Bit off more than I can digest...?

[oldcopierguy]

Hey all, I posted here earlier as a first time buyer/member of Page & layout Designer 11 with a couple questions on a "spot of bother" I was having. after seeing what most folks do with Xara, I think I may have purchased a Ferrari when I only needed a Ford Focus...!!! I'm trying to design a new logo for our local IPMS club as I mentioned in first post, and watching a few videos there are still quite a number of things that I am missing that were not mentioned in the tutorials.

The logo involves text, an imported vector flag, and a beveled circle that I am having a devil of a time getting the text to fit properly... It seems when I do a "group" the flag disappears behind all the other parts of the image. Also, when putting text to curve, the text will not "centre" on t he outside. The video I watched shows the text going evenly around the top centre of the circle and he seems to have a centre line both vertically and horizontally in his circle.

At any rate, I feel this software may be a bit too much for me considering all I want to do is create things that are going to be very similar to this logo design. Maybe I'm giving up too soon but I know I have a short fuse when things don't go smoothly right away...! My bad...!


Any thoughts for this 'ol fart...? BTW, there are 2 images attached. The one with wrapped text does NOT follow curve properly

Cheers, Laurie in Winterpeg...going down to -27C tonite...!!!

[gwpriester]

First off, the text should be set for Center Alignment before you Fit Text to Curve. And the curve needs to be centered.

I have always had troubles with this operation and text rarely aligns how I want it to. So it is not just you.

Sometimes I have to manually rotate the aligned text to get it to sit right.

[oldcopierguy]

Hey gw, thanks for the reply. Glad it's not just me...! I feel like a rank amateur and it's so frustrating. How do you "centre the curve", and manually rotate the text...? Like I said, this is ALL new stuff to me, so my questions are gonna sound REAL goofy...!

Cheers,

[Christine Farrelly]

Using the selector tool(the arrow) double click on the item you want to rotate and at the corners you will see the rotation handles.

I sometimes use spaces added to the beginning or end of the text to move it along the curve.

[angelize]

Hi Laurie, Welcome to Talkgraphics! Brrrrrr.... I'm glad I'm not in Winterpeg! I'll take our Wet Coast soggy winters any day

The text on the curve needs to be a text line (just click and type) Not a text column and not a text area. Once you have made sure your text is just text lines then follow Gary's advice and make sure it is centre justified.

A word about colours. I hope you don't mind a bit of advice. The Maple Leaf has a very bright primary red and that doesn't go with the primary yellow and blue. Choose a colour for the text that complements the Maple Leaf red and do away with the yellow background altogether. And instead of the bevel try experimenting with the extrude (3D) tool instead. You can type the IPMS text then go arrange >convert to editable shapes then ungroup (ctrl +u) twice marquee select the four letters that are now shapes and extrude them. Play around with positioning them and adjusting the bevels, lights, perspective etc.

Here is a quick example of what I mean. The soft purple doesn't fight with the red and I've played around with the positioning of the extruded letters to create an interesting composition.

[ss-kalm]

Just a quick tip ... from one who had lots of trouble with text on circles ...

If you use RADIUS or DIAMETER to create a circle the quadrant points can be off where you want them. If you get used to creating a circle/ellipse with BOUNDS CREATION - it's easy to remember to use CTRL to constrain it to a circle - AND the quadrant points are ALWAYS at the right places. Then as long as your text is centre justified, it will be in exactly the right position without any further adjustment.

It also makes BREAK AT POINTS much easier to use, if you want to use partial circles.

[oldcopierguy]

Thanks for the help and tips angelize. I used the background bevel shape as I wanted to have something as a base when it came time to turn the logo into a competition medal at contests. You have a point about the colours though. I'm struggling with Xara right now as I have been out of the hands-on graphics end of a computer for many years now working as coordinator at Health Sciences Centre here in the 'Peg. I had an original Xara release way back when it first came out and it seemed simpler back then...??

Anyhoo, I'll be taking some of the advise from all of you kind folks after the Christmas rush and get down to some serious Xaraing...!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to ALL, and THANKS...as Arnie said..."I'll be bock...!"

Laurie in Winterpeg.