Horizontally Condensed Text on a Curve without distorting it?

[Zwaeback]

Hello,

It seems like this should be possible with coreldraw, but how?

For example:

I write the word "HELLO" in arial. I then condense the letters 75% horizontally. Next i fit the text to an ellipse path. The text needs to be large enough to go from about 15 degrees to 165 degrees on the ellipse. The problem is that the condensed text looks distorted when placed on the curve. The only way i have of resolving this is by not condensing it or by placing each letter individually.

Thanks for your help,
Phil

[Zwaeback]

Hello,

It seems like this should be possible with coreldraw, but how?

For example:

I write the word "HELLO" in arial. I then condense the letters 75% horizontally. Next i fit the text to an ellipse path. The text needs to be large enough to go from about 15 degrees to 165 degrees on the ellipse. The problem is that the condensed text looks distorted when placed on the curve. The only way i have of resolving this is by not condensing it or by placing each letter individually.

Thanks for your help,
Phil

[Mike Bailey]

Try placing the text on the curve, then adjust the character spacing with the text format.

[Zwaeback]

Hello Mike,

If i reduce the character space in text format it reduces the space between the characters. I need to actually condense the characters, so they're not as wide. Perhaps i'm missing a button? It seems strange that corel would not have such a useful feature. Then again, the only software i've seen with this feature are sign oriented.

Phil

[Zwaeback]

Condensed text on a curve with illustrator works pretty well. the text doesn't distort around the curve. There is a problem though in that the individual characters slightly bow outward at their base.

Phil

[Zwaeback]

Xara has a tool that i haven't seen before on any other software. You can set the aspect ratio (one control number) for the text on a curve to make it wider or more condensed. Its very simple to use.

Phil

[Mike Bailey]

Hi Phil,
I wasn't sure what you were trying to accomplish. Scaling the text to change its width tends to distort the text as you said it does, Applying an envelope, well thats a lot of work for such a simple job, if Xara does it best then that is the tool to use, I have Xara as well so I rarely open Draw unless I am trying to help someone. I also have some engraving software that does a nice job but that doesn't help here.

Good luck and Have a happy!
Mike