Ofnuts - Text along path plug-in [with link to tutorial]

Esper · **Joined:** Jul 17, 2012 **Posts:** 2770

Moon Puppy wrote:

Here I was struggling with text along path and you guys had this. "bangs head slowly on desk"

dont beat yourself up too much
its a new one ! :mrgreen:

ofnuts · **Joined:** Oct 25, 2010 **Posts:** 4758

Esper wrote:

ofnuts wrote:

Looking at your tut, I'm getting slowly convinced that what the plugin misses most is a "reverse path" option. Keeping that form some future project meeting

sounds good !

Quote:

Also, the first option I added when I wrote the script is the Left/Right/Centered/Filled formatting.

my plan was to feature those options in a future part two of the tutorial
but people need to catch up first
otherwise: information-overload

text along path is very much my style, so i've used it quite a bit in the past, but i have to say i never needed all the extra options much

Quote:

But the way you create the path you cannot take advantage of it because Select>From path creates control points a bit randomly and the first control point is not on a vertical diameter. So the text is at a random position and you have to rotate the path. Ideally you want a circle path with the starting point on the vertical diameter so that centering the text in it puts it directly at the right place. With my shape tool the first point of the circle is on the segment you use so it is very easy to obtain. But with a path from a circle selection you can cheat:

Create a vertical guide on the diameter (and disable "Snap to guide")
Start the path tool
Zoom to max on the bottom of the circle
Add two points to the circle, on each side and very close to the guide (ctrl-click)
Delete the sub-pixel segment between the two points (Ctrl-shift-click it)

Now you have a path is circular, but slightly open with a first point which is very close to the diameter (as close as 0.1 pixel if needed). Therefore the plugin wil really center the text as you want it. For the bottom text, just flip the path vertically, the opening will be at the top and you'll have also reversed the stroke to get upright letters.

i hear you
this may be a bit too complex for the occasional user
also i think sometimes fine-adjusting the rotation of the text, is something that is driven by a sense of aesthetic and "weight" of the font (not sure if thats the correct wording)

but i will try your suggested technique

oh and btw, this tutorial got the most hits in the shortest time ever
seems to hit a nerve

The plugin is a good seller according to the SourceForge stats (over 3K downloads over all releases, and it has been doing a steady 100 downloads/month over the last two years).

Esper · **Joined:** Jul 17, 2012 **Posts:** 2770

ofnuts wrote:

The plugin is a good seller according to the SourceForge stats (over 3K downloads over all releases, and it has been doing a steady 100 downloads/month over the last two years).

wow, thats a lot
i got 61 hits in two days, but im never quite sure about the statistics for blogspot

Nidhogg · **Posted:** Thu May 29, 2014 3:26 am **(#24)**

You can do it twice faster using Arakne´s path shape tool, adding all required circles easily in one go without needing to use "selection to path".

Esper · **Joined:** Jul 17, 2012 **Posts:** 2770

ofnuts wrote:

Create a vertical guide on the diameter (and disable "Snap to guide")
Start the path tool
Zoom to max on the bottom of the circle
Add two points to the circle, on each side and very close to the guide (ctrl-click)
Delete the sub-pixel segment between the two points (Ctrl-shift-click it)

Now you have a path is circular, but slightly open with a first point which is very close to the diameter (as close as 0.1 pixel if needed). Therefore the plugin wil really center the text as you want it.

i tried it and it works like a charme !

and the best thing: the same technique works in Inkscape as well

thank you ofnuts ! :bigthup

Ella · **Joined:** May 17, 2014 **Posts:** 1451

I downloaded the plug-in but in the path window I don’t see ‘Tools’.
I must have done something wrong

So, I did it my way

Esper · **Joined:** Jul 17, 2012 **Posts:** 2770

Ella Louise wrote:

[ Image ]

I downloaded the plug-in but in the path window I don’t see ‘Tools’.
I must have done something wrong

So, I did it my way

Fantastic, Ella Louise !
You are very talented !

Where did you put the plug-in ?

ofnuts · **Joined:** Oct 25, 2010 **Posts:** 4758

Nidhogg wrote:

You can do it twice faster using Arakne´s path shape tool, adding all required circles easily in one go without needing to use "selection to path".

Even faster/easier with path-to-shape....

Nidhogg · **Posted:** Fri May 30, 2014 3:18 pm **(#29)**

Ella Louise wrote:

[ Image ]

I downloaded the plug-in but in the path window I don’t see ‘Tools’.
I must have done something wrong

So, I did it my way

Step 1, always after downloading a script or plugin. Make sure it is not blocked. It will not load otherwise.
Then put it in your user/.gimp-2.8/plugins folder
After You have created a path, right-click the path in paths docker and there it is, under Tools.

