Turning type into paths and making composites

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greenmorpher
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Turning type into paths and making composites

Beitrag von greenmorpher »

Hello all

I made the attached figure in Canvas. It allows you to convert type into paths and to make and break composite figures (e.g. type like "O" or "B"). In the case illustrated, I converted the letter to paths, broke the composite, selected all and made a new composite, then applied a bevel, with the results you see. You can also see the Canvas bevel dialog.

Now -- I was trying to duplicate this effect in PL32. I couldn't come up with a simple final figure like this. Questions which arose from my experiments on this matter:

* Can type be converted to paths in PL32?

* Can we make and break composite figures?

* Can we vary the light position in respect of a bevel, either internal or external?

* I also had some problems with changing the size of the internal bevel ... I think!

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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greenmorpher
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Re: Turning type into paths and making composites

Beitrag von greenmorpher »

I have since dones some more experiments with the bevel. I wonder whether there is an intermittent bug operating here. After quitting and relaunching PL32 some time later, I found that changing the direction and elevation of the light worked fine, and the internal bevel varied in a seemly manner, which it definitely didn’t do when I was previously working on it.

I wonder whether there is an error that can build when many changes are made so ultimately the controls lock up or become ineffective. That's what it felt like.

On the second launch, it worked well and with lightning speed -- which is exactly the reason why I have switched to PhotoLine 32 for much of my image work.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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greenmorpher
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Re: Turning type into paths and making composites

Beitrag von greenmorpher »

And I just tried again to do something I thought of while writing.

Oh crap! The thing has gone down the dunny again. It did what I wanted, then it turned into some sort of garbage when I fiddled. Where was the light thing gone? The list of options changed from bevel to emboss.

Guys, there is something seriously wrong with this tool. From a user's point of view, it is just unstable.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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Gerhard Huber
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Re: Turning type into paths and making composites

Beitrag von Gerhard Huber »

I created a similar sample just now (2 minutes) and see no problem.
The result is appended in JPEG and PLD format to show how it workes.

Gerhard
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greenmorpher
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Re: Turning type into paths and making composites

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Gerhard, excellent that it can be done -- your posting just makes me cross.

I don't want to know THAT *you* can do something, I want to know HOW you can do it so *I* can do it too.

Can you explain the steps, please, including settings.

After some more fiddling, I can now see where the light settings and things go -- how they pop in and out. I thought having my preferred action checked would mean that I would get the dialog for that action -- but no. Having clicked on and therefore selected a second action, I can deselect it as applying to the figure, BUT that leaves that action still selected in another way so that its dialog is showing BUT having no effect on the figure. BLOODY confusing! When an action is unchecked, its dialog should no longer show, the dialog should refer to the checked action -- or one of the checked actions, perhaps the last used, if more than one action is being applied.

Also the terms used: could you please explain what Flattening, Strength, Height and Original mean in the Special Emboss, Emboss dialog? The manual is no help.

I am trying to learn how to do in PL32 things I do in Canvas and to "sell" PL32 to Canvas users. Please help.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
lutz
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Re: Turning type into paths and making composites

Beitrag von lutz »

Hi Geoff,

at which point do you get stuck?

You can can convert text to a vector shape with: Layer > Convert Layer Type
breaking up vector shapes: Layout > Vector > Split Vector Layer
and you can combine/intersect vector shapes with: Layout > Vector > Merge Marked Vector Layers

Emboss Effects:
"Flattening" seems to be the same as "Elevation" in Canvas - with 100% Flattening actually meaning 100% Elevation. :shock:
Original: "100% Original" looks like full color saturation similar to the original and "0% Original" fully desaturated.
Zuletzt geändert von lutz am Fr 11 Apr 2008 19:34, insgesamt 1-mal geändert.
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greenmorpher
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Re: Turning type into paths and making composites

Beitrag von greenmorpher »

Thanks, Lutz

That's exactly what I wanted to know. If I had known that stuff, I wouldn't have started this thread in the first place. Why couldn't Gerhard have told me that? I didn’t need his graphic, I needed the information about how to get the graphic. Thanks to you, I now have it.

I got very angry at Gerhard's post. It made me feel as though he didn't care a damn for his customers -- or at least, this customer -- he was just enjoying putting me down. Well bugger him -- I will continue to use PL32 for what I need, at least for the time being, but I surely will not continue promoting it to my many friends. A couple, incidentally, have already bought it and others were being persuaded. Well, not by me, not any longer. When a developer comes on an open forum and a customer hanging in the air, they can get stuffed in triplicate.

Thanks for your note on the nomenclature. I thought that too. Why on earth you would call "Saturation" "Original" is beyond me. I've raised this sort of stuff before -- inconsistent use of terms. "Flattening"? In image programs, it universally means the action reducing layers. Now, I don't think that is a terrific use of the word, either -- in fact, I prefer PL32's "Reduce to Background Layer" and "Reduce to One Layer" (although quite what the difference is, I'm not sure) because it is clear and explains the action.

"Flattening" actually doesn't explain anything in the different uses of it in this case by PL32 or Photoshop, et al.

In fact, PL32 uses the word the wrong way about. Canvas' "Elevation" is better, because we are starting from a flat figure which is being raised. The Hubers are thinking about a figure which is raised being lowered.

Now, the "Original" isn't "Saturation" at all, it seems. It APPEARS to be saturation. It is really the TRANSPARENCY of the THE EMBOSSING MASK which allows the original's colour to show through. Bloody hell!

Now, if you want to find out these things, don't bother to go to section 7.8.2 Effect Filters/Mosaic. That is the only place in the whole manual where the world "flattening" is used. "Flattened" is used in another place. 7.8.36 Distort/Outline warping. "If there are curves in the outline they can be flattened by using bending ..."

Effects/Special Emboss is in section 7.8.53 which says not a word about flattening, original and stuff.

The manual is a dreadful.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com