Placing text on a curve is quite easy in PSP 6. There's a number of ways to do it, and I'll start by placing text on an arc. (as I did for the title of this section.)

Use the Point to Point or Line in vector mode to draw an arc. Use the previous tutorials to understand this. (This image is a composite to show both nodes active.)

Here's the finished arc. I like to use a minimum line width of 3 pixels to make it easy to hit the arc with the text tool.

Select the text tool and move the cursor over the arc. When the text tool 'hits' the arc, there will be an arc in the pointer icon. Click on the arc. The position that is clicked on the arc doesn't matter.

In the text box, I entered the text, set the size, color, checked Antialias and Vector. (If you aren't going to be manipulating the text as vectors, you may check Floating or Selection.) The red circle shows the Center Text check box! In this case, we're wanting the text centered.

Clicking OK in the text box places the text on the curve. Note the text overhangs the line on both ends, but it doesn't effect the looks of this line.

To remove the line under the text, there are two way to make it transparent. Right click on the selected line and click the 'Transparent' box or.. in the Layers Palette, just click the View icon.

An easy way to invert the curve of the arc is to select the "Drawing" in the Layer palette (it may remain transparent if you like) to get the deform selection around the arc, then click and drag the top side deform handle below the lower side handle.

Now to apply text to a Object, in this case a circle. (You can apply text to any object!)

Click on the Preset Shape tool.

In the Tool Options, select Circle, Stroked, 4, Create as vector. Antialis won't help in this operation, so uncheck it.

Click the location for the center of the circle and drag out about 80-90 pixels. (diameter ~ 170 pixels) Select the Text tool and click on the circle (watch for the arc under the A)!

I'm using a plain Arial font, size 18, Vector and Antialias (the text will be visible so I want it to appear smooth.) I've entered the text. Notice the Kerning, Leading and auto settings.

Click OK to apply the text to the circle. In this case, the text doesn't quite go all around the circle. Also, the text starts at the bottom. In many cases this would be satisfactory, but to demonstrate moving the text, I'll make it start at the top. Another case would be if the text wraps over on the ends. In either of these cases, the solution is the same. Before we do that, notice in the image above, the selection includes both circle and text and the center of the selection is offset.

Open the Layer Palette, expand the vector layer to see both the circle and text objects. Click on the Circle object, which will also de-select the text.

RIGHT click on one of the corner handles and drag inward to shrink the circle, outward to expand the circle. Shrink to bring the ends together, expand if the ends overlap. Keep changing the size of the circle until the start/stop points of the text are where you want. Alternately, the spacing of the text could be adjusted- see the text inside the circle section.

Now the text starts and stops at the correct spacing, but perhaps we'd prefer the overall size of the image to be larger. Since vector text doesn't degrade, the size of the text can be increased and decreased without degrading the text image. Open the Layer Palette and hold the Ctrl key while clicking the text object. (The Ctrl key keeps the circle object from being de-selected.)

With both the circle and the text selected (boldfaced in the object list in the layer palette) RIGHT click on one of the corner handles and drag outwards. The original image remains behind while a ghost image expands out. The square at the center allows you to click and drag to position an object, even one that has a transparent center. The square linked to the center square is the rotation handle.

Click on the rotation handle and drag the text where you want it to be. This only works when all the linked objects are selected! If only the text were selected, the text would appear to rotate, but the operation would not complete. Placing text on a object links them. Note that the Rotation handle doesn't move, but the cursor changes into the double curved arrows and follows the movement. (visible just above the + in the image on the left side.)

Remove the circle by clicking the circle object's view icon in the layer palette. This text is on the outside of the circle, and the top of the text is pointing away from the center.

Text to the inside of a circle.

By now you should be able to draw the circle from the Preset Shapes.

Click the Object Selection tool. With the circle selected, Right click the selection and select Node edit.

Right click the image and select Edit- Reverse Path. Right click the image again and select Quit Node Editing to get back to the circle.

Select the Text tool, and add text as vector.

Because the path was reversed, the text goes to the inside of the circle. The text didn't come close to filling the inside of the circle, the top of the letters are touching, and 'Innside' is mis-spelled. (on purpose)

RIGHT click on a corner handle, and drag towards the center. Adjust in and out until the ends of the text are close. (Remember that only the circle should be selected!)

To correct the spelling and space out the letters, click the text tool and position the cursor over text until square brackets appear around the 'A', then left click. In the text box, position the cursor behind the extra n and back space it out. Wipe over the text to select it.

I increased the Kerning (space between letters) to 150 as a starting point, found that was too much, reduced to 99 and tried again.

I'm not going to rotate this one, but it would work the same as the outside text. Make the circle transparent, remove the selection, and the text is finished.

The Kerning set in the Text box is saved, so the same value will be there for the next Text operation you do. Be sure to set it back to zero at the start of your next Text entry!

Click here to advance into vector curves odds and ends.