Ella · **Joined:** May 17, 2014 **Posts:** 1451

Esper, I placed it in the plug in folder.

Nidhogg, after a look at your printscreen, I noticed I downloaded a wrong one :oops:

Removed it, downloaded the right plug in and now it’s OK

Thanks a lot!

Issabella · **Posted:** Sat May 31, 2014 4:23 am **(#31)**

Great and cute result, Ella Louise! I love it. :jumpclap

Ella · **Joined:** May 17, 2014 **Posts:** 1451

Issabella wrote:

Great and cute result, Ella Louise! I love it. :jumpclap

Thank you Issabella, your works are always very nice too :bigthup

This time with the right plug in

Esper · **Joined:** Jul 17, 2012 **Posts:** 2770

Ella Louise wrote:

This time with the right plug in

[ Image ]

Ella Louise, thats lovely !!

if i may give you a bit of advice

first of all, and this is really my fault

dont make your images so small !
i made my tutorial with a canvas size of 400x400px because that would look good on my blog
but i cannot really recommend making stuff that small

the bevelling will look much better on bigger sizes and you will get less likely jaggy edges

speaking of jaggy edges: it seems you have stroke the selection, thats why you have these jaggy edges on your stroke
always convert the selection into a path and stroke that !

will look ten times better (smoother !)

here is a video by Jolie on that topic

Video from : www.youtube.com

ofnuts · **Joined:** Oct 25, 2010 **Posts:** 4758

Attachment:

WhyOnlyCircles.png [ 28.82 KiB | Viewed 2118 times ]

Esper · **Joined:** Jul 17, 2012 **Posts:** 2770

Ella · **Joined:** May 17, 2014 **Posts:** 1451

Esper wrote:

if i may give you a bit of advice

Sure you may, Esper.
Always willing to learn

Thanks for the advice and the video.

Esper · **Joined:** Jul 17, 2012 **Posts:** 2770

i was about to write part two for the ofnuts 'Text-Along-Path Plug-in' tutorial, featuring his proposed technique of deleting a segment to get a perfectly aligned text, but it seems there are problems

ofnuts wrote:

Ideally you want a circle path with the starting point on the vertical diameter so that centering the text in it puts it directly at the right place. With my shape tool the first point of the circle is on the segment you use so it is very easy to obtain. But with a path from a circle selection you can cheat:

Create a vertical guide on the diameter (and disable "Snap to guide")
Start the path tool
Zoom to max on the bottom of the circle
Add two points to the circle, on each side and very close to the guide (ctrl-click)
Delete the sub-pixel segment between the two points (Ctrl-shift-click it)

Now you have a path is circular, but slightly open with a first point which is very close to the diameter (as close as 0.1 pixel if needed). Therefore the plugin wil really center the text as you want it. For the bottom text, just flip the path vertically, the opening will be at the top and you'll have also reversed the stroke to get upright letters.

apparently, depending on the font (and in this case it didnt matter if i used upper or lower case letters), the two sets of text dont align, no matter what 'Height Reference' i use

that means the solution to make this work is by using two seperate paths (or using the 'Vertical Adjust', but i think its almost easier, creating a second path)

Esper wrote:

i think sometimes fine-adjusting the rotation of the text, is something that is driven by a sense of aesthetic and "weight" of the font (not sure if thats the correct wording)

also i encountered the problem of a seemingly perfect centered text, not looking perfect visually

ofnuts · **Joined:** Oct 25, 2010 **Posts:** 4758

1) The only case where you can expect the top and bottom text to align exactly on the same path is when you use a "height reference" that is perfectly centered on all characters. In the current version this means using all-caps for text and the "Middle of caps" reference:

Attachment:

TextAlongPath-AlignTopAndBottom.png [ 110.43 KiB | Viewed 2056 times ]

(it would be easy to add a "middle of lowercase", though...).

The "Vertical alignment" parameter is also meant to deal with these issues.

2) Text formatting is done using the vertical "boxes" around the characters, so characters with very different shapes at each end may lead to slightly unbalanced text. I will try to have a good idea to improve this.

Esper · **Joined:** Jul 17, 2012 **Posts:** 2770

ofnuts wrote:

it would be easy to add a "middle of lowercase", though...

yes please ?

and i found another minor bug:
when paths overlap, they dont merge, they form an exclusion

playing around with a spiral path

and a star

Esper · **Joined:** Jul 17, 2012 **Posts:** 2770

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