Align objects to text paths?

Hi all,
I don't know if this is possible at all in Illustrator, but I want to align objects to text paths. Look at the following example to get an idea what I mean.
I start with something like a circular hierarchy, that I get as an output from another program. These are only lines and text. Now I want to add a flag behind the text. This flag should have the same orientation as the text path.
As this hierarchy is actually pretty big (this is only a snippet), I don't want to rotate all the flags manually. I tried to do it manually with the below example, but it still doesn't looks right...
Does anyone know, if there is a proper method to rotate the flags according to the orientation of the text paths in Illustrator? Any help is much appreciated!

I don't know of more automated way than doing it manually. However you can make the rotation precise using the smart guides. Assuming the text is live (not outlines), this is how I would do it:
Make sure on the View menu, there is a checkmark in front of Smart Guides (Ctrl+U)
With a text object selected, pick the Rotate tool (R), find, and click the anchor point of the text object which will be at the left bottom side if the text is left aligned. The Smart Guides will show an "Anchor" label when the mouse cursor is over it.
Then, away from the Anchor point, click and drag the path of the text object to rotate it until aligned horizontally or vertically to the artboard which will be indicated by the Smart Guides displaying a straight horizontal or vertical line.
Hold Ctrl key down temporarily to switch to a selection tool and click with it the flag you want to rotate.
Release the Ctrl key to get back to the Rotate tool and press the Enter key on your keyboard to get the Rotate dialog.
Change the Angle value to positive if it is negative and negative if it is positive and press the OK button. On a pc you can do all of this step with three keyboard keys instead of the mouse if you press first the Home key, then Delete or Minus for changing the value to positive or negative, and finally press Enter to apply and close the dialog. The flag is now rotated with the same angle as the original orientation of the text.
Cut (Ctrl + X) the flag, and Undo (Ctrl + z) a few times until you go back to the original orientation of the text.
Paste (Ctrl + V) to get a copy of the rotated flag and position it in place. I can see that your skills with position the flags are much better than aligning the orientation and I don't think you need more complicated way of doing it.

Similar Messages

How to align Objects to a path while scattering the objects in even spaces with decreasing size?

Hello
I am facing following trouble:
I am suppose to draw a spiral and on this path i want to align a symbol to it (in my case a circle).
Now i have found two ways how to to it.
First i can use the Brush palette and then apply my symbol to it. but then the problem is the size of the circles are all same but i need the circle to get smaller towards the center of the spiral
Second approche i took, i used the blending options between two objects that i also attach to a path. So i could resolve the issue about the decreasing size but now another problem has appear: The gaps between the circles are not same. I would like to have even spaces.
So now my question is: How can I resolve this my problem?
For better visualising my problem, you can check out this screenshot here: http://goo.gl/PEvZI
If anyone can give me a hint or a tip i would be very appreciating it.
Thanks in advance...
Regards,
Natla

Before you apply the Transform Effect, store the circle as a Symbol. Then, after finding a set of Transform settings you like, drag the resulting object to the Graphic Styles palette. The resulting Graphic Style will not include the basic Appearances (stroke, fill) of the circle; it only stores the Transform Effect. In the palette, the Graphic Style will appear to be blank, but it will contain the Transform Effect. That way, you can apply the Graphic Style to any other object with one click.
Same thing works if you first merely Group the circle and apply the Transform Effect to the Group. But storing the circle as a Symbol also lets you use the Replace Symbol command to instantly swap in/out any other Symbol.
Symbol swapped for one containing an isometric cube:
Symbol swapped for one containing a Lens Flare object:
JET

