Alignment of centred text doesn't match centre of object

[Kal]

This odd behaviour is a little difficult to describe in words, but is easily seen by following these steps:

1. Draw a symmetrical shape (say a circle) and elsewhere, type a symmetrical character (say the number zero).
2. Select the text character and set the paragraph alignment to 'Centre Align'.
3. Select both objects and align their centres using the 'Align Horizontally > Align Centre' option from the toolbar.
4. Now, select the text character and change it to an asymmetrical character (say the number one).
5. Repeat step 3, and observe that one of the two objects moves slightly.

The movement, observed in step 5, should not happen, because the two objects were already centred, and the text itself was also centred. This suggests that the centre of the text does not properly align with the centre of its containing object. I would consider this unexpected and undesirable behaviour.

[carl123]

I assume you are using Artistic text in your example.  Frame text appears to work as you would expect it to.

Try this using Artistic text in a new document

Write the number zero (left aligned) and set the x position value to 200

Overtype the zero with the number 1 and the x position changes

With Frame text the x position stays the same

Why?

I have no idea but it may be related.

[Kal]

Yep, I'm using the Artistic Text tool. The equivalent in Illustrator (clicking with the Type Tool, rather than clicking and dragging) doesn't have this behaviour. In Illustrator, you can see the centre point, and it stays put when retyping.

I just followed your (much simpler!) example, observing coordinates in the Transform panel while changing a zero character to a one (using 50 pt type). The error varies depending on whether the type is left aligned or centred:

1. Movement of left aligned type: 0.1 pts
2. Movement of centred type: 1.8 pts

So only the tiniest of errors when left aligned, but a huge error when centred. Strange.

[carl123]

Even stranger, I'm not seeing that

1 get at least a 3 pt difference when using 50pt type (Arial)

and I see exactly the same difference whether the text is left aligned or centre align

But I see you are on a Mac, I am on Windows, we need more people on this to see if that is relevant

[Kal]

I just think we need the developers to fix it. :-)

[Sean P]

I don't believe this is a bug as such, because artistic text always resizes its frame to match the character, where as Text Frames are always the same size and do not get resized when text is added, subtracted or resized. I think its a difficult scenario because you might equally have text that you have right aligned (the align status is not remembered) which would then be incorrect if you retained the centre align.

I'm moving this over to feature requests, as I believe it is more of a feature than a bug per se. It would be great if the frame size changed according to the node set in the transform panel! For example if you select the Left node, then the Art Text frame is resized towards the right hand side and vice versa!

[Kal]

Hi Sean. I'm not sure I quite understand what you're saying. I do understand that the text frame resizes as you type (to fit the width of text), but I'm not sure why it can't resize about the centre of the text (if the type is centred) or the right of the text (if the type is right aligned), etc. I mean, currently that's what it appears to do… But it's only when you have precise requirements that you notice it might be out by a point or two. I guessed (as per the title of this post) that it's because the centre of the type doesn't match the centre of the text frame for some reason. I think the expected behaviour for most users would be that it matches, which is why I called it a bug.

What do you mean by 'the align status is not remembered'? Do you mean, if you switch alignment, the text frame stays put and the point of reference moves? For example, in Illustrator it's the opposite: if you change the alignment of type (without a frame), the anchor point stays put and the type moves accordingly (which I think is the preferable behaviour, but that's possibly just because I'm used to it.)

Unless I've misunderstood, I don't agree that the chosen node in the transform panel should affect the alignment of type, as this might conflict with the paragraph alignment settings. I see entering type as quite a different activity to transforming an object.