Re: [Gimp-user] Issues with text along path

[Akkana Peck <akkana shallowsky com>]

Rick Strong writes:
> Hi Akkana,
>
> Since you got text on a path to work, would you be so good as to outline the
> steps doing it in point form?

Here's what I did to test it:

- Activate Path tool
- Click in two places in the image to make a straight path
- Drag from the middle of the path upward, so now I have a curved path
- Activate Text tool
  (Now you can't see the path any more; if you want to see it, go to
  the Paths dock/tab and click the visibility icon on)
- Click anywhere in the image to start a text layer.
- Type some text, and adjust size until it's at a reasonable scale
  to go with the path I made
- Layer->Text along Path

And now I have a new path representing the text outline bent along
the path I made. My GIMP now looks like this:
https://shallowsky.com/tmp/text-along-path.jpg

Of course this is just a path. If I wanted the text to be visible
in an exported image, I'd have to stroke the path, or convert it
to a selection and fill it.

> Also, how can the text be placed (or moved to) any point on the outside or
> inside of a circle?

I don't know of any easy way to move it. Best to set up the path so
that the text will start in the right place, and you'll probably
have to fiddle with font size and try several times to get it
to be just as long as the path. That's one of the ways in which Text
Along Path is (as I said in my earlier posting) not the easiest
plug-in to use.

When I was doing a lot of CD labels and wanted a lot of circular
text, I found Text Along Path way too much hassle and ended up
writing a plug-in for circular text, in various languages:
https://shallowsky.com/software/arclayer/
which is not as good, but it can bend any layer, not just text,
and it's easier to use.

        ...Akkana