Anchored Objects with text wrap, need vertical space

Hi. I'm a fairly new InDesign user and have just this past week learned about anchored objects, threading text frames, numbered lists, and some other fun options. So far InDesign has done most everything I need fairly elegantly. However, I have not been able solve one issue.
In my book I have numerous pages that have this issue; I'll just describe one case. On this page there are 4 graphics running down the right side of the page. These are not anchored graphics. They do have text wrap defined on the left side and bottom. There is text that wraps lovely on the left.
Each of these four graphics has a specific paragraph it needs to top align with. However, the text it aligns with may not take up as much vertical space as the graphic does. When I anchor each graphic with the paragraph it needs to align with, the four graphics overlap each other.
At the moment, to make it look right, I have placed each graphic individually and added a blank paragraph above each paragraph of text that should align with a graphic and use the Space Above of each blank paragraph to have it align with the graphic.
I'm not even sure what to search to try and solve this. I looked briefly into compound paths, but that didn't look like it would help.
I hope this is clear and thank you for any assistance at all.
Andrea

No problem. Click your cursor somewhere in the paragraph that ought to be aligned with the next image down, then run this Javascript.
It's not entirely accurate, as it uses the font size to do a minimal adjustment where it actually should use the font's cap height -- but you cannot get to that through scripting. This final adjustment is necessary because ID does know the baseline, and your first line ought to dip just below this to have the top of the first line aligned to the top of the image.
//DESCRIPTION:Align paragraph with image.
// Jongware, 15-Jul-2010
if (app.selection.length == 1 && app.selection[0].hasOwnProperty ("baseline") && app.selection[0].paragraphs[0].index > 0)
     // find nearest image on the right
     ypos = app.selection[0].paragraphs[0].lines[0].baseline;
     pg = app.selection[0].parentTextFrames[0];
     while (1)
          if (pg instanceof Character)
               pg = pg.parentTextFrames[0];
          if (pg instanceof Spread || pg instanceof Page)
               break;
          if (pg instanceof Document || pg instanceof Application)
               exit(0);
          pg = pg.parent;
     img = pg.allGraphics;
     dist = 999999;
     nearest = null;
     for (i=0; i<img.length; i++)
          if (img[i].geometricBounds[0] > ypos && Math.abs(img[i].geometricBounds[0] - ypos) < dist)
               dist = Math.abs(img[i].geometricBounds[0] - ypos);
               nearest = img[i];
     if (nearest == null)
          alert ("no image found nearby!");
     else
          prevm = app.activeDocument.viewPreferences.verticalMeasurementUnits;
          app.activeDocument.viewPreferences.verticalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.POINTS;
          top = nearest.geometricBounds[0];
          ypos = app.selection[0].paragraphs[0].lines[0].baseline;
          if (ypos < top)
               app.selection[0].paragraphs[0].spaceBefore = top-app.selection[0].pointSize-app.selection[0].parentStory.paragraphs.previousItem(app.selection[0].paragraphs[0]).lines[-1].baseline;
          app.activeDocument.viewPreferences.verticalMeasurementUnits = prevm;
This image shows three paragraphs aligned with their respective images (it won't work on the first paragraph, but that ought not to be necessary anyhoo).

Circular 3d text path

Hi everyone, I'm just getting started with the new Motion 3.0 and I have a few questions of how to achieve a particular effect. What I am trying to do is similar to the template called Barrel Turns, where the text curves in on a 3d path, with each character curving along with it.
I've tried to create the effect on my own using a Motion Path behavior and applying it to a curved circle. It worked well enough to move my text along the circle's path, but the entire layer moved together; the text moved in a solid block instead of turning character by character.
The final result I'm trying to achieve is for the text to come in a straight line from the right, to make a slight curve, and stop in the center of the screen.
I would appreciate any help that you guys can offer. Motion seems to be such an awesome program. It should be able to handle this simple move.

Hey Bill,
The Motion Path behavior doesn't have an "Affect Subobjects" option, so it will always treat a text layer as a single object.
There is a way to accomplish what you want, though. Similar to how Motion Path now accepts shapes as input, so does a text object's text-on-a-path functionality. Just go into the Layout subtab for the text, in the Inspector. Set the Layout Method to 'Path' and the Path Shape to 'Geometry'. I recommend disabling 'Align to Path'.
Here's a screenshot:

Join text paths?

