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Vertically center circular text


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How can I center the red circular text vertically in Affinity Designer - in order to make it run exactly in between the green lines seen on my sketch?

I haven't found a way to achieve this because text on a path can only be aligned relative to the baseline.
There are many logos where circular text runs between two lines and I wonder if the creators just guessed where the center is?

circle_text.png

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How did you get the text there originally?

If I were doing it, I would create a third circle, exactly in the middle, and turn that into the text path. And at that point, isn't the Baseline control all that you'd need?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1

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Thank you for your immediate reply.

But how do I set the baseline to make the text run exactly in the middle of the third circle?
When I turn the third circle into a text path, the text will be set on top of the third circle's line and not exactly on it.

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For text on a circle, especially within two other circles, it’s sometimes better to judge by eye.

If your text contains only capital letters of exactly the same height then the software could, theoretically, if it was programmed to, ‘centre’ it for you but not all capital letters are the same height (some fonts are exceptions to this), and then there’s the problem of how the software could deal with descenders or other things. What does the software take as the ‘centre’ of a lower-case ‘p’ in relation to an upper-case “Q”, for example?

I find it’s usually best to position it manually to where it looks best.

Edited by GarryP
Added more details.
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32 minutes ago, GarryP said:

For text on a circle, especially within two other circles, it’s sometimes better to judge by eye.

If your text contains only capital letters of exactly the same height then the software could ‘centre’ it for you but not all capital letters are the same height (some fonts are exceptions to this), and then there’s the problem of how the software could deal with descenders or other things. What does the software take as the ‘centre’ of a lower-case ‘p’ in relation to an upper-case “Q”, for example?

I find it’s usually best to position it manually to where it looks best.

Thanks a lot for your reply.

Could you tell me how the software can "centre" it for me? I have not yet found an option like this.

The only workaround I know is:
Drawing a circle in between the green circles (orange dashed circle) and decrease the orange circle's diameter by the cap height (results in blue dashed circle). The blue dashed circle is then the baseline for the text.
If lower-case text needs to be centered, the x-height should be subtracted from the orance circle's diameter.

Is there an easier way?

solution.png

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2 hours ago, NK_01 said:

But how do I set the baseline to make the text run exactly in the middle of the third circle?

The exact middle (vertical) of any one font may be different from another font. Then there is the difference with ALL CAPS  and Mixed Case; ANY versus Any.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.6 
Affinity Designer 2.5.5 | Affinity Photo 2.5.5 | Affinity Publisher 2.5.5 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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13 hours ago, NK_01 said:

Is there an easier way?

If you're lucky (font dependent) in most cases the Baseline slider will have a snap-to point that puts the tops of the letters exactly on the path (there's a stop for both upper and lower cases). In this example that snap point is at 63%. Then just type /2 and you're done. Now you're exactly halfway.

Sometimes a font will have to go past the 100% mark for the top to line up, and the input field associated with the slider doesn't accept higher numbers.
In that case you can use the Character panel to do the same procedure. It's just a bit more labor intensive. There's no slider OR snapping in there.

763767419_ScreenShot2022-05-23at3_11.30PMohsnap.png.37e0cc69f21b86cc581e9cbfbb9e7ad5.png

 

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6 hours ago, NK_01 said:

But how do I set the baseline to make the text run exactly in the middle of the third circle?

I'm not sure if you're asking where the controls are (the Context Toolbar has a Baseline field) or how you judge if its centered. I'd do it by eye, initially.

For example, here's some Arial text, with a 34% baseline setting:

image.png.4a9762683f1a4af5c31a07e3d2a12334.png

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.0.1

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16 hours ago, NK_01 said:

Could you tell me how the software can "centre" it for me? I have not yet found an option like this.

Apologies; I should have said that “the software could, theoretically, if it was programmed to, “centre” it for you…” rather than “the software could “centre” it for you…” as that functionality doesn’t exist. I should have been more specific. I’ve amended my earlier post to try and make it more clear.

I still think you are better-off trying to do this by eye rather than letting the software do it for you (if it could), simply because pure calculations aren’t guaranteed to give a ‘pleasing’ result. Or, to put it another way, if it looks nice then does it really matter if it is mathematically ‘correct’?

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Here is one way without eyeballing...

Increase the outside stroke on the smaller circle by a set amount

Increase the inside stroke on the larger circle by the same amount

Adjust baseline of text so it neatly fits in-between the 2 strokes

When done adjust strokes of inside and outer circles back to what they were before


 

 

 

elispe.png

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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