Text on a Path anomaly

[gapdev]

When placing Text on a Path (circle) the spacing between the tops of the letters and the spacing between the bottoms are not equal distant. In the Tutorial video, they appear to be equally spaced.

 

 

Am I doing something wrong? Is there a way to get equal spacing?

 

Also, how would I go about adding the other numbers (1 - 11) around the circle? I can't seem to select a different part of the circle to place new text.

 

Thanks for any insights,

 

Kenny

 

[A_B_C]

Hi Kenny,

 

and welcome here  :) …

 

No, what you describe is by design. The vertical axes of the single letters are pointing towards the center of the circle you are using. To achieve what you want, you won’t be able to use the text on a path feature. As I believe, you will have to do it another way … here’s a possible solution (see my screen cast):

• Create a single text frame with the Frame Text Tool at 12 o’clock and center your text inside the frame
• Duplicate this frame to 6 o’clock and rotate it by 180 degrees
• Group both items
• Duplicate them by hitting Cmd + J
• Set the center of rotation on the Transform Panel to the center of the created group and choose 330 degrees rotation
• Hit Cmd + J ("Power Duplicate") as long as you have the 12 text frames

Hope that helps …

Cheers, Alex

Clock.mov

[Dave Harris]

I think the effect you want can be got with path text by putting it on a 12-sided polygon. (Path text isn't just for circles!) To position the later numbers you'd need to use tabstops - centre-aligned tabstops in the middle of the polygon sides. You'd probably need to do some trigonometry to work out what angle to rotate the polygon to, and what the length of its sides were. A_B_C's method may be easier.

[A_B_C]

Oh yes, I hadn’t thought about polygons, and I like the idea … please correct my original post accordingly …  :)

[gapdev]

Alex,

 

Originally I was duplicating, rotating 30 deg and then manually placing. Your method is much better (and easier).

 

The reason I was wanting to use Text on a Path is that on real clock faces, the numbers are rounded to follow the shape of the circle. I thought I would be able to do this with Text on a Path. I guess for now I'll stick with square bottoms  :o

 

Thanks guys. I'll try the Polygon idea next.

 

Waiting for the new feature of being able to set the rotation point (in this case, the center of the dial). Makes rotating much easier. But the power duplicate is pretty awesome as well.

 

Kenny

[A_B_C]

Hi Kenny,

 

I guess you mean this effect … right?  :)

 

Well, I am still thinking about a method to achieve this (apart from drawing the figures by hand) … any ideas? Would be interested myself in a beautiful way to achieve this …

 

Cheers, Alex

[Dave Harris]

If you want the figures to be distorted as they bend around the clock, that would require some kind of mesh warp. We can't do that with vectors yet.

[gapdev]

Alex,

 

Yep, that's it!

 

I have have about 50 clocks around the house and all of the ones with Roman Numerals have the rounded bottoms like that.

 

Kenny

[00Ghz]

You might want to import the file into AP and use a Lens Distortion or Displace filter with a mask applied to that specific area, in order to get that kind of effect.

[A_B_C]

And a Mesh Warp tool, as mentioned by Dave, is available in Affinity Photo as well …  :)