Create a bitmap of text with shadow

Question

I want to create a bitmap of text with shadow, but I can't get good result. The problem is, when I directly draw the text, it looks good, but when I draw the text to a bitmap, and then draw the bitmap, it looks ugly.

Code:

public class MyView extends View {
    private Paint paint;
    private Bitmap bitmap;

    public MyView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
        init();
    }

    public void init(){
        paint = new Paint();
        paint.setColor(Color.BLACK);
        paint.setTextSize(50);
        paint.setAntiAlias(true);
        paint.setTypeface(Typeface.create("HELVETICA", Typeface.NORMAL));
        paint.setShadowLayer(30, 0, 0, Color.BLACK);

        bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(500, 300, Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888); 
        Canvas canvas2 = new Canvas(bitmap);
        canvas2.drawText("Dec Use", 100, 100, paint);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onDraw(Canvas canvas){
        super.onDraw(canvas);

        final boolean useBitmap = true;
        if(useBitmap){
            canvas.drawBitmap(bitmap, 0, 0, null);
        }
        else{
            canvas.drawText("Dec Use", 100, 100, paint);
        }
    }
}

When useBitmap is set to false, the result looks like this

When useBitmap is set to true, the result looks like this

Am I missing something?

Answer 1

The loss of quality seems to be related to the bitmap. You can get a better result by using a grey shadow and using bigger bitmaps (even if it means resing it after).

    bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(2000, 2000, Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888); 
    Canvas canvas2 = new Canvas(bitmap);
    canvas2.drawText("Dec Use", 200, 200, paint);

    paint.setShadowLayer(20, 0, 0, Color.GRAY);
    canvas2.drawText("Dec Use", 200, 200, paint);

Related answer