Text on a curve

I promised Steve I would send a tut to make text follow the curve of this ribbon. There are lots of great tuts on the net for applying text on a curve. This is just another one, written from PSP XI - vetch style. Funny that. I had nothing but trouble getting the bezier line tool to work in PSP XI. Then I read the help file. (no further comment)

Materials needed:

• Paint Shop Pro
• Font of choice.

This tut also works in PSP 9. I don't have the other versions to test the vector lines in, but I assume it works in 8 and 10 as well.

Bezier curves - a wavy line that you make from a straight one... that's about all you need to know about Beziers for this tut. I got lost in the true definition of beziers. (no further comment)

I am going to do this tut first with a black line against a white background for contrast.
This is practice - never hurts to do a practice run before you start working with your masterpiece.

Open a new image - 300 X 300 pixels, 72 dpi, white background.
In your material palette, set your foreground color to black and hide your background.
Select your Pen Tool and use these settings:
Click on the Bezier line selection - -
Create on Vector and Show Nodes checked
Line style: solid - Width: 3

Left Click (and hold) on a STARTING point - drag your cursor to where you want your first curve to end - then release your mouse. While you are dragging the first node, your cursor turns into two circular arrows, the starting node becomes an empty grey node and there is an arrowhead over a node in the center of the circular arrows

Release the mouse and click (and hold) at the point where you want your line to end, don't release the mouse - drag it in the opposite direction that you want the line to curve. If you drag your mouse down, your line will curve up, toward the opposite end of the rotation line. The nodes on either end of this line are handles that you can grab and stretch or squeeze and rotate to bend your lines the way you want them. When you have the curved vector line close to the way you want it, click APPLY.

To edit the curves in this line, click on the node that you want to change. Below, I clicked on the start node, to increase the dip of the curve by dragging it down to the right. The lighter lines are the outline of where you are placing the line. If you want to move the end of the line, click and hold on the node itself. If you want to curve your line, click on either end of the control bar and drag it around til you get the curve you want. When you have your curved line shaped the way you want it, click Apply. To move your line, hover your mouse until the cursor turns into a solid arrow head with a squiggle behind it. Click, hold and drag the line where you want it.

Click on your text tool, select the font, color, stroke width that you want to use. Hover your mouse over the curved line until it turns into a +A and click on the line where you want to start your text.

Type the text that you want to follow on the curves and watch it wiggle along your curved line. If it doesn't follow the curve, cancel and try again.

Adjust your size and other font properties while you have the text box open by highlighting your text. You can change the font, size, style, and the material palette while your font is selected.

Click apply when you are satisfied.

If you want to move your line of text to the left or right on the line, while the bounding box is open, hover your mouse over the center of the bounding box until you get a plain + plus sign and click and drag your text left or right. You can move the text along the line, but the text will not leave the line. You can stretch or scrunch your text by grabbing a node on the outside of the box and dragging it to the position you want.

If you want to adjust the curve of the line, highlight the New Path layer in your layer palette, select your Pen Tool again, click on a node and drag the adjustment lines to where you want them.

Once you have the curved text the way you want it, HIDE the New Path Layer in the layer palette and select the layer your text is on. Right click > Convert to Raster Layer.

From there, you can select your text, apply any effects that you want to it as a raster layer.

Delete the remaining vector layer (if it's still there) and finish your tag the way you want it.


Here are my examples for filling in the text on this line. I made my bezier line, and in the example below, I am adjusting the curve at the start node.

In this example, I can grab a corner or side node and stretch or squeeze my text to fit.

After it's all been converted and a drop shadow added to the text.

I hope you have as much fun with beziers as I did once I learned how to make them work for me.

vetch