Can someone tell me if it's possible and how to join text
paths.
I mean if i have two letters say E and T, i convert them to paths then
delete a section from the right of the E
and from the left of the T so that they can join up,
then i take the two endpoints of path that i want to join then go to
object>path>join, i get the message:
"to join, you must select two open endpoints. If they are not on the same path,
they can not be on text paths nor inside graphs, and if both of them are
grouped, they must be in the same group"
i did select 2 open endpoints and i tried ungrouping the text but i still get the same message.
Any ideas?
Daniel

Daniel,
Probably, the upper border of the parts of the two letters to be joined are aligned, and the lower border is not.
Presuming sans serif letter, in many cases you will obtain the cleanest look if you:
1) Type>Create Outlines,
2) Ungroup and Object>Compound Path Release,
3) With the Scissors Tool cut at the far corners of both upper and lower border,
4) DirectSelect and Join both to rebuild the joining part.

[JS] [CS3] Text Path to Layer?

A Hierarchy question.
How can I navigate from a Text Path object to find its Layer? (ie the Layer it resides on)
Thanks,
PJB

Ok, what you need is:
myTextPath.parent.itemLayer;
The parent of the text path is the polygon (or other page item) that "owns" the path on which the textPath item sits.
Not an oversight; just a slightly more complex object model branch than meets the eye.
Dave

How to align object in the report layout

Hello,
I find it very difficult to aligin objects in the report editor or in the template editor. I know there are some alignment options, like aligning to the grid or aligning a group of objects, but they seem to work on the bounding rectangle for the object. For my text objects, those rectangles are arbitrarily sized. So aligning those rectangles does not correctly align the text baseline, for example.
Does anyone have a tip on how you can align objects? I there maybe a way to alter the size of objects by changing a number in a property sheet somewhere?
Regards,
Frans

The problems I am having now occur when I am editing the margin in the template editor. For some reason, the flex and confine options can not be turned off in the template editor. I believe they are turned on in this mode, at least in tools:options: paper layout they are turned on. But anyway, this really does not matter because I don't have nested objects in the margin. The objects that will go flying off are completely unrelated to the object I want to move or resize.
Update: I have just tried editing the layout of a report that was based on the template I am working on. Turning flex off there had a positive effect. It seems indeed the 'flex' setting is to blame for the problems I am experiencing. Thanks for the tip!
So now I would really like to know how to turn of flex in the template editor..

Can't get rid of jagged edges of aligned objects

I have the annoying problem of jagged edges on aligned objects in Illustrator. This image demonstrates it well: http://i.imgur.com/AIyK6vK.png
You can see the white background shining through where objects align to each other. I thought this was only a display thing which wouldn't show up on print or export, but I get the same aweful results when exporting to png, pasting as a smart object in PS etc. How do I fix this?
Thanks!

I've tried that aswell and it looks a bit better, but that isn't always (never?) a good solution.
Jacob, I've had no luck with the other thread, I was already using smart guides. This is a strange problem. I've not seen a lot about this anywhere else, don't you guys have this issue?
There is one better solution than a background layer. Select all objects and offset the path buy a very small number, maybe 0,01 mm but that is also more of a "hack" than a real solution..

Thick blue stroke line around object and text boxes

After I unlock and ungroup, there is a thick blue stroke around text and object boxes. Does anyone know what this is and how to get rid of it? Thanks!

Click with the selection tool on that object. The blue line will go away.
Meanwhile, it's there to let you choose a "key object" around which you can align objects.

Trouble selecting and moving objects near text in Adobe Illustrator? Try this.

It's been 4 years since I left Corel DRAW for Adobe Illustrator. One thing I could never get used to is the crazy way text has an impenetrable invisible sheet over it making it hard to select objects near or behind it.
With Corel DRAW I was used to be able to select text by simply clicking on the visible area of the text. Selecting stuff behind the text by clicking between letters or right next to a decender was never a problem. But Illustrator is a different story.
Tonight I finally found a way to make selecting text in Illustrator behave more like Corel DRAW.
I wrote it up here: http://www.johnstanowski.com/blog/trouble-selecting-and-moving-objects-near-text-in-adobe- illustrator-try-this/
Just thought I'd share!

