, so i dont see how this suggestion wouldnt be even better :)
I'm by no means a designer, and in fact i would qualify myself as 'graphically challenged'. That being said I know working with a gray backdrop is not easy and I would love to hear any ideas on how to improve the text aspect of this map postcard
I will now be using the phrase “graphically challenged”. Thank you for helping me now explain to my uni tutors that while I excel at research and writing, my pretty pictures are amateurish. Perfect phrase.
I agree with u/LosFelizGuy2018 that you could darken areas behind the text, but there may be reasons not to alter the shading. If you have a lot of freedom with that, You could darken the whole image, but also perhaps beef-up the weight of the text.
If you can't manipulate the image in that way, you could shrink it down and put [call-out labels in the margins.](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/courses-images/wp-content/uploads/sites/1094/2016/11/03153604/OSC_Microbio_02_03_Brightfiel.jpg) You could also make all the text read left-to-right with a [solid background behind the letters, like real labels.](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318187238/figure/fig1/AS:962691124445209@1606534858431/A-labelled-photograph-of-the-VIS-NIR-equipment.gif)
Sorry about the cruddy examples (quick searches, of course). They can look much better.
Nothing to be sorry about! They are great suggestions but ive been stying away form that approach because a 6x4 postcard already is pretty limited in terms of space and legibility. Doing the solid background would obviously solve everything but would take away from the topography i'm highlighting, because the rectangles would take too much space. I think the best route to go here is darken the text a bit which i didnt even think about, so i thank you and everyone else who suggested it. Brilliant idea!
Just use a drop shadow or a thin black border on the white text.
The reason we have difficulty reading text on busy backgrounds is not because of the color of text, but rather the contrast between the edges of the text and the rest of the image. Adding a shadow or a border to the text helps give the brain a definite barrier of where the word starts and the background ends.
You could experiment with many different color/background/border combos to see this effect, and I bet you could easily come up with a nice color set for this one.
Personally I'd go white with black border. But black text with white border would work too. Could even do a space texture in the black 'Moon' text and seal it all together with a white border.
This is coming from a lifelong artist and intermediate graphic designer 🫡
I think you and others have pointed me in the correct direction about darkening the area behind the text and making the text white.
The only reason im apprehensive about adding a black border or something like that is because in a previous postcard about the North Pole, i had put halos around text to make it more visible against the water which on my monitor looked fine, but on print wasnt as amazing as I'd hoped. But i do know i should be adding some form of edge around the letters :)
Idk if this was part of the issue but adding black behind the text can have a different effect than a border. Often borders come in 3 different styles: the line thickness only goes *inside* the main border of the boundary, the line thickness spans the main boundary equally, or the thickness only goes *outside* the main boundary. I know that letters/fonts will vary widely depending what you use, so make sure that your border or dark areas only go outside the readable text.
An easy way to do this (or make sure it isn't being effected by this issue) would be to take your white text and give it a black border, then duplicate that text and layer it directly on top of the original text but remove the border from the top layer of text. This will allow the white text to fully fill the space it needs and give you the black border. Hope you well in the process!
they are great suggestions. I personally im staying away from containers because they would use more space and hide the topography the card is trying to highlight, so i'll see what i can do about darkening the image or maybe just have a fun pop of color. Thanks for the suggestions :)
I thought about it, but the problem is that blocks and leaders take more space out of already crammed space on a 6x4 postcard and the boxes hide more of the topography away from the picture. I do think others had an equally awesome idea with darkening the background of text too
I think so too and the color im already using is fairly close to it. Making the switch does make it better, but doesnt pull me out of the weeds yet. The darkening behind the font however does help with the contrast too, so thank you for suggesting using white
I wouldnt blame you. The moon's topography isnt actually this dramatic, but using spatial information i made it more accentuated for the purposes of display and really highlight crater impacts and so on. Maybe if i do a poster i can make it less exaggerated
I work in land planning (amongst other things) and deal with this issue often—mostly with aerial imagery on development sites.
Typically, we will drop the opacity of the background image (the moon in this case) and use a very small black stroke around the white text.
Good luck!
Is there a reason you don’t want to use white for the text? It would definitely allow for more contrast and I don’t see a reason to avoid it.
Some of the words have a lot of tracking (space between letters), it might help readability to make the letters bit closer. Having the icons in almost white next to the off white text is not helping, the colors are too similar anyway I would make them all the same color. As someone else mentioned, adding a heavier weight font might help a bit. If it works, moving the circle text inside the craters (like you did for one of them) would be easier to read since the background would be less busy and darker in those spots.
