This tutorial will teach you how to type text on a path, make adjustments to its placement, separate the text from the path, and straighten the text after it’s been applied to a path.
STEP ONE
Depending on what you’re trying to do, draw out the shape that you need. For this tutorial, I’m going to use an ellipse. You can use any shape you’d like, including lines.
STEP TWO
Using the Text Tool hover over the edge of the ellipse. You’ll notice that the cursor changes and shows a letter with a curvy line. This indicates that if you click you’ll be typing along the path. So let’s do that! Click on the edge of the ellipse and then begin typing. This is what I got:
STEP THREE
If you use the Pick Tool and click on the text you’ll notice that at the top on the property bar there are options. These can be used to edit the text orientation, vertical placement, text placement, distance from path, horizontal offset, and place text on the other side:
STEP FOUR
I want to push the text away from the path a bit and move it to the top of the ellipse like the following:
How did I do that? I set the “Distance from path” to 0.1 to push the text away from the path. I then clicked on that little red diamond and dragged the text to the top of the ellipse.
STEP FIVE
I want to add some more text to the bottom of the ellipse. Now we could use the same steps above but I’ve noticed that adding more than one text on an object causes problems. It can get difficult when trying to adjust settings separately for each text you have. So how do we get around that? Create another object!
Using the Pick Tool, click on the ellipse and hit Control + C to copy it to the clipboard. Then hit Control + V to paste it right over the original ellipse. I changed the color of the second ellipse just so it won’t get confusing. This is what I have so far:
STEP SIX
Alright, using the Text Tool again, hover over the bottom edge of the ellipse and click. Type the text you need. This is what I got:
Hmm, the text is backwards?! Easy fix don’t worry. With the text selected, click the “Place on other side” option located on your property bar at the top. Now it looks like the following:
Now let’s adjust the distance from path and then drag the text to where it’s needed. The distance from path would be a negative number since we have to go below the ellipse. Here’s my result:
STEP SEVEN
Great, now can we get rid of the red ellipse? Well if we click on the text and hit delete we’ll lose both the text and the ellipse. If we click on just the red ellipse we can hit delete and the text will stay in place.
STEP EIGHT
Now let’s say I change my mind and would rather use a half ellipse instead of a full one and I want my bottom text to be straight. There are a few things I need to do. Let’s start with trimming the ellipse. Draw out a rectangle which we’ll use to cut into the ellipse. You should have the following:
With the rectangle selected go to your Shaping Docker. If you don’t see it go to Window > Dockers > Shaping. Choose Trim. You don’t need any other options selected. Click Trim and then move your mouse over the ellipse and click. What happens? You’re prompted with:
Why is the object invalid? It’s because the text is attached to the object. We have to separate the text from the ellipse. To do that, click on the text and then go to Arrange > Break Text Apart. Now you’ll be able to trim the ellipse. You should have the following:
STEP NINE
So what about the curved text at the bottom? We can just delete it and type it over again right? There’s an easier way! Select the text and then go to Text > Straighten Text. Here’s my final result:
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