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Guest Tutorial: PSP Text in a Circle

We have a lot going on this week, but this tutorial came from a reader and I did not want to hold it back. I have no plans for the immediate future to cover text in a circle, but I know from requests, that many of you want it. So ... drum roll, please ... let me present our first guest tutorial by Don McKay of F-Stop Photographic. Don has been a regular correspondent from my early days with this column ... let's take a look at his method.

Text in a perfect circle as easy as any other text? Don McKay of F-stop Photographic jotted down the instructions so you could go in circles, too.

Type in Circles with Paint Shop Pro

by Don McKay

This is a single layer object:

1. Create any size field with any color background.
2. Go to 'shapes tool' and pick the one you want.
3. Create the shape in the same color as the background color and as a vector.
4. Go to type.
5. Run the type cursor over the shape vector field even though you can't see the shape previously drawn. When the type cursor crosses over the edge of the shape, the 'A' cursor changes briefly to an 'A with a vector angle'. Click.
6. Up comes the type box. Type in your copy and also click on the 'vector' box.
7. Click on OK and your type will fill in the shape vector.
8. To get the fit you want, just change the type point size and kerning. (See Text as Design.)
   

This also works inside squares and pentagons!

It works!
It is just as easy as Don has made it sound here. I'll bet you are thinking right now of curved titles over a round image, and this method will work for that. But stretch a little further. How about using text as a border around an image, or as I have suggested in the text running around the rectangle here, a call-out quote.

Or take the same text and turn it around, clip off a few pieces, rough it up or throw in some lines, and ... I think you get the idea.

An aside
Don also sent a logo for me to see since my lines tutorial (Let There be Lines) gave him the method for his dotted lines. Unfortunately, I had to reduce the size to fit it in here, but you can still see how the dots add an extra texture and evoke movement. Love that spiral, too. Great work Don!

© Don McKay. Used with permission.