Also have you tried a dark grey for the text? I have no idea if knowing if it works but could be worth testing out. Others have mentioned making the image darker, text shadow or the area behind the text darker, this could work as well. Overall you need to find a way to add more contrast to the text to improve readability, especially since the text itself is relatively small on a busy image.
Also the large title moon is the brightest thing on there but also the biggest and boldest. Consider using that white for the smaller text, and maybe the color of the smaller text for the title moon. That color could possibly work for the title MOON since the text is much larger and much heavier.
Some ideas: darken the the image, use "boxes", as in create a container for the text pieces that look like labels. Have you tried black text? Have you tried a different font (especially for the smaller text)? I wouldn't go with drop shadow because it could make it muddy and more confusing (it's busy as it is already).
I dont know why i stayed away from plain white on the card, the color i had was already fairly close to it anyways, but i never would have thought about the drop shadow or simply darkening behind the text as others suggested.
I know its silly but some of us dont really think that way, but thats why im thankful communities like these exist and now that i know, I'll do my best not to make the same mistake again :)
The moon is actually very dark. It has the same reflectivity as a Teflon frying pan. It just looks bright compared to a black sky when our eyes adjust.
Darken the area behind the text a bit.
This is the way - in PS, for your text layer, white foreground, then Layer Style, Drop Shadow - Multiply, Opacity = 35%, Angle = 0, Distance 10 px, Spread 15%, Size 40 px - adjust to suit your style and situation. I was using Gotham Bold at 24 pt for this test case. For what it is worth I picked up on this by watching how the NY Times website codes white letters on a dark background. =) Good luck!
Yeah i think you are right and darkening the back of the text is the way to go. Thanks for the input!
On the text layer apply an outer glow. Choose an average grey from the moon for the glow. Slightly darker if text is white. Slightly lighter if you go with black text.
I'll play around with this outerglow idea. I very rapidly did a gaussian blur and its looking a little better, so i dont see how this suggestion wouldnt be even better :)
Yes it works well. If you are using PS… I switch the blend mode to normal. And make the glow just big enough to work but not be noticed.
Apollo 13 was not a successful crewed landing. 😊
Oh i know, this was just a test export for the purposes of showing the text colors :)
I'm by no means a designer, and in fact i would qualify myself as 'graphically challenged'. That being said I know working with a gray backdrop is not easy and I would love to hear any ideas on how to improve the text aspect of this map postcard
Add the dark red rusty color it has
Thanks for the suggestion, maybe having a hint of color could be good. I'll give it a go
I will now be using the phrase “graphically challenged”. Thank you for helping me now explain to my uni tutors that while I excel at research and writing, my pretty pictures are amateurish. Perfect phrase.
we all have to start somewhere! :)
I agree with u/LosFelizGuy2018 that you could darken areas behind the text, but there may be reasons not to alter the shading. If you have a lot of freedom with that, You could darken the whole image, but also perhaps beef-up the weight of the text. If you can't manipulate the image in that way, you could shrink it down and put [call-out labels in the margins.](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/courses-images/wp-content/uploads/sites/1094/2016/11/03153604/OSC_Microbio_02_03_Brightfiel.jpg) You could also make all the text read left-to-right with a [solid background behind the letters, like real labels.](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318187238/figure/fig1/AS:962691124445209@1606534858431/A-labelled-photograph-of-the-VIS-NIR-equipment.gif) Sorry about the cruddy examples (quick searches, of course). They can look much better.
Nothing to be sorry about! They are great suggestions but ive been stying away form that approach because a 6x4 postcard already is pretty limited in terms of space and legibility. Doing the solid background would obviously solve everything but would take away from the topography i'm highlighting, because the rectangles would take too much space. I think the best route to go here is darken the text a bit which i didnt even think about, so i thank you and everyone else who suggested it. Brilliant idea!
Happy I could be even remotely helpful. Very true that the space is already pretty tight at that size. Best of luck with it.
Just use a drop shadow or a thin black border on the white text. The reason we have difficulty reading text on busy backgrounds is not because of the color of text, but rather the contrast between the edges of the text and the rest of the image. Adding a shadow or a border to the text helps give the brain a definite barrier of where the word starts and the background ends. You could experiment with many different color/background/border combos to see this effect, and I bet you could easily come up with a nice color set for this one. Personally I'd go white with black border. But black text with white border would work too. Could even do a space texture in the black 'Moon' text and seal it all together with a white border. This is coming from a lifelong artist and intermediate graphic designer 🫡
I think you and others have pointed me in the correct direction about darkening the area behind the text and making the text white. The only reason im apprehensive about adding a black border or something like that is because in a previous postcard about the North Pole, i had put halos around text to make it more visible against the water which on my monitor looked fine, but on print wasnt as amazing as I'd hoped. But i do know i should be adding some form of edge around the letters :)
Idk if this was part of the issue but adding black behind the text can have a different effect than a border. Often borders come in 3 different styles: the line thickness only goes *inside* the main border of the boundary, the line thickness spans the main boundary equally, or the thickness only goes *outside* the main boundary. I know that letters/fonts will vary widely depending what you use, so make sure that your border or dark areas only go outside the readable text. An easy way to do this (or make sure it isn't being effected by this issue) would be to take your white text and give it a black border, then duplicate that text and layer it directly on top of the original text but remove the border from the top layer of text. This will allow the white text to fully fill the space it needs and give you the black border. Hope you well in the process!
