Fitting object to curves in cs3

[John Childs]

quote Adele Brennan:

Can anyone point me in the right direction with this?

Yes, I can. 😀

It involves the brush tool, but I don’t think I can explain it in words here.

I use a technique that was published in a magazine some years ago. If you can let me have your fax number, I’ll send a copy of the article over to you. It gives really good results.

[John Childs]

Morning Adele.

I have found the article. It was published in MacUser back in January 2001.

It was written for Illustrator 9, which was the current version at the time, but works with CS3. I know because I used it last week.

Anyways, I’ve scanned the pages, and an email is on it’s way to you.

[Lee Attewell]

If you place a path around where you want the text to go and then select the text tool, when you go near the path, the text tool cursor should automatically select the path. Then you get some options of how to place the text.

[John Childs]

quote Lee Attewell:

If you place a path around where you want the text to go and then select the text tool, when you go near the path, the text tool cursor should automatically select the path. Then you get some options of how to place the text.

Yes, it does Lee. The problem is that, depending on the radius of the curve and the font, it usually looks like cr@p.

The technique I’ve just emailed to Adele actually slightly distorts the letters to the shape of the curve, and avoids the unsightly large gaps around the outside, or overlapping letters on the inside.

[Martin Grimmer]

Hi John,

Any chance you can ping me the article as well – by the sounds of it I have been trying to do the same with limited success (have used the envelope tool but not quite what I am after).

Thanks

Martin

[John Childs]

quote Martin Grimmer:

Any chance you can ping me the article as well

No problem Martin.

PM me your email addy.

[Adele Brennan]

Thanks John for the info. Will have a go this afternoon and hopefully get results I want!

[John Childs]

Lee, this screen grab from the article might explain my reply to your post a bit better. The image on the right is what you get if you just type text on a curve. The one on the left is what can be achieved using the magazine method..

The smaller the radius of the curve, and the fewer the number of letters, the more dramatic the effect.

[Martin Grimmer]

Hi John,

PM safely received – that is excellent – appreciated.

Martin

[John Childs]

quote Martin Grimmer:

PM safely received – that is excellent – appreciated.

That’s odd. I just received……

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

Anyway, as long as you got it. 😀

[John Childs]

And, as Adele has just reminded me, because it works on outlined type, it’s not limited to text.

The technique can be used on any vector outline. 😀

[J. Makela]

Hi John

I would certainly like to take a look at that article, but I don’t see a button or link to send you a PM.. How else could I contact you?

[edit] Actually, I’ll leave it up to you.. my catch-all email account is
mod-edit please read board rules.. if you want to send it to me there, great, if not, I won’t hold it against you. 🙂

Thx

J

[John Childs]

quote J. Makela:

I would certainly like to take a look at that article, but I don’t see a button or link to send you a PM.. How else could I contact you?

You need to be a UKSB member before you can send a pm.

No problem though. It’s on it’s way to you. Let me know if it doesn’t get there.

[J. Makela]

Most excellent, it has arrived. Thank you very much! 😀