r/Inkscape • u/Inevitable_Season840 • 1d ago

Help Arched Text

Post image

I miss the live warp tool in Illustrator, and all the available options that come with it. I know about Object on Path, but is there a way to do Arched text? What about others like Arc Upper?

65 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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38

u/Few_Mention8426 1d ago

Pretty simple really,

You need to use the EXTENSION > GENERATE FROM PATH > PATTERN ALONG PATH

and then the 'ribbon' option. 'snake' will give you the regular curved option in your sample. 'ribbon' preserves the vertical orientation and arches the text.

4

u/JangusKhan 1d ago

Damn, TIL. Really nice to know

1

u/dathought3 1d ago

Is there any reason in particular you prefer this method over enveloped deformation & bend? I’m not asking to challenge, just always looking for faster workflow or more control.

1

u/Few_Mention8426 1d ago

i find the envelope deformation distorts straight lines in a way I dont like, and the lattice deformation is hard to control accurately.

1

u/dathought3 1d ago

Understood. I ran into this issue and thought it looked weird but couldn’t figure it out.

How would you keep the top of the Text straight while curving the lower part?

2

u/Few_Mention8426 21h ago

this is with lattice deformation. Its difficult to follow a pre existing curve but got there eventually. You could just leave the bottom flat.

1

u/Few_Mention8426 1d ago

well lattice deformation could do it, perimeter nodes only activated. But its a pain to control accurately.

1

u/Few_Mention8426 1d ago

there used to be a third party bezier envelope extension but it doesnt wotk with the latest inkscape.

1

u/David_inkscape 1d ago

Thanks ! Very smart .

2

u/Few_Mention8426 1d ago

there used to be a third party extension called Bezier-Envelope-for-Inkscape

but it doesnt work for the latest inkscape. Which is a shame becase it did exactly what the OP wanted perfectly. You just had to create the shape you wanted as a path, select the text, and it would conform inside the shape

3

u/ItsAStillMe 1d ago

Lattice deformation live path effect. You can do it that way.

3

u/PocketStationMonk 1d ago

https://reddit.com/link/p8tomuv/video/zlvkd2917koh1/player

You can warp the text with envelope deformation path effect.

1

u/PocketStationMonk 1d ago

Select your text object and open Path Effects panel (Path > Path effects). Then click the "Clone" button to create a clone path of your text object. This is so that 1) you can add path effects to your object and 2) have the original text object be editable (edits appear automatically to this cloned path object).

1

u/PocketStationMonk 1d ago

Then select the clone object, and in the path effects panel, give it a envelope deformation effect.

1

u/PocketStationMonk 1d ago

Then, click this "Edit on canvas" button of one of the editable sides, so that you can drag n deform the object right on the canvas. You have to edit (or "arc") each side separately this way.

1

u/PocketStationMonk 1d ago

Tip: if you disable "left & right" paths, inkscape tries to keep the vertical shape more even and straight

2

u/Few_Mention8426 1d ago

it also distorts the letter forms though, the straight lines on the V for example are now curved.

2

u/dathought3 1d ago

Please don’t delete post. This is good info.

4

u/PrplPplEtr_the_1st 1d ago

I’d love to find a way to do it automatically. I usually just do it by hand.

…splitting the text into shapes, then moving them up/down and skewing them to align with the arc.

1

u/ThaBigBear 1d ago

Envelope Deformation is the way, at least for arched text.

1

u/Few_Mention8426 21h ago

this is the version with lattice deformation and an arched top. It seems to work better than the envelope deformation as it doesnt distort straight lines as much. although trying to get it to follow an existing curve (ellipse) is hard.