It's not spam, but thanks for assuming.
I was up really late writing that blog post. Posting a link was the quickest way to share and be able to go to bed.
Plus it's rather lengthy. I thought that would be rude to use an Adobe forum for my articles.
If you saw my blog you will have seen there's not much going on there at all, and no calls to action to hire me. I don't have anything to gain by getting traffic.
And, yeah, layers work for selecting, but that slows you down. Who would want to look away from their work to find and select a layer when they're trying to tweak positions of objects? Layers suck for selecting quickly.
And there must be something wrong with me but I find using Type Object Selection by Path Only by itself hard to use. I'd really just like to click on the text itself rather than an invisible hairline you have to probe to find.
Here's the post. I hope people who had trouble like me find it helpful.
Do you have trouble selecting objects near Point Type in Adobe Illustrator? You’ve been there. You want to select an object. Problem is, it’s really close to piece of Point Type. All too often we try to select objects that wind up being unreachable because they lie too close to a piece of Point Type, which we wind up selecting instead. Luckily, after years of angst, I discovered a solution.
Point Type in Adobe Illustrator is funny. There’s this invisible “shield” around it. This shield is much larger (at least it seems that way) than the text itself. It prevents you from selecting objects behind text by clicking between letter and words. This shield is particularly meddlesome with lowercase letters and decenders because we think surely we can click on that blue box (or whatever) because it seems far enough away from that Point Type. But the lowercase “g” in the Point Type’s territory.
Okay, now that we know we’re talking about the same thing, let’s move on to the solutions.
Step 1. Check ‘Type Object Selection by Path Only’ in Preferences
You’ll find this option in Preferences/Type. Click it and that nasty text shield goes away. But there’s a price to pay. With this option activated, the only way you can select your text is by clicking on the text path, a super, tiny, thin baseline thingy under all the letters, but above decenders. It’s really hard to grab. To do it right you need to slowly approach the text path with your cursor. When you’re right over it, Illustrator will let you know by adding a small black square to your cursor. Now, you can click, hold and move your text. But this workflow can really slow you down and break your rhythm, maybe even more so with it turned off.
Step 2. Add the ‘Outline Object’ Effect
Select your Point Type and, from under the Effects Menu/Path/, select Outline Object. This effect does something really sweet to text in Illustrator: it lets your Point Type objects be treated as if their were converted to Outlines. You can still edit the text, but as far as selecting it, Illustrator now considers it outlines and shapes instead of a text object. Basically, it now considers the Path of the text to be the text itself! Now, since we’ve already checked ‘Type Object Selection by Path Only’ we can now click on the text to select it. Just the text. Not the baseline, not the wacky invisible shield surrounding it.
And now… you can select things behind the text by clicking between words and letters. And the ONLY way to select Point Type is to click on the visible parts of the text itself! Problem solved.
Potential Problem:
Too much of a good thing could be a bad thing. Let’s say you have some Point Type set in a very light face and it’s pretty small or you’re zoomed way out. Selecting that text could be a problem since you have to actually click on the text itself. Actually it isn’t that hard, it may just require an extra click to grab it. If you have a set of smaller, light-faced bits of text, you can elect to just not apply the Outline Object effect to these. They’ll get their ‘shield’ back and be easier to click on. And since they’re so small, they don’t pose a problem with selecting things behind them anyway.
Applying this technique to your old files
Now that you’ve learned this awesome new way to work around type in Illustrator, you may be anxious to open yesterday’s project and get back to work. But you may be not be looking forward to applying the Outline Object effect to each and every piece of type. For this you can use Illustrator’s “Select Same” feature. Select one piece of text. Then from the Select Menu click on Object/Text Objects. Now ALL of your text objects will be selected, and you can apply the Outline Object effect to all of them at once!
That’s it. If you build ads or work with a lot of type in Illustrator, you’re about to be able to work a lot faster… and happier.

Align objects grayed out

I placed an image in my Pages document, and I would like to center it. I clicked on it, went to arrange, and then align objects. All of the choices are grayed out. Any ideas why?

