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Text on path mirrored on transformed curves


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Been pulling my hair out with text on a path....

Made a little dog....after creation he had to be flipped horizontally to accommodate a logo design.

Now no matter what I do....the text on path following a curve on the dog is mirrored. Not upside down....but letters backward.

Its almost as if designer does not recognize the new position/orientation of the flipped path....

If I flip the dog back...then apply text on path, it works fine until I again have to flip it.

 

Is there any way to bake the current position of the curve....in maya it would be "freeze transforms" as it seems designer only looks at the original orientation of the curve when it was created.

 

Thanks 

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Some screenshots would be helpful in visualising what you are dealing with but in the meantime, is the dog symmetrical or asymmetrical, is it a silhouette or coloured? 

Could you not just duplicate the dog after flipping him and apply text to the duplicate flipped dog instead.

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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On 7/20/2018 at 11:41 PM, firstdefence said:

 

Could you not just duplicate the dog after flipping him and apply text to the duplicate flipped dog instead.

No, copying the stroke still has the problem....the only solution is remaking the stroke in the current position.

Disregard the dog, I had already fixed the issue by remaking the stroke in the current position......this is more of a bug.

Try making any kinda curved stroke, flip it horizontally and apply text on path.....it will always be mirrored. It is as if you applied text on path before you flipped it.

Affinity should respect the new orientation of the path....but it always looks at creation orientation.

Saving and reopening doesn’t help....the only thing that works is remaking the path by hand, as copy pasting it seems to inherit the problem.

These types of issues come up in 3D programs...maya for instance has ‘freeze transforms’ which will take an objects position in world space, and bake it into local space....that’s exactly what designer needs in this case.

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  • 1 year later...

You can ‘bake’ the curve into its current geometry by:
* drawing a rectangle around it;
* selecting both the curve and rectangle together;
* choosing menu “Layer → Geometry → Merge Curves”;
* choosing menu “Layer → Geometry → Separate Curves”;
* deleting the rectangle.
See my attached video (for multiple curves just draw the rectangle around them all).
It’s not a particularly quick method, but how often would you need to do this?

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You’re welcome.
I wouldn’t call it a bug as such, just functionality that hasn’t been implemented, yet.
It would be nice to be able to tell the software to ‘reset/fix/bake’ a layer’s geometry to what we can see rather than what the internal representation is. (This may also help to make some exported SVGs simpler.)

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1 hour ago, Gabe said:

Hi all,

We are aware of this and it has already been logged :) 

Aye capt but what star date is scotty gonna fix it 🤔 I canna git ta wap drrrrrrive we’oot it. In the meantime knock out some flip brushes. 

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
B| (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum)

Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

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  • 1 year later...

I seem to be having similar 'text on a path' problems as others!

In Cartography, road names follow the curve of the road, generally inside the road casing. So, the road line is cloned/duplicated then the text tool is clicked on that line and the name is typed in. Now as all Illustrator users know, if the text is upside down there is a central perpendicular line that can be manipulated to 'flip' the text so it reads correctly.... therefore it doesn't matter which way the original line is constructed. Can I do that in Affinity Designer? not if its an .ai file that has been opened...... madness.

Can I flip the line before adding Artistic text? doesn't seem so, the only solution at the moment is to redraw the lines.... OMG

Please fix asap.

Getting desperate now........

1779176862_Screenshot2021-06-14at13_15_30.png.212de73fad5f1b4a1f41d45d7b5268e1.png

 

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Many thanks for the prompt reply.... Baseline shift has always been a strong feature for Cartographers, we use it all the time to centre text on a line so that it fits perfectly within the road casing or following the centre of a river.

All I am trying to do is centre text within 2 lines (the road casings) and for it to read in the correct direction.

I have opened an Illustrator CS6 file in Affinity Designer and want to carry out amendments. Some of these amendments are adding further road names. Adding text to a line works fine but some (as in the sample posted all ready) flow the wrong way, my only work around at the moment is to redraw a line in Designer (in the direction of the text) and the text does what I want it to.

There are many roads where the line hasn't been drawn in a way where the text flows correctly! Illustrator was never a problem as mentioned, the text could be flipped so that it ran correctly by a small perpendicular guide line that appeared when the text was highlighted.

Hope this explains it a little better!

Thanks

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I think the problem I’m having here is that I don’t really have a good grasp of what is “the correct direction” or “ran correctly”.
Can you show me some visual examples of things being “correct”?
I’m not a cartographer so I don’t know how things are supposed to look.

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Hi GarryP,

 

My apologies, I'm sure I am making it sound a lot more complicated than it really is.....

I have attached a map sample here...

60790260_Screenshot2021-06-14at14_45_10.thumb.png.b221ce3396ad7f746aff81e182c6e3fd.png

Road names can be read as they appear in the roads. The linework is generated first then a road centre is duplicated and a name added following the shape/curve of the road and centred so it reads correctly.

In Affinity Designer when I open an Illustrator file if I want to add a name to a road sometimes the name flows in back to front. It can be centred within the road no problem. But the name can't be flipped to read correctly. 

The road may have been constructed in the opposite way in which the name should appear.....

See below for another example. Moving the green or orange markers still won't correct the way the text reads.

      1287324571_Screenshot2021-06-14at14_55_36.png.4cc3c13edf84277f554bf0ffeba28265.png

 

I hope this helps showing my problem..... others in the thread above seem to have the same problem and as mentioned the only way out is to redraw the road line in the map above from the bottom of Hall Road to the top - or does this complicate it further! (Hall Road will then read the same way as Pond Road)

 

Thanks for your patience by the way. 

 

 

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The only way I can get mirrored text (I believe that is your problem) is by mirroring the line on which the text is placed. So I am guessing there is something about how the Illustrator file was made which is messing up in Designer.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

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

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Hello Old Bruce,

Yup I think you are correct.... if the original line is drawn in the same direction as the flow of the text then there's no problem.

Of course terminology is another matter.....you call it mirrored text, to me it's just around the wrong way!!

I still have an Illustrator hat on after using it for many many years and FreeHand before that!

As an objector to the subscription method of software, Affinity Designer is for me so I am learning the associated terminology as I go.....

Cheers

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3 hours ago, Jonesy21 said:

the only way out is to redraw the road line in the map above from the bottom of Hall Road to the top

You can avoid having to redraw the path that the text follows. It involves two flips:

  1. Select the path with the Move Tool (v) and then do either Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical.
  2. Switch to Node Tool (a), cmd-a to select all nodes of the path and then do the same flip again.
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You can avoid having to redraw the path that the text follows. It involves two flips:

  1. Select the path with the Move Tool (v) and then do either Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical.
  2. Switch to Node Tool (a), cmd-a to select all nodes of the path and then do the same flip again.

 

Hi, just tried this and the text is still mirrored!  presumably using the 'Flip' function from the 'Layer' - 'Transform' in the menu bar?

ps. you did note I'm a newbie....... it may be obvious of course 🤯

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

Thank you PixelPest. Your ingeniously simple solution worked for my mirrored text. Very clever. I would never have thought of doing that.

MacBook Pro, Retina, mid-2015, macOS Monteray, RAM: 16 GB, CPU Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 2,8 GHz. Monitor: 27" (3840 × 2160) DELL U2723QE 

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