Text to Curves Rotating Text

[Mango]

I would like to create a number wheel with the numbers at 90deg to the circle but I cannot find any way to achieve this and it seems like something that should be doable within the text to curves feature.

Here is an example of what i would like to achieve.


If anyone could point me in the direction that would be most appreciative

[Kathy_9]

Here's a tutorial by Michele that may help you. http://www.michelespaintshop.com/psp-text-on-curve.php

[Mango]

Kathy - thank you for the link, unfortunately it doesnt show me how to rotate the text 90 degrees to the angle of the curve to achieve an effect the same as the image I posted above.

[LeviFiction]

Unfortunately, it doesn't come up that often. And the systems that were in place when the first added this feature....have remained relatively untouched. So while it should be possible, it is not possible. At least, not with Text on a Curve. The function is simple. "Follow the curve." Rotating the text only moves it to a different part of the curve.

If I was better at math I could make a script that did that. But it would have to be an individual text object for each number set, and manually rotated and positioned around the circle. As far as I know with PSP there is no way to do this automatically.

[photodrawken]

Use the text on path feature:

1. Create a reference circle to show the outer edge of the numbers alignment.
2. Draw a vector line that is a diameter of the circle.
3. Duplicate and rotate that diameter line as many times as you need numbers.
4. Enter the numbers as text.
5. Select one number and one diameter line and use Objects...Fit Text to Path. This will align the number so it's perpendicular to the diameter:

text sample.png (8.89 KiB) Viewed 5935 times

6. Select the number and change its text offset to center it vertically on the diameter line.
7. Move the number to align its right edge with the reference circle.

text sample 02.png (8.75 KiB) Viewed 5935 times

8. Repeat steps #5 - #7 for the other numbers and diameter lines.
9. Set the line width of those diameter lines to 0.00 so they will not appear.

Edit:
As a matter of fact, if you do just one number and diameter line, setting the diameter line to a width of 0.00, you can simply duplicate and rotate the combo and change the number text.

[Mango]

Levi - It certainly seems to be more of an obscure problem than I thought it would be, I thought I recalled doing something similar (with a built in feature) many many years ago but it could have been a different program.

Ken - Thanks for that I will give it a go tonight. Its a bit more involved than I was hoping but certainly sounds like a possible solution to the problem

Thanks to all!

[Mango]

I gave it a go and it didnt work for me as i couldnt enter in an exact angle without converting to raster layers but I did have an idea.

Here is my solution
Create a symmetric shape with the number of sides equal to the number count required.
Use a radius of 0 which effectively creates individual lines spreading out from the central point
place the text on the individual lines using a circle as a guide.

The difficulty here is the tendancy for PSP to flip the text to the bottom of the line or move to the adjacent line during alignment which is quite annoying.

[LeviFiction]

Glad you found a method that works for you.

Just thought I'd drop this in, try to be a little more useful this time around. - http://youtu.be/eZVej6DxSlk

That video demonstrates how to rotate a layer by a specific number of degrees. It also covers using the History Palette for quick scripts or to record a script after the fact. It's not overly useful in this case as the pivot point changes every time you rotate the layer and duplicate it. As you'll see in the video. But it could be useful. With a smarter script it would be possible negate that problem.

[gerryblueberry]

Thank you LeviFiction for your video. I tried to make my own script to rotate objects and it worked very well. The script I made will rotate objects 30degrees each time and I end up with 12 objects in a circle. I applied my script to the problem that Mango has here and I think this will work.

First make a square document and the set up your guides so that you have crosshairs at the centre of your document. With the pen tool make a line the length you want (You probably could this without the line). Add your text/number to the line where you want it. Move your line and text so that the beginning of the line is at the centre (you can adjust the length if needed). Unfortunately I can't show attachments at the moment to show how I did this.

I ran my script here, but without a script this is what to do. Duplicate the layer and free rotate 30 degrees. If you want more or less objects then set the amount of degrees differently(remember to divide the number of objects needed into 360 to get the degrees needed). Duplicate and rotate until you have your circle. Here you can make a script (refer to LeviFiction's video) for future use. Now with the text tool you can change the numbers to what you want and they will be in a circle. If you do not want the lines to show then just turn off the layer that has the line on it before you start rotating.

[Cassel]

If you know exactly all the numbers you need, and you don't need them editable (meaning, if you can convert them to raster), you could use a script like this one that turns a straight element into a circular one.

Going from this:

Image96.jpg (11.18 KiB) Viewed 5863 times

To this:

Of course, you notice that the numbers are slightly distorted as they are reshaped into a circle. If that is not what you want, of course, that won't work, but if it is something you are ok with, this is the script you can use:

http://creationcassel.com/store/index.p ... ucts_id=83