Choose at least two objects, they align against each other.
If you just want it to align to the cntre of the pahge just drag it till an alignment line shows up.
Either that or you object is inline in the text and not floating.
Peter

Why does Vertical Align Center align objects along the horizontal?

And why does Horizontal Align Center align objects along the vertical?
-g-
P.S. Please please please make the Eydropper tool available by function key so I can toggle to it while using the Text tool. Please!

g,
but when I select two objects and click the vertical align button they snap to an invisible horizontal line
This is (almost) identical to:
Because (the centres of) vertically aligned objects will be on the same horizontal level/line.
And that is just one way of expressing what vertical alignment means. Here are a few others:
Their centres have the same height,
Their centres have the same Y value on the Artboard/Workspace,
In all cases, you can draw a horizontal line through their centres.
Mathematically, Y = C (Y is a constant value C) is the equation for a horizontal line.

Align OCR'd Text to Left

Hi,
I have recently scanned in several pages from a document and have run it through OCR. All is well, except that the text on some pages is not left aligned with the text on subsequent pages (see example in picture below):
Each page is slightly differently misaligned from the others, and I don't want to have to realign it all manually. Is there a method of automatically aligning the text vertically in an automatic fashion after doing OCR on a document?
b1177

Not directly. You can use the Object Touchup tool to move the whole block and the crop tool to make things consistent. That may be a bit more manual than you like. I don't think it can be automated.

Add background colour to text path?

Hello,
I have a circular path on which I'm typing text. I have 2 questions:
1) How can I 'extend' the typing area of the circle to allow me to type on various points of the path? I've adjusted the 'markers' using the direct selection tool, but when I press tab or space, the original text moves
2) Is it possible to colour the background of text, in such a path?
I've attatched a screenshot, if you need more, please let me know. As you can see, at the top of the path is one blue line where the text starts, however I want to type in 3 places.
Thank you

Look if you keep adding criteria no one willb.e able to give you any real help and you have to follow instructions you cannot interpret the steps to try and simplify any thing.
You clearly have two pths with different radii so it was supposed be on path. But besides that the methd I suggested is not going to work with so may cities or other text items.
Here this what you do but follow the intructions.
1. You create your cicle path and copy and paste in front, for past in front the keyboard short cut is command f or control f depending on your platform.
2. You mke the top one into a text path and paste the spces as per the video I posted.
3. You type your cities
4. Lock the text path
5. give the path below the text path a stroke to the desired weight
6. then scale path with the stroke so that the text is aligned to the center of the stroke
7. then switch to the scissor tool and cut the path wityh the stroke so you can delete the unwanted portions
You get this
0r this if you change the colors which can bee done after cutting the path.
You should know this is rather basic and probably why no one else came forward you should look at some tutorials on Adobe TV and get a better feel for the program.

How can I align two different text row in the same table in two different way (one centered and the other one on the left)?

Hi,
I want to center two different text row that are in the same table but one on the center and the other one on the left. I put a <span> tag hoping that it has been overwhelmed the table's class properties The .bottomsel's font-family and the .Cig84's font-family and colour work but the text-align don't: they're both on the left.
These are my source and CSS codes:
Source:
<table width="600" border="0">
<tr>
    <td class="bottomref"><p><span class="bottomsel">| <a href="index.html" target="_self">Main</a> | <a href="about.html" target="_self">About</a> | <a href="clients.html" target="_self">Clients</a> | <a href="contact.html" target="_self">Contact</a> |</span><br />
      <span class="credits">Credits: <span class="Cig84">Cig84</span></span></p></td>
</tr>
</table>
CSS:
.bottomsel {
text-align: center;
font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
.credits {
text-align: left;
.Cig84 {
color: #F00;
font-family: "Comic Sans MS", cursive;

Use paragraph tags with CSS classes.
CSS:
     .center {text-align:center}
     .left {text-align:left}
HTML:
<table width="600" border="0">
<tr>
    <td class="bottomref">
          <p class="center">This text is center aligned</p>
          <p class="left">This text is left aligned</p>
    </td>
</tr>
</table>
Nancy O.

Align objects to text paths?

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