Creating labels for curved surfaces

**Xhris** · 20 February 2009, 05:47 PM

Hi jeffb, I didn't quite follow your instructions; I think this kind of thing is best shown in a video. Edit: Oh wait, now I think I get the basics of it. Does this really work for all cup sizes?

You did make me realise that some people may struggle a bit with the maths, so I wrote a replacement tutorial with an example of how to solve the equations step-by-step. Hope it makes things easier for people.

Xhris

**jeffb** · 20 February 2009, 07:15 PM

OK Xhris
Believe me this will work for anything, I was doing this after 5year apprentaship 40 years or so ago, have used it from small to big and when I say big would a ships funnel do!!
Yes the basic isvery sound practice and just needs adapting for other things, but as I say the basics are long proved

**covoxer** · 20 February 2009, 07:29 PM

Jeffb, your method is approximate. It is not precise. In your illustration it's quite clearly visible that the perimeter of the wide end of the cup is longer than the long side of your label.
Although all other dimensions are correct (curvature of the label sides and width).

**Xhris** · 20 February 2009, 08:15 PM

Well, that's two tutorials for people depending on approach. I'm sure people will find them useful. Thanks jeffb.

**gwpriester** · 20 February 2009, 08:32 PM

I did this once years ago when I needed to create a label for a tapered container. Not being good with math, I wrapped a piece of paper around the surface like a cone. Then I drew a vertical line at both ends.

I unfolded the cone, placed the paper on a large piece of illustration board and extended the lines outward until the crossed. At the intersection of the two lines, I fashioned a large compass to draw curved lines on the area of the paper that would be the label, and added my text to that curve (manually cutting apart type set text).

Your method is probably easier.

**Xhris** · 20 February 2009, 08:48 PM

That's what I thought about doing for a minute when I first started...then I remembered I had a maths background

. I'll make a video as well in a bit. Probably not including the calculations (that's boring and self-explanatory now with the new xar file I attached before), but about drawing the scale diagram. It's really easy. Actually, I've got a good idea for a video...

**covoxer** · 21 February 2009, 08:06 AM

I think the bast way is to combine these two methods. The first part form jeffb is simpler. But we still need some math for label length.
Here how this can be done.

**wizard509** · 22 August 2019, 02:35 AM

Originally Posted by Xhris

Hi jeffb, I didn't quite follow your instructions; I think this kind of thing is best shown in a video. Edit: Oh wait, now I think I get the basics of it. Does this really work for all cup sizes?

You did make me realise that some people may struggle a bit with the maths, so I wrote a replacement tutorial with an example of how to solve the equations step-by-step. Hope it makes things easier for people.

Xhris

Hi Xhris good to hear from you, your link does not work at least it didn't for me. Do you still your great website with the tutorials? Hope so, I thought they were both helpful and amazing.