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Rounded corners on text frame


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4 hours ago, MEB said:

(the corners will not be editable after the conversion)

After it's been converted to a Text Frame the basic corner shape is still editable by selecting the frame and using the Node Tool. Or, for more editing capabilities, use the Rounded Rectangle Tool's context toolbar instead of the Node Tool.

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

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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54 minutes ago, MEB said:

Yes, thanks Walt. That was incorrect, they do remain editable. Both the Node and the Rounded Rectangle tool should display the same options.

Thanks, Miguel.

If they should display the same options then there might be a bug.

After converting a rounded rectangle to a text frame, and with the text frame selected:

  • The Node Tool can adjust the corners by dragging the red node, but the context toolbar shows the Text Frame options, which do not include the corner options.
  • The Rounded Rectangle Tool displays the Rounded Rectangle context toolbar, so the corners can be adjusted there or by dragging the red node.

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

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • Staff

After conversion, only the Text tools should display the text frame options (context toolbar). The Node and Rounded Rectangle Tool should display the same context toolbar and be able to adjust the corners (both on canvas and context toolbar). Seems bug on Windows. Are you experiencing this behaviour in Designer as well?

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Yes, Designer on Windows works the same way.

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

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • 2 years later...
2 hours ago, greyscale said:

So then, at the moment we need to use a text frame on top of a rounded rectangle if we want full control over the indents? That's just not right in a professional page layout app.

You could request an enhancement by posting your own topic in the Feature Requests forum.

I think there is a known bug in this area (not one acknowledged in this topic), but I'm not sure. So, alternatively, you could post your own topic in the Bugs forum, or search there for one.

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

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I think there is a known bug in this area (not one acknowledged in this topic), but I'm not sure.

I feel like this isn't really a bug. It is just the nature of text frame inset with non-rectangular text frames. If the inset is calculated from the frame edge, then obviously the inset would follow the contour of the rounded corner. To illustrate, here is an example of text set in four different frames, all with a uniform inset of 2mm:

244414171_ScreenShot2021-01-29at8_47_55AM.png.d42d59d920fb7d7639047dd9274278d3.png

So I do think we should expect text to follow the contours of the frame, as this is consistent behavior.

However, I do think there is room for improvement with how the text follows the contours of the text frame. Consider this example, where I have selected the rounded rectangle frame from above and created another rounded rectangle that is 4mm smaller in each dimension to match the actual text area once the 2mm inset is accounted for.

1221261915_ScreenShot2021-01-29at8_50_00AM.png.d85749c3d7aa875085270fdd1a3865ad.png

This may be a trick of the eye, but I think visually it looks like the text does not follow the contour of the shape to the extreme top and extreme bottom, and so it suggests the appearance of an indent. I say it may be a trick of the eye, because I suspect that the program is likely being mathematically exact when calculating from the edge of a glyph's bounding box, cap-height, or whatever it is that is the measuring point. The reality is that most letters don't visually start at the top left corner of the glyph bounding box, and so the appearance is that there is extra inset when text moves along angles other than the cardinal directions.

I therefore suggest that the developers revisit this phenomonon to see if there is a better way to make it appear that the text follows the contours of the frame from the human perspective. Any improvements in this area should also have benefits in any text-wrap situation as well. (But don't be surprised if this would be a lower priority. There are still a lot of improvements in other areas yet to be done.)

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  • Staff

It's not a bug per si but can be improved. See for example this case where the text frame has some insets applied to give some space to breath. Despite the space around, the fake indent still affects the visual result.  It would be nice to keep the text formatting separated from the frame styling or at least an option to ignore the corner radius.

text_frame_insets.png

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Yes, but the whole thing breaks down when the corners are only very slightly rounded.

In my example below, I want all the text to be left-aligned. But because of that corner, it's impossible to achieve – even with the huge amount of margin I've added around the text.

 

Screenshot 2021-01-29 at 16.09.20.png

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11 minutes ago, greyscale said:

Yes, but the whole thing breaks down when the corners are only very slightly rounded.

I think that is going to be inevitable if we want to be able to have text follow the contours of the text frame, unless there is some way added to "force rectangular inner frame" by which the text area is drawn as the largest possible rectangle that would fit inside the frame, then shrunk from that point based on the optional inset value. I don't know how possible that is, or how confusing it would be to implement.

By way of work-around (because in any case this won't be changed soon) here is an alternative work-around to give you another option than the text-box-on-top-of-another-object approach. In this alternative, create a plain rectangle without rounded corners, set an outside stroke of the same color, then convert that rectangle to a text frame:

1886705087_ScreenShot2021-01-29at9_24_52AM.png.862d955d9fefd151de5e5b946fcdd07c.png

The downside to this approach is snapping, as it seems the Affinity apps will not snap to stroke edge. I have wished it would in multiple contexts.

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6 hours ago, greyscale said:

the rounded corner appears to indent the first line of text

5 minutes ago, garrettm30 said:

It is just the nature of text frame inset with non-rectangular text frames.

I agree, but I noticed some odd and unexpected behavior nonetheless:

rounded_corners_first_line.png.06929834cdff5cd4b91b3ed9a2541b12.png

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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Thanks for the workaround! 

I have to say that I've been using page layout apps for 20 years, and I don’t think I ever wanted text to follow the shape of a rounded rectangle. A circle, yes, A triangle, yes. But never a rounded rectangle. A rounded rectangle is first and foremost a rectangle, and from my perspective having text follow the rounded corners should be an option, not the default behavior.

InDesign will do this, but not perfectly. You have to inset text more than the corner radius in order to avoid a rounded text margin. It's usually not a problem, but it occasionally annoys. So Serif, you have the chance to one-up Adobe here :) 

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7 minutes ago, loukash said:

I agree, but I noticed some odd and unexpected behavior nonetheless:

If the only difference in all of those boxes is font and text size, then that is a very good example that something is not right. Thank you for posting.

2 minutes ago, greyscale said:

I don’t think I ever wanted text to follow the shape of a rounded rectangle. A circle, yes, A triangle, yes. But never a rounded rectangle.

What you say illustrates the challenge from the side of programming. A plain rectangle, circle, triangle, and rounded rectangle are all treated exactly the same presently. It is not clean code to just single out one particular shape among many to give it a different treatment than all the rest. However, our discussion has illustrated a need, and our developer experts can think of a way to meet that need.

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1 hour ago, garrettm30 said:

If the only difference in all of those boxes is font and text size

Yep.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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I've found a semi-workaround to this. You can set the first line of text in the box to a 0.0001 point size font. Put a space or two on that line. Then the rest of your text at your desired size on the subsequent lines. It's not perfect because you'll still have some potentially undesired space at the top, but it gets pretty close:

 

Screen Shot 2021-01-30 at 5.37.33 PM.png

Edited by Matthew Twomey
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