COOL!
Its a text to envelope effect!...pretty much.
I have been waiting for a script like this.
I have been doing all my envelope effects in InkScape, but no longer. =)
Can't wait to see this script developed more.It's neat to watch it working.





very nice

thanks saulgoode. =)

Rod, those are great. It's a cool script, isn't it? I like it.

It looks like it's perfect for your envelope effect.

Yes it is, i love it! =)
I cant wait to be able to use more node points.

This will be perfect for the psychedelic poster tutorial I ran across the other week. Using curve bend for the text produced less than great results, but this script looks like it would do the job!

I know this script is real cool, and should be implemented in GIMPS program package imo.
It is very, very handy. =)

Once again, thanks for all of the feedback. It is really appreciated.

I have made a few minor changes to the script and have updated the file (still at the same location). You should replace the original file with this substitute.

• Named the warped path based on the name of the original envelope path so that it will be easier to keep track of multiple separate shapes (as Oregonian demonstrated).
• Script should work on grayscale and Indexed images now.
• There is now no need to have a layer active to run the script. When using an "alternate path", a text layer is not needed and the script can now be run if a channel is the active drawable (previously the menu command was grayed out). Of course, if you don't check the "Use alternate path" box and the active drawable is not a text layer, you will receive an error.

There is a problem that I need to solve before I can implement additional curve points: when points are added between the last anchor of a path and the first, the added point sometimes becomes the new first point. I will likely post more on this later and seek advice, but that enhancement is on the back burner for a while.

If Rod doesn't mind, I will use his idea of the yellow stripes to describe how the "Use alternate path" option might sometimes be used for creating warped fill patterns.

After warping the text to its envelope, create a new layer and fill the warped region with black. Then...

1. Do an "Alpha to selection" on the original text layer.
2. With the Rectangle Select Tool, click on the selection (you should see the resize box appear with handles in the four corners). Then move the mouse pointer to the top center of the selection so that the center resize handle appears (do not press the mouse button). With the mouse pointer hovering over the top center resize handle, hit the left cursor button on your keyboard (the marching ants should switch to marching around the rectangle, instead of the text) and then click the mouse inside the selection or hit the ENTER key to accept the selection. (This step effectively converts a selection to its bounding box.)
3. Save your selection to a channel (for later use).
4. Perform a "Select->All".
5. Activate the Quickmask (the Select All means that you will be rendering on a white channel).
6. Use "Filters->Render->Patterns->Grid" to create horizontal black lines (you need to unlink the Width spinners, set the Vertical width to "0", and set the Horizontal width to one-half the Spacing value).
7. Use the Rotate Tool to rotate the grid diagonally ("-45" degrees).
8. Exit Quickmask. You should now have a selection of diagonal strips covering most of your image (but not the corners owing to rotation).
9. Activate the rectangle selection channel you saved earlier (it should already be active, but make sure if it isn't).
10. Hold down the CTRL+SHIFT keys and click on the red square "Channel to Selection" button at the bottom of the Channels Dialog. (Your selection should now be the intersection of the diagonals within the previously defined rectangle.)
11. Perform a "Select->To path". This is the "alternate path" which you will be warping.
12. Go to the Paths Dialog and activate your original envelope path.
13. Run the Warp Text script, specifying that an alternate path should be used and choosing the saved selection from the dropdown.
14. After the script has finished, click on the red square "Path to Selection" button on the bottom of the Paths Dialog.
15. Activate the warped text path, hold down the CTRL+SHIFT keys, and click on that same "Path to Selection" button.

This selection can now be used to fill the warped black layer with warped yellow stripes.

Man, I didn't think I could do all that but I did! I'm not very familiar with channels but I sure didn't want to add another path to the mix so went ahead on the channel.

I think my envelope could have used some curves but it's too late for this image. I think I goofed up on the stripes. They were still in the shape of the envelope instead of the warped text so I filled the orange stripes on a separate layer, did alpha to selection on the warped text, inverted and deleted on the stripes layer.

That's a really cool way to warp the stripes, saulgoode! Kudos! Brilliant use of the Quickmask.



