Wrapping text around cut outs

[PatC]

I'm new to both the forum and Affinity. I have searched the Forums for an answer , but couldn't find anything specifically relating to this. Please excuse me if I am missing something obvious.

There seems to be a problem with wrapping text around an image. It works fine for  a rectangle/circle etc, but trying to wrap text around a cut out or part of an image is very hit and miss. 

Using Edge wraps the text inside and outside the frame, but leaves a line around the frame the width of the padding and using edit text wrap changes the frame (or creates a new frame if the image is placed directly onto the page), but has no effect on the image. The text conforms to the shape of the frame, underneath the image.

I thought it might be my mistake with the layer stacking, but I have tried every combination I can think of.

Thanks.

Pat

[thomaso]

I am not shure what you mean with "a cut out or part of an image".
Can show a screenshot of what you get momentarily?

Perhaps you might want to edit the wrapping shape different from its visible graphic?

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[Murfee]

Hi @PatC

It is a bit confusing  On your picture frame turn wrapping to none, then drill down the layers and select your image, now set your wrap settings. The attached screen shot shows 3 different images that are all wrapped, the top image of the Peony is just a jpg with a clipping mask, it is not in a frame, this is easy to wrap around the path. The second Peony down is the same jpg in a picture frame, the frame has wrap set to none, the image layer that is inside the Picture frame has the wrap settings. The last image is just a PNG not in a frame.

Hope this helps 

If you are using PNG files, the transparent areas must be fully transparent, it's often the case that it looks transparent but there may be partially transparent pixels, these will affect the wrapping.

[Old Bruce]

4 hours ago, Murfee said:

If you are using PNG files, the transparent areas must be fully transparent, it's often the case that it looks transparent but there may be partially transparent pixels, these will affect the wrapping.

I have been bitten by 1% transparent white pixels, those are impossible to see.

[Murfee]

27 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I have been bitten by 1% transparent white pixels, those are impossible to see.

I usually deal with those stubborn ones by selecting the main image, refine selection and output to mask. 

[PatC]

Many thanks for the replies. Here are some quickly put together screen grabs, which I hope explain things a bit better.

I am using the latest full version of Publisher on a 2010 MacPro with High Sierra.

The first image (Tight) is cut out in Photo saved as new layer and uses a standard tight wrapping. Works fine, but takes time and less useful if I only want to adjust the text wrap on one side of the image, as in Edit Wrap 1 and 2 below.

Edge 1 is the same image using Edge wrapping. It looks fine until you hide the image as in Edge 2, you can see that the text is wrapping inside and below the image.

Edit wrap is a standard jpeg with the frame adjusted using edit wrap. Editing the wrap in InDesign effectively crops that part of the image allowing the text to wrap, but it doesn't appear to do anything in Publisher.

However, in Edit wrap 2, when the image is hidden you can see that the frame has been edited and the text is conforming to the new wrap under the image.

As I said. I have only recently moved to Publisher from Indesign and and it may be that I am not doing it properly. 

[Murfee]

Hi @PatC

All you need to do is move your text box layer above your image, select your image layer then adjust your text wrap boundaries. The wrap was being blocked by the image as it was on top of the text, that is why you could see it when you turned off the image 

 

[PatC]

Thanks Murfee,  I can see that now. Tried it and it works. However, that still leaves the problem with the Edge wrapping which places text inside as well as wrapping around an object. I tried moving the text layer, but it has no effect.  Oddly, the icon for Edge wrapping shows just that - text inside and around the circle.

Although moving the text layer does allow me to adjust the wrapping it doesn't actually do what I was hoping it would. In InDesign I can edit the text wrap and the part of the image outside the new wrapping frame is hidden, almost like a temporary crop. This allows text to wrap to one side of an image, but not on the image itself i.e. in your example above the part of the image to the right of the adjusted wrap would be hidden. Does that make sense.

It may simply be that there is no way to do this in Publisher. A small price to pay.

Edited June 28, 2019 by PatC

[thomaso]

PatC, the Wrap Style "Edge" is supposed to do what you see inside and outside of your hat image. Just look the difference in the icons "Tight" and "Edge".

[Murfee]

38 minutes ago, PatC said:

This allows text to wrap to one side of an image, but not on the image itself i.e. in your example above the part of the image to the right of the adjusted wrap would be hidden. Does that make sense.

Perfect sense, if you want that effect the easiest way is to draw the shape you need with the pen tool, fill that with white, then drag this over your image thumbnail, this will give you a quick clipping mask, you can switch to the node tool to tweak as needed. I am not near a desktop or I would do a quick screenshot. 

[PatC]

thomaso, sometimes the obvious eludes me. If it does what it says on the tin then it's probably working the way it should. My only defence, other than natural stupidity, is that it's not a wrap style I'm familiar with. Useful though.

 

Murfee, thank you. I was thinking along similar lines.

 

Many thanks to everyone who pitched in. What a friendly and helpful place.