Bending Text?

[smackyeah1]

Is there a way to bend text so it would fit with in the following:



I've tried Distort->Outline Warping but it doesn't seem to bend enough and bends weird.

Thanks

[Martin Huber]

Is there a way to bend text so it would fit with in the following:

There are two possible ways:
- path text: you have to create the path on which the text should run. But this doesn't warp the text. It just places the single letters on the path.
- outline warping

I've tried Distort->Outline Warping but it doesn't seem to bend enough and bends weird.

It seems to bend weird probably because of the fact that PL32 tries to calculate the 4 corners of your bending shape and it calculates the wrong ones. But there is a hidden feature to advise PL32 which points are the corners.
In order to get the result you want you have to do the following:
- create the shape for the bending
- press and hold the Ctrl-key (Command on Mac OS) and select the tool "Edit Vector Points" in the toolbar. There should appear a dialog with four buttons labeled "1", "2", "3" and "4" in the tool settings.
- Select the point in your vector path that corresponds to top left corner of the text und press the button "1". This should usually be the first point of your vector path. A small "1" will appear nearby this point. Do the same with top right and "2", bottom right and "3" and bottom left and "4".
- Drag the bending shape to the Shape List.
- Select the Text Tool, create a text layer by clicking and type your text.
- Select the Layer Tool and change the Work Mode to "Scale Special". Now scale the text layer to have the same position and dimension as the bending shape. The text in your text layer will scale, too.
- Select Layer/Distort/Outline Warping, choose your bending shape and set the value "Bending:" to 100%. The text now should fit in your bending shape.

If something doesn't work as described here feel free to ask once more.

Martin

[smackyeah1]

Thanks for the reply Martin.

I actually figured out a way to do it. What I did was created a vector circle that fit the shape but since text flowed around the outside of the circle (i.e. upside down in my example) like in your tutuorial this was no good to me. What I did then, since I'm not very good with a steady hand and freehand drawing, I followed the part of the circle I wanted text on with the vector creation tool. It took a few tries but I eventually got a pretty good semicircle. This placed text above the line and it looks pretty good!

Thanks again,

[Martin Huber]

I actually figured out a way to do it. What I did was created a vector circle that fit the shape but since text flowed around the outside of the circle (i.e. upside down in my example)

If you select the Text Tool, the Tool Settings contain the button "Show Text Settings". This opens a dialog with extended text settings. One of them - the path text settings - allows to invert the direction of the text flow. If it was upside down, after selecting "Invert Direction" it should be correct.

Martin