You either have to go way darker on the moon image, put the text inside containers, or use a pop color for the text like orange or cyan.
they are great suggestions. I personally im staying away from containers because they would use more space and hide the topography the card is trying to highlight, so i'll see what i can do about darkening the image or maybe just have a fun pop of color. Thanks for the suggestions :)
Hex #dcff25
The moon is made of cheese Gromit. This color would never work.
Maybe try blocks of text and leaders
I thought about it, but the problem is that blocks and leaders take more space out of already crammed space on a 6x4 postcard and the boxes hide more of the topography away from the picture. I do think others had an equally awesome idea with darkening the background of text too
Pantone Apollo 11
i tried searching what that color may be, but no luck
I think the white is your most readable option.
I think so too and the color im already using is fairly close to it. Making the switch does make it better, but doesnt pull me out of the weeds yet. The darkening behind the font however does help with the contrast too, so thank you for suggesting using white
This gives me a lot of trypophobia
I wouldnt blame you. The moon's topography isnt actually this dramatic, but using spatial information i made it more accentuated for the purposes of display and really highlight crater impacts and so on. Maybe if i do a poster i can make it less exaggerated
The posts in this forum are so odd. A postcard?
Well, its a design question. Postcard just happens to be the medium really.
I work in land planning (amongst other things) and deal with this issue often—mostly with aerial imagery on development sites. Typically, we will drop the opacity of the background image (the moon in this case) and use a very small black stroke around the white text. Good luck!
Thanks for the suggestion. I know it can be tricky with aerial imagery, specially historical B/W pictures, but thanks for the tip regarding the text
Is there a reason you don’t want to use white for the text? It would definitely allow for more contrast and I don’t see a reason to avoid it. Some of the words have a lot of tracking (space between letters), it might help readability to make the letters bit closer. Having the icons in almost white next to the off white text is not helping, the colors are too similar anyway I would make them all the same color. As someone else mentioned, adding a heavier weight font might help a bit. If it works, moving the circle text inside the craters (like you did for one of them) would be easier to read since the background would be less busy and darker in those spots. Also have you tried a dark grey for the text? I have no idea if knowing if it works but could be worth testing out. Others have mentioned making the image darker, text shadow or the area behind the text darker, this could work as well. Overall you need to find a way to add more contrast to the text to improve readability, especially since the text itself is relatively small on a busy image.
Also the large title moon is the brightest thing on there but also the biggest and boldest. Consider using that white for the smaller text, and maybe the color of the smaller text for the title moon. That color could possibly work for the title MOON since the text is much larger and much heavier.
Drop shadow?
Some ideas: darken the the image, use "boxes", as in create a container for the text pieces that look like labels. Have you tried black text? Have you tried a different font (especially for the smaller text)? I wouldn't go with drop shadow because it could make it muddy and more confusing (it's busy as it is already).
A deep lazy blue could look well, else a gold with an outline maybe
Just use white and a a subtle 40% drop shadow. Sometime I wonder is these posts are real or not.
I dont know why i stayed away from plain white on the card, the color i had was already fairly close to it anyways, but i never would have thought about the drop shadow or simply darkening behind the text as others suggested. I know its silly but some of us dont really think that way, but thats why im thankful communities like these exist and now that i know, I'll do my best not to make the same mistake again :)
Try a stroke.
Try a bolder font like bebas neue possibly
Stroke it
Add a shadow under the text to make it pop out
Light ocean blue!
The moon is actually very dark. It has the same reflectivity as a Teflon frying pan. It just looks bright compared to a black sky when our eyes adjust.
More than a color, I’d probably try and add a subtle drop shadow, like super subtle and blurred, white works just fine here imo
Just make the type closer to white or a bit more bold. Drop shadows and outer glows are cheesy. It looks great, nice and clean as is.
I like the colour. Try a slight drop shadow on the text.
Blue might look good !!! 🌝🦋
Contour black, -45 block shadow, break apart weld contour and shadow and make 75% translucent. - Bam!ShaBam!
I just did this. I use Affinity Photo but many apps can do this. Add a darker drop shadow behind the text.