How to get rid of unwanted outlines on white text?

[MeiStoyva]

Hi guys, I'm new to After Effects so apologies if there's a really obvious answer to this..!

Basically, I'm trying to render a video with static white text on a red background (using these presets: H.264 - Match Source, High Bitrate, 1080x1080p). The problem is, it keeps rendering with a weird 1px black outline around the text (particularly on the left hand side of each letter).

When exporting as a Lossless Quicktime with Best Settings it looks like this (which is much closer to what I need):

The resulting file however is way big... I need to post this to Instagram, so I believe the settings I mentioned earlier are more suited, but I need to get rid of the black outlines... If anyone knows how to, I'd be much obliged!

Thanks!

[Dave_LaRonde · Accepted solution]

What you're seeing is a product of the very bad color resolution in H.264.  It becomes most apparent when there is one solid color against another, like your white text against pink.

You may not be able to get rid of it.  It depends on what you are required to deliver out of After Effects, so please tell us.  But understand that you may be stuck with it.

[Mylenium]

Dave already said it - you are seeing an inherent limitation of MPEG-based compression algorithms (and many others' fort hat matter) - color quantization. You can't avoid it entirely, but you may be able by choosing more suitable colors.

Mylenium

[Szalam]

You can also help disguise it by adding some texture to your images. Whether its over the whole thing or only over certain elements, adding texture really helps break up issues like this. Bonus, it's also more visually interesting.