6 Replies Latest reply: Jan 7, 2009 5:33 AM by Steve Fairbairn RSS

    Text on circles behaving badly

    Michael Brown12 Community Member
      I've been working with computer graphics since the switch was made from the drafting table in the 1980s. I've battled with a great deal of software since that time, but I have never let poorly written software stop me from doing what I wanted to do with my designs. I always found a work around. Until now. I have met my match in AICS3 and for now I'm saying "uncle."

      The coup de grace came today when I tried to place type around the inside of a circle. I have five layers for five medallions. They all have the same background which is on its own layer. i could do this in ID, but for production purposes I'd rather do it in AI. I just turn on the layer I'm working on.

      The trouble began when I placed some text around the inside of one of AI's circle-shaped Bezier curves. First, the text is almost impossible to select. You can double-click everywhere and nothing happens. When by pure luck it is selected the cursor will not go where you click. You have to guess at random points around the circle and wait to get it right. Even then, the text highlights erratically. As far as arranging the text around the circle, forget it. There are the tiny lines with the tinier symbols that allow you to drag the text around, but they do not seem to be differentiated in any way. They do not intuitively work as beginning, ending or what have you. I can't figure out how they are coordinated with each other (or even if they are.) At random intervals, the linked text box icon appears. The worst problem, however, is that when I work on one layer it affects other layers that are invisible. That's right, it messes up the text on "turned off" layers. So even if I get one medallion correct, two or more on other invisible layers are ruined. I have to turn them off and lock them to keep them from going haywire. All this is taking too long.

      So for now I'm giving up. I'm not going to have text on the inside of a circle. I'm going to change it because this part of AI seems so poorly implimented I cannot find a work around. Can anyone give me any insight as to what the AI authors logic is with the handles and text on circle? Should I try this in ID regardless of my production needs?

      Thanks in advance.
      MGuilfoile
        • 1. Re: Text on circles behaving badly
          JETalmage Community Member
          M,

          Illustrator's inteface scheme for Text On A Path is explained in the online help. It's cumbersome to deal with, but it's not difficult to understand.

          As online help shows, there is a "bracket" at the beginning of the text, another at the end of the text, and a center handle which you can drag to position the whole set of "brackets" along the path.

          A common confusion occurs when you altClick with the text tool on a closed path, because the start and end brackets are right next to each other, where you click. (The "range" between the brackets wraps all the way around the closed path.) But because the default text alignment is usually left-aligned, this looks to the user like both "brackets" are "left" of the text. (It looks like there is only one, if you don't look closely.) If the text string is shorter than half the length of the closed path, then the "center" handle is positioned to the right of the end of the text string.

          So because of default text alignment, the whole thing look confusing if you don't first read the instructions to see what the interface scheme is supposed to do.

          As for your problem of editing one textFrame object affecting those on other layers, I suspect you have inadvertently threaded the textFrames. (You can thread textFrames across Layers.) This is easy to do, because the thread boxes at the start and end of a Text On A Path Object can almost obscure the start and end "brackets." Select Type>Threaded Text>Remove Threading.

          Because Illustrator doesn't provide any automatic "above/below" split command for text on closed paths, as does FreeHand, I find it less cumbersome to go ahead and cut closed paths before attaching text. For example, in the ubiquitous situation of a text string reading left to right at the top of a circle, and another string reading left to right at the bottom of the circle, I first just go ahead and cut across the circle and then set the text on the resulting two open paths. That avoids the messy overlapping of "full circle" text paths that makes selection difficult.

          Don't overlook that there is a Text On A Path Options dialog. In there, among other things, you can set a rather strangely-defined spacing value to correct the ugly spacing that results by default at sharp bends.

          JET
          • 2. Re: Text on circles behaving badly
            Michael Brown12 Community Member
            Thanks for the information; this will help a lot! Although AI won't be winning any awards for intuitive design. I'm still troubled regarding why the text could not be selected, why the cursor would not act on the text which was (finally) selected, or why "inadvertent" actions are so easy to do. Perhaps this last problem was the key to the other two. I had a tangled mess of text. Regardless, I'm glad Adobe's staff does not design bridges.

            Thanks again,
            MGuilfoile
            • 3. Re: Text on circles behaving badly
              Doug Katz Community Member
              JET will assure you the Illustrator team is uniquely suited to build bridges. For every single-purpose tool that another contractor might bring to the job, the I-team makes two... and sometimes three.
              • 4. Re: Text on circles behaving badly
                Community Member
                For your problem of selecting the text on a path: I'm accustomed to double-clicking on a text block to invoke and place the type cursor, and even though I know that this doesn't work on path type, I still frequently (and fruitlessly) double-click once or twice before remembering (so much for intuitive design). To select and edit path type, the cursor needs to already be a type tool.
                • 5. Re: Text on circles behaving badly
                  Michael Brown12 Community Member
                  I tried that, too, but it didn't work either. It just kept wanting to make a new line of straight type.
                  • 6. Re: Text on circles behaving badly
                    Steve Fairbairn Community Member
                    "...the ubiquitous situation of a text string reading left to right at the top of a circle, and another string reading left to right at the bottom of the circle..."

                    What I often do is to put each text string onto a separate layer. That way you can lock or hide the bits you're not working with. This makes editing much easier. Overlapping circles of type can be very troublesome if they're on the same layer unless you cut them in half to make open paths like James suggests.

                    When you've got everything as you want it, copy-drag the text strings, group and outline. That way you've got everything in one stable piece that won't jump around if you accidentally bump into it with your cursor.