Arching Letters in Coreldraw?

[LUV DEM TIGERS]

I know how to type the text, choose the text and the shape it want to arch it to and do "Fit Text to Path" but it seems like it basically just rotates the letters so if you have just a few letters and one is a capital M it looks really weird. I know how to use the envelope tool also. But is there a way to arch and have them conform more to the shape automatically. The envelope tool it is hard to get everything to look uniform.

 

[unclebun]

What effect are you trying to accomplish? To make the letters arched, the correct tool is fit text to path. You just have to draw whatever path you want to use, usually a circle or ellipse, fit the text to it, and then adjust the path object if you need it to have a different radius, overall size, etc. The letters can be made to be tangent to the path (which makes them "rotate" as the go around the path), or to always be upright but warped to the baseline, radiating from the center, or completely upright and not warped. That is done using the dropdown box of the fit text to path tool.

If you want letters that stay straight across the top but the baseline is arched (or the opposite), you have to use the envelope tool. Experiment with the different variations in that tool to make it easier to do what you want.

 

[Bobby H]

I know how to type the text, choose the text and the shape it want to arch it to and do "Fit Text to Path" but it seems like it basically just rotates the letters so if you have just a few letters and one is a capital M it looks really weird.

I am not fond of the standard Text on Path effects within CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator for the reasons you describe. The results often end up looking pretty wacky because the effect is only rotating the letters and often not doing the best job of it either. Any letters that are wide at all look horrible applied in a Text on Path effect.

I tend to get the best results with the standard Text on Path effect by using really condensed or compressed typefaces and giving the letters pretty wide spacing. The letter rotation tends to look a bit more natural.

The envelope effect can do a little better, but it's really difficult to get results that look proper.

One trick I've used over in Adobe Illustrator is turning a string of letters into an Art Brush and applying that to a path. That will actually get the horizontal features of the letters to follow the bends of a curve. You'll still get some distortion, but it will be far more natural looking than anything gained from manually tinkering with an envelope filter. Determining the target path's length and making the art brush letters match it will reduce distortion further. I attached a couple examples I made using that method. One was for an actual sign project and the other (using imagery from "Pulp Fiction") was just a bit of fun (I had to crudely "edit" the graphic for this forum).

 

[LUV DEM TIGERS]

I am not fond of the standard Text on Path effects within CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator for the reasons you describe. The results often end up looking pretty wacky because the effect is only rotating the letters and often not doing the best job of it either. Any letters that are wide at all look horrible applied in a Text on Path effect.

I tend to get the best results with the standard Text on Path effect by using really condensed or compressed typefaces and giving the letters pretty wide spacing. The letter rotation tends to look a bit more natural.

The envelope effect can do a little better, but it's really difficult to get results that look proper.

One trick I've used over in Adobe Illustrator is turning a string of letters into an Art Brush and applying that to a path. That will actually get the horizontal features of the letters to follow the bends of a curve. You'll still get some distortion, but it will be far more natural looking than anything gained from manually tinkering with an envelope filter. Determining the target path's length and making the art brush letters match it will reduce distortion further. I attached a couple examples I made using that method. One was for an actual sign project and the other (using imagery from "Pulp Fiction") was just a bit of fun (I had to crudely "edit" the graphic for this forum).

Thanks. It looks like I am going to do a little more playing. Everything I have learned is self taught so I wasn't sure if I was missing something.

 

[Craig Keller]

I use smart designer ad on it makes corel much easier.

 

[Bobby H]

I don't know a lot about Smart Designer, but at first glance it just looks like a collection of canned templates where you change the lettering in pre-existing designs.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Smart Designer is somewhat like Astute as well. Not as encompassing in feature set, but it easily expose features that were hidden in the program and it did add quite a few new ones as well.

I had Smart Designer 4 back with X5.

They do focus on their templating system a good bit as well, but it isn't just about the templates.

A lot of people in the apparel world like Smart Designer. I prefer Astute and what they added to Ai, but Designer isn't all that bad. At least not with v. 4 (I know, me and my legacy versions).

Edit: I checked my disc, apparently, I had 4.5. 4.5 version was the "bridge" version during the X4 to X5 transition period, it worked on both versions. Been a long time on that one. Forgot all about that.

 

[James Burke]

Ditto to the aforementioned issues with Corel and Adobe. I'm absolutely blown away how Gerber Omega handles text on an arc with no distortion, and it's really fast (with no need to create a path first). Just about the best I've seen out there.

SignLab isn't too bad either. The attached photo is of a SL layout used for a glue chip glass project. It is comprised of two adjoined arced text lines. It took only approx. 10 minutes to do the text.




JB

 

[Bobby H]

The text on arc effect in SignLab doesn't look fundamentally any different than similar effects in CorelDRAW, Illustrator or other industry specific CAS applications. It's just a matter of how it is rotating individual letters. Some of the same problems remain. If the letters are too large or too wide for the arc they take on a wacky comedy show aesthetic.

 

[unclebun]

If you have a letter that you don't like how it was rotated, break the letters apart and rotate it yourself...

 

[Bobby H]

If you have a letter that you don't like how it was rotated, break the letters apart and rotate it yourself...

Breaking apart the letters and manually rotating them is often required to make the effect not look like $#!+.

 

[Billct2]

I started with Gerber and still use it for laying out most text. It was designed for signmaking and the tools are much better

 

[James Burke]

If you have a letter that you don't like how it was rotated, break the letters apart and rotate it yourself...

It's not so much a character's position as it is the distortion that happens between the bottom (compression) and the top (expansion) on an upward arc, or vise versa on a downward arc.


JB

 

[Andy D]

I use smart designer ad on it makes corel much easier.

If you don't mind saying, what's the cost on Smart Designer?

 

[LUV DEM TIGERS]

If you have a letter that you don't like how it was rotated, break the letters apart and rotate it yourself...

My local town is IRMO. And if you try and arch that in a font like Athletic Block no matter what you do, the M is going to look terrible because it looks like it is on a see-saw. teetering back and forth.

 

[myront]

I know how to type the text, choose the text and the shape it want to arch it to and do "Fit Text to Path" but it seems like it basically just rotates the letters so if you have just a few letters and one is a capital M it looks really weird. I know how to use the envelope tool also. But is there a way to arch and have them conform more to the shape automatically. The envelope tool it is hard to get everything to look uniform.

Wouldn't mind seeing a sample of what you're seeing. I don't see anything awkward.

 

[unclebun]

When you do the standard

It's not so much a character's position as it is the distortion that happens between the bottom (compression) and the top (expansion) on an upward arc, or vise versa on a downward arc.


JB

When you do the standard fit text to path there is no distortion of the letters.