text on a path in photo?

[safoster71]

question.  How does one get text on a path in Photo?  Unlike in Designer, the cursor will never change to the "type on path" symbol when placed over the path.  However, IF you do text on a curve in Designer and copy it into Photo - it lets you change/adjust it, acting just like it supports it.  Yet it never gives you the opportunity to make it directly...

 

am i missing something?

[Lee D]

Hi safoster71,

 

Affinity Photo doesn't have the option for text on a path, but as you say will support it, if brought in from Designer. Our devs are still improving our tools, this may be included in a future update.

 

Thanks

[Dave Harris]

This is omitted by design. Photo and Designer are different apps, and each has features that the other doesn't have. However, they can both open each other's files, so you can sometimes create a feature in one app and then edit it in the other. That's what's happening here. It's not an oversight or something we're planning to change.

[aitte]

Pleeeease reconsider this. Why not make Affinity Photo better than Photoshop in *every* way?

 

Even Photoshop Elements, the cheap baby-version of Photoshop, has:

 

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/using/add-text.html

 

* Text on Shape

* Text on Selection

* Text on Path

 

They're extremely useful tools and the lack of them is a huge limitation for adding creative text to photos in Affinity Photo. :-( Every time I go to add text in Photos, I wish the feature existed... And ironically, Photos is a place where creative text matters a lot. Imagine you're making a wallpaper from a family vacation or wedding, and you want to add a headline title to it. Do you really want the letters to be on a flat, boring, straight line, or do you want the text to have some fun flair? Or just look at the dog-example in the above Photoshop link, which shows a really fun use for text in creative photo editing, where they've wrapped the text around the dog. Creative text is insanely useful in photo editing to set the right mood. This is why Photoshop includes the feature in its photo editor (even in Elements), instead of just having it in Illustrator... Please don't artificially hold back an essential core text feature of Photo editing just to differentiate Designer and Photo. You can differentiate Designer in non-text-related ways (more smart shapes, bitmap to vector auto-conversion, being able to draw vectors as a paintbrush instead of just a pen tool, infinite zoom, vector outline "xray" view mode, pixel preview of vectors, etc)... Creative text is a basic feature of any editor out there except Affinity Photo...

 

I'm sad now, and it's the first time I've been sad about Affinity... :-( Heh...

 

 

edit: Hi to everyone giving this post a "like"! But it's probably better if you also post your opinions in the thread for more visibility.

[uncle808us]

+1 to what aitte said.

[aitte]

Please think about the photographers...

[Rodney]

So you have to buy Designer for just one function ?

[aitte]

Yes, Photographers have to buy a freaking vector design program to be able to do something as basic as curving text. Meanwhile Adobe's baby-app for newbies, Adobe Photoshop Elements, has curved text and lots of other built-in modes. What is the most professional app in this case? Unfortunately not Affinity. :-( Flat text on a straight line..........

[aitte]

Very poor of Serif to not address this shortcoming and preferring to stay silent. Many people have asked for this feature in Photo in the past and half a dozen people in this thread have asked for it via posts or likes, not to mention all the lazy people who agree but didn't take the time to post.

 

I decided to buy Designer to get this basic photo editing feature. I am happy with the ability to work on my vectors in a better program for that task, and only use photo for doing photo editing.

 

But the list of reasons to buy designer is huge so why the f}## restrict "text on a curve" to only designer?!

 

Here is my own list of Designer features that ultimately made it worth owning in addition to photo, and you can draw your own conclusions about whether "text on a curve" really needs to be walled off as a $50 extra on top of affinity photo's price.

