MANIPULATING TEXT WITH PATHS--CURVED LINES

by Rubytuesday

In this tutorial we will work with paths on text to alter it. We will alter parts of the text using curved lines to convert it from the before picture to the after picture below.

before

after

2. Open textpaths.psd

3. Below the word Next, with the type tool selected type the word "next" all lowercase

4. Go to Layer > Type > Create Work Path and turn off the eye on this type layer.

5. Go to the paths palette and save as "next".

6. With the Direct Selection tool, click on the path line of the n, then go back and shift click on all the anchor points in the n except the four bottom ones. Once you have done this, click anywhere on the part of the n that is selected and hold and drag that top part of the n upward keeping the original angle if possible. Click off the path to deselect.

7. Next, click on the e, then click on the outside corner anchor point of the end of the e and drag it so that the line between this point and the inner one is horizontal.


8. Next, shift click on the 4 inside anchor points of the bottom part and the other 4 outside points (total of 9 points selected). Click on the line anywhere within the area selected and drag this area down. Then click off the path and click on the path again. This deselects the path and reselects it with no points being selected.

9. Adjust the 4th & 5th inside points one at a time by clicking on each one and using the handles, turning and/or dragging out until the curves look good. Then do the 5th and 6th outside points the same way. Click off the path to deselect.

10. With Direct Selection tool, click on the x. Notice on the upper left part, the inside line may have an extra anchor point. If so,choose the Delete Anchor Point tool and click on that middle point to get rid of it

11. With the Direct Selection tool click on the top left corner point and drag it up and to the left until it is about half-way the distance between the n & e.

12. With the Add Anchor Point tool add an anchor point about halfway the distance of the line you just dragged out. Then with the Direct Selection tool drag the upper handle CCW until the curve starts to conform to the top of the e.

13. Click on the corner point again and drag it downward so it forms an arc around the top of the e. NOTE: If the arc isn't high enough, you can drag the middle point that you made up and to the left more. Play around with these two points until you have a nice arc. You will notice that what was the top line of this part of the x crosses over across the arc. We will fix this.

14. Click on the point that was the upper right corner of the left part of the x and drag this up and to the left until it is even with the top of the n. You can leave it like this, or you can add the middle point back into the right side of this part and curve it much the same as we just did. We will leave it as is.

15. Now manipulate the bottom right part of the x in the same manner. Save your work.

16. Next we will take the top of the t and stretch it and curve back down to almost meet the right top of the x. With the Direct Selection tool, click on the path line of the t then shift click on the top two corner points.

17. Click on the line between these two points and drag it out to stretch the top of the t keeping the same angle as the rest of the t.

18. With the Add Anchor Point tool, add an anchor point about midway on both sides of the part of the t you just stretched. These will be used to make the initial curve of the top of the t.

19. Zoom in to about 250% with the tops of the x & t showing

20. With the Direct Selection tool, click on and drag the left corner point down to just above the top right corner point of the x keeping in line with the angle of the x and leaving just a small space between the points. Then click on and drag the right corner of the t down to just above the left corner of the same part of the x. Don't worry that the lines cross, we will fix that.

21. On the right line of the t in the curve between the last two STRAIGHT points, add an anchor point with the Add Anchor Point tool. With the Direct Selection tool, drag this point up and to the left so that it clears the "left" line and makes a better curve. Try to line it up so that the part of the line after the curve is the same distance away from the other line as the lines of the x are from each other.

22. At this point you should have two points that have handles on the outer line of this curve. Next, add an achor point about halfway between these two points and drag it straight out up and to the right away from the other line to make a nice rounded curve.

23. The left line (or inner curve line) has a point that is just to the right of the curve. This curve should be rather pointy looking at this time. Add another point just to the left of the curve about the same distance from the point of the curve. Then drag the lower handle of this point CCW until it is parallel with the line.

24. Play around with the handles of the different points and adjust them until you get your lines that are on either side of the inner and outer curves as straight as possible and the curves as rounded as possible and the two lines as equal distance from each other as possible. The end result of this part should make the t look kind of like an extension of the x, only not connected. Save your work.

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Continue only if they want to.

25. Make sure the t is selected. On the inner curve of the bottom of the t, there are 3 points. For this part, take the Delete Anchor Point tool and click on the middle one of the 3. Since we will be making the curve bigger, we won't need this one.

26. Next, with the Direct Selection tool, shift click on the two end points and click on the segment between them and drag to the right so that this section is about twice its original size. Then click on the next point of one of the lines and drag it so it is about halfway between points and repeat with the other line. Zoom in and make sure you have the point and not the line or you will get a weird shaped line. We just want to move the point.

27. When you have moved these two points along the line, then drag them downward just a little to make the curve a little better.

28. Next click on the bottom corner point and drag it up and to the right until the line between the corners is horizontal. Then go to the next point on the outer curve and drag it straight right until it is about midway between the old top corner (now the left corner) and the next point on that line. HINT: If you drew a vertical line thru the point you moved, it would be about halfway between the other two points.

29. Adjust the left handle of the point you moved CCW to make the outer curve more round.

30. Shift click on both the corner points then click and drag the line between them upward and a little to the left. It will look weird but we will fix this. There should only be one handle on each of these two corner points. Take the handle and drag it CCW and down to smooth out the curve for each.

31. On the inner curve line, drag the third point from the end downward just a little. Adjust any points on the lines as needed with their respective handles. Save your work.

32. You can save this as a custom shape or you can add a layer on the layers palette and fill the path for a finished product.