Question: What does Ctrl + Shift + Path/Channel to selection do differently from just clicking on the to selection button in those?

I think there may be some misunderstanding. While my update now permits the script to be run while a channel is active, the channel is not actually used (and an alternate path must be selected). This is just a matter of how GIMP disables commands in the menus based on the type of the active drawable, and while the script doesn't need either a layer or a channel if an alternate path is used, I didn't want the user to have to switch dialog boxes just so the script's command wouldn't be grayed out in the menus.


As you know, clicking on the button (with no modifier keys) replaces the current selection (if any) with the shape of the highlighted Channel or Path. Holding SHIFT down while clicking will ADD the shape of the channel or path to the current selection. Holding CTRL while clicking SUBTRACTs the highlighted channel or path from the current selection.

And to your question, holding down both CTRL and SHIFT while clicking on the red button will INTERSECT the highlighted channel or path with the current selection. This means that if a region (even a single pixel) is selected in the channel (or path) AND also appears in the current selection then that region will appear in the resulting selection.

In the following image, the red square represents the selection before clicking on the button, the blue square represents the shape of the channel or path, and the green shape on the right shows the result. Note that these modifier keys provide the same functionality commonly available in the selection tools (as described in section 2.1 of the GIMP Users Manual).

Ah! Thanks for that explanation. Now I understand where I went wrong on the first one. I think I did not do c + s + to selection. This one was done correctly.

That looks great, Oregonian! I'm glad you've got things sussed and appreciate your perseverance.

Going off topic a bit, I've been to about a dozen Grateful Dead shows and the ones in Eugene were by far my favorites. What a scene!

Thanks. It's a very interesting technique.
Lucky you! My youngest daughter and her husband live in Eugene. Do you live in the Northwest?

I love the script, however I tried following your steps and am totally lost on your selections. After you do the alpha to select and click on the rectangular select tool, Clicking the selection and draging to the center top, just creates a box where dragged. No luck following the instructions.

Nevermind! I got it!

I've updated the "mini-tut" so that hopefully it is a little more clear.

Basically, steps 1 through 3 aren't absolutely necessary. Steps 4 through 8 describe using the Grid filter and Rotation Tool to render diagonal stripes -- the only thing atypical about this is that they are rendered on the Quickmask channel (to produce a selection, and ultimately a path).

Since the rotated diagonal strips selection has its corners missing, we need to select a rectangular region that is completely covered by the strips. Steps 9 and 10 (in addition to steps 1-3) use the original text region that was previously warped. If you just used the Rectangle Select Tool to reduce the size of the selection (holding down SHIFT+CTRL while making a rectangular selection within the stripes selection), this would still work to produce warped stripes. However, if the rectangle is a different size than the original text region then the warped stripes would be a different size (relative to the size of the original warped text). If the aspect ratio (width:height) is different from the aspect ratio of the original text region then the angle and width of the warped stripes (relative to the original warped text) would be different.

By making the size of the original stripes rectangle the same as the size of the rectangle of the original text, the result of warping the stripes will match the result of warping the text*. This is probably not that important in most cases.


* If the accuracy of my warping algorithm was more precise, the stripes selection (after step 8) could just be intersected with the original text layer ("Layer->Transparency->Intersect With Selection"), and the resulting path warped to produce a perfect overlay. However, the warping produced by the script is not precise enough to rely on this.

@ Oregonian, I was a Seattle-ite about a decade ago.

The thought of making a poster with several different envelopes is intimidating. I think fitting path-envelopes to fill the poster and then doing the text for the separate envelopes would probably be the easiest way. I think it would be stunning if it's possible to do.

it doesn't work at all for me...is it because I am still using gimp 2.4?

Probably so. Saulgoode would be the final authority there though. It's a fun script to play with. I've been working on a kind of poster but so far I don't like what I have. I'll just keep on playing with it though. What I have in mind isn't what I get on the canvas ... as usual.

haha, I seem to have that same problem with most of the posters I make!

this is real cool, if i could remember how i did it would be nice but it eludes me at the moment. =P

put on your thinking cap!!! awesome.