Re: [Gimp-user] Text Along Path Trouble

[Steve Kinney <admin pilobilus net>]

On 04/23/2013 09:26 PM, Astabeth wrote:

> I have seen several recommendations for Inkscape here, but I am a high school
> art teacher trying to teach my students to use GIMP, so an Inkscape solution
> won't help me.  This is so frustrating because this was going to be their first
> assignment where they have to have personal meaning rather than just using their
> interests.

With GIMP 2.8 on a Linux Mint, this is a typical result for me when
doing 'text along path':

http://pilobilus.net/xfer/text-along-path.png

This is one of several test cases.  Whether the path is closed or
open, and whether or not it has acute angles, seems to make no
difference:  The GIMP decides "this many letters and not one more."
 In the example linked above, it stops at #17, in other tests it
went into the low 20s before stopping.

As you noted, we have seen reports of problems with putting text on
a path in the GIMP before.  As far as I can tell, this feature just
isn't ready to use.

We can't let a teacher go without resources, though.  Asking myself
 what the GIMP can do with text, that's way artsy and cool AND
incorporates meaningful text in a portrait, I thought of this:

http://pilobilus.net/xfer/Michael_J_Hammel_-_text_effect.png

The linked image illustrates a text effect included in this
collection of GIMP tutorials by Michael J. Hammel, originally
published in Linux Format magazine.  18 full articles in PDF format,
available here:

http://www.tuxradar.com/gimp

The image linked is a screen snap from the tutorial on text effects,
file name seems to be LXF110.tut_gimp.pdf

Another potential contender I ran across in a quick sweep of teh
interwebs:

http://www.gimpusers.com/tutorials/create-text-portrait

Sucks about the 'text on path' thing, but there's hope for salvaging
some of the underlying concept in other formats.

:o/

Steve