Text in a shape?

**clemsonjim** · 29 May 2009, 01:41 PM

Is it possible to fit text into a shape in Extreme? Similar to repel except inside the shape.
Thanks

**gwpriester** · 29 May 2009, 02:20 PM

Welcome to the Xtreme Conference.

How much text are you thinking of?

If it is a word or two, shaping the text with a Mold Tool > Default Envelope is the way to go.

If you want to fill a shape with a lot of text, then it becomes more complicated. You need to center align the text and add line breaks as needed to fill the shape.

I vaguely remember a long time ago, someone posting a technique of combining lines and adding the text justified left and right.

I'll do some experimenting and be right back.

**gwpriester** · 29 May 2009, 02:32 PM

OK Thanks for waiting. You did wait, didn't you?

This is not a very pretty method but with some tweaking it works.

Create a series of lines that conform to the shape.

Select the lines and Arrange > Join Shapes.

Select the lines and your text and Arrange > Fit Text to Curve.

Select all the text and play around with the line justification. You can use the Tracking and Kerning settings with the Text Tool to expand or contract the lines or words.

**ss-kalm** · 29 May 2009, 04:49 PM

Repel works inside a shape too. Make the inside transparent. NOTE: you may have to create a 99.5% transparent mask outside the shape to stop overflow, depending on the actual shape.