Contoured text??

I was wondering if any one has ever been successful in forming the side of one letter to match the curve of an oval.

What I want is like this drawing:

http://www.mentat.com.au/misc/AAFA_g...go_drawing.gif

I have tried to do it manually, but I was wondering if there is some program generated way to do it.. so the alignment is smoother than trying to manipulate the nodes by hand.

Here is what I ended up with..

http://www.mentat.com.au/misc/CAFBA_...gear_alone.jpg

(ignore the rough edges.. that will be fixed later!)

Any tips would be appreciated!

Thanks

You need the Mould tool.

Select the letter 'C'.
Select the 'mould tool'.
Select the 'default envelope'.
Click on the bottom left hand corner of the box.
Use the 2 small red handles directly above to alter the shape.

OK - a beginner's approach.

Draw a circle the horizontal size you want (not ellipse, circle)

Set the word. Helps to do this outside the circle until later.

Select it.

Arrange > Convert to editable shapes.

Mould tool... apply "banner shaped" envelope

Shape editor tool - drag top and bottom curves.

Drag word into the circle. If necessary, use the Bezier handles to make the type stretch up evenly to the circle.

Select all.

Use top or bottom handle to squeeze the concoction.

The illegible word here is "capitaine," for no good reason, in an unreadable but decorative font.

May have mis-read your sketch - if you want just the first C and the last A distorted, then as salaam says, use the mold tool on them, leave the rest untroubled.

The design challenge as I saw it originally was to re-create a perspective view on a circle... the kind of thing that's easily done in vector by starting with a perfect circle, then squashing it.

This how I read your request and drawings.

I saw the hand drawn "sketch" as a perspective of the text attempting to match that of the oval...Not sure that is what you meant but here is my attempt.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by salaam

You need the Mould tool.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by DGehman

OK - a beginner's approach.

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Thank you all for taking the time to help me.

I have tried both Salaam & DGehman's approaches which you can see below.. improvements on mine for sure (still need a bit of touch up.. but looking better already! :) )

I did try to do Bob's suggestion.. but couldn't quite work out how to make the text "25pt outline on bottom text, 1pt on top text". I may keep trying to play with it to see if I can figure it out.

http://www.mentat.com.au/misc/CAFBA_...ear_alone2.jpg

http://www.mentat.com.au/misc/CAFBA_...ear_alone3.jpg

(and yes, the break in the letters is supposed to be there.. an artsy way to display "CAFBAA" initials.