 

Great designer features:

 

Transparency tool

- drag gradient-like transparency on layers without using pixel-based masking

 

infinite non pixelated zoom

- awesome when drawing logos, icons and symbols

- great for real-world object designs etc; no constraints to artwork size based on pixels, easy to zoom in and see all the details

 

Incoming ability to apply multiple fx/strokes per layer

- very useful since you can create staggered outlines without duplicating layers

 

draw vector paths with a pen or mouse, instead of clicking control points

- useless to me, but great for people with drawing tablets

 

text on a path

- vital to be able to create eye popping photo captions

 

Tool for smoothly rounding vector corners

- useful to have when designing; really nice to be able to round off sharp corners

 

pixel and retina preview

- great; seeing vectors when zooming and still being able to preview what pixels will look like

 

wireframe view

- incredible when refining finished vector designs; lets you focus on the curves instead of being distracted by shading

 

Incoming tool to automatically vectorize pixel art

- can be great; hopefully rivals vectormagic

 

Incoming tool to mesh-warp vectors nondestructively

- SO DAMN USEFUL

 

Incoming knife tool to cut vector shapes in half

- ultra useful

 

Incoming artboards to let you have multiple designs in one file where each design will be independently exported

- kinda cool

 

Text features like text styles (ability to save presets of all attributes common to text like choosing fonts and kerning and outline and gradient and easily reusing that), bullets, numbering

- very nice

 

 

And those are just the exclusive features that I cared about in designer. There are other exclusive ones.

 

So why the %{%{% is basic "curved text" abilities locked to a $50 photo addon?! :/ There are lots of reasons for people to buy designer without crippling a basic photo editing feature: The ability to create non-boring text.

[jmac]

This is omitted by design. Photo and Designer are different apps, and each has features that the other doesn't have. However, they can both open each other's files, so you can sometimes create a feature in one app and then edit it in the other. That's what's happening here. It's not an oversight or something we're planning to change.

 

 

I have to say this mind set seems oddly rigid and unsupported by the nature of the 2 applications. While they each do have "features that the other doesn't have" they clearly share many, many others, some of which you would not expect. Like being able to "create a feature in one app and then edit it in the other." This does not set them apart from each other. It sets them apart from Adobe. This feature compatibility between the two apps and the pixel persona in Designer specifically, is much more advantageous to designers who often work with photos and vectors than it is to photographers who I image rarely need the design capabilities of a vector app. There is clearly a need, even if only now and then, by photographers, and I would imagine digital painters as well, to make attractive text within their images. This is a feature that makes sense to include in Affinity Photo. If you not going to allow text on a path because "Photo and Designer are different apps" then why include text in Photo at all? I really don't understand the logic here and forcing photographers to buy (even at a very reasonable cost) an additional application to access this one feature doesn't seem reasonable.

[aitte]

@jmac: I was already pretty angry, but I would have been pissed as hell if I didn't work with vectors often enough to enjoy my $50 Designer purchase. But as it stands, I am pretty happy about it since it allows me to create even better logos and websites without being restricted by document resolution/pixels. It was a joy to see my designs in total non-pixelated clarity for the first time.

 

It just seems like they're trying way too hard to differentiate the apps, when they're already very different and both worth owning. You are correct that photographers need attractive text, and that's why even Photoshop *ELEMENTS* has Text on a Shape (live-editable smart object), Text on a Curve (vectors), and Text on Selection Outline. Elements is more powerful than even Affinity Designer at creating text... let that sink in for a moment.

 

Anyway...

 

Affinity Photo: Extremely powerful photo editing features (loads of filters, live fx and adjustment layers, correction tools, etc), some powerful vector features but none of the Designer niceties that make vectors easy and attractive to work with.

Affinity Designer: Extremely powerful vector features that make it vital if you want to *enjoy* working with vectors the way they're meant to be seen: Infinitely zoomable without pixelation, letting you make every little detail perfect. Also has some good pixel editing features but lacks the ultra-powerful ones from Photo.

 

Bim bam bom. They're already unique apps. No reason to wall off creative and attractive text as a $50 extra. It looks kinda desperate and pathetic.

 

My heart goes out to all photographers who don't care about vectors, and who are forced to flat, boring text that's even worse than what the newbie-app Photoshop Elements would have given them.

[OlCatLady]

Never mind - posted when I was too tired to make sense. Very sorry!

Edited April 4, 2021 by OlCatLady
My bad!

[Alfred]

12 minutes ago, OlCatLady said:

As a designer who designed in PS, just discovered this basic feature missing in AP.

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @OlCatLady.

You’ve woken up a thread which is more than five years old! It admittedly took a long time to be added, but text on a path is available in the current version of Affinity Photo.