Creating Text on a Path

[ LiB ]

Creating Text on a Path

Instead of following a straight horizontal line, text can be made to follow a curved path. To make text conform to a path, first define a path by drawing a vector line or preset vector shape and then "attach" the vector text to the path:

  1. Begin by creating a path. For this example, we'll draw a horizontal S-shaped curve for the path. Choose the Pen tool in Draw mode, and in the Materials palette set the Stroke style to Solid Color, with the color set to anything other than the image canvas color . In the Tool Options palette, select Point to Point as the segment type, and be sure that Create as vector is selected.

  2. To begin the path, click about halfway down on your image canvas a few pixels to the right of the left edge. Drag straight down until the head of the arrow control is within a few pixels of the bottom edge. Then click near the right edge of the image canvas and drag again straight down until the head of the arrow control is within a few pixels of the bottom edge. (See Figure 6.22.)

    Figure 6.22. Defining the path.

    graphic/06fig22.gif


  3. Choose the Text tool. In the Tool Options palette, set Create as to whatever you likeSelection, Floating, or Vector. Choose the font and font size you want. You can also select Anti-alias here, if you like. Set the styles and textures in the Materials palette to get the stroke and fill that you want for your text.

  4. Choose the alignment for your text. For text on a path, Align Left positions your text so that it begins at the point you click on; Center centers the text around the point you click on; and Right Align positions the text so that it ends at the point you click on.

  5. Click on the vector curve. You'll know that the cursor is positioned so that it will follow the path when it changes to an A with a curve below it. The Text Entry box then appears.

  6. Enter the text you want in the Text Entry box and click Apply. You'll then see something like the image shown in Figure 6.23.

    Figure 6.23. Text conforming to a path.

    graphic/06fig23.gif


    If you created your text as vector, both the curve and the text are now selected. You can move, resize, or deform them with the Object Selection tool just as you can any other vector objects. You can also modify the curve with Node Edit.

  7. You probably don't want the curve itself to be visible. There are a couple ways to make the path invisible. If you expand the vector layer information in the Layer palette, you can just click the Visibility toggle on the curve's object button. Another alternative is to access the curve's Vector Property dialog box and deselect Visible .

NOTE

graphic/p2.gif NOTE

In the preceding example Warp Text was selected in the Tool Options palette. With this option, the shape of each text character is warped to better conform to the path. When this option is not selected, each text character retains its normal shape. Compare the two examples in Figure 6.24. (Especially note the differences in the initial "C" and the exclamation point.)

Warp Text selected (top) and unselected (bottom).

graphic/06fig24.gif


NOTE

graphic/p1.gif TIP

Sometimes when Warp Text is unselected, the text along the curve is squashed together in places. You can correct problems like this by adjusting the spacing of the whole string of text, or character by character, with Kerning .

You can also adjust how close the text on the path is to the path. To move the text below the path, set Leading to a negative value. To move the text above the path, set Leading to a positive value.

[ LiB ]


Paint Shop Pro 8 Power
Paint Shop Pro 8 Power!
ISBN: B001QCXEI6
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 125
Authors: Lori J. Davis

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net