Craft Edge

I would like to be able to arch my words or make a circle out of them. Could we have an arching ability in SCAL?

I agree! That would be cool.

That would be wonderful!

Would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this feature... Would be so neat to have this feature...

I have been using word art in microsoft word to create curved text. Then you have to save the document as a webpage, which creates a folder with a .gif of the word art. I then trace the gif in inkscape and save it as an svg. It takes a little bit of work, but works great for curved text.

You can also do this directly in Inkscape. Draw a curve, type your text, select both and then choose Put on Path from the Text menu. Then select Path> Object to Path and remove the curve so that just the letters are left. It isn't as easy or intuitive as MS Word Art, but it saves some steps and possibly gives a cleaner result.

firstcut wrote:You can also do this directly in Inkscape. Draw a curve, type your text, select both and then choose Put on Path from the Text menu. Then select Path> Object to Path and remove the curve so that just the letters are left. It isn't as easy or intuitive as MS Word Art, but it saves some steps and possibly gives a cleaner result.

I don't know how to draw a thing in Inkscape. I tried to do some free-hand drawing and I never could let go of the bezier. (Spelling is such a virtue!)

Yep, that bezier tool is tricky. I just use the circle tool, then turn my circle into into an arc (select the circle, then drag the little circle around to get rid of part of the big circle) and stretch or squish it to the shape I want.

wreed06 wrote:

firstcut wrote:You can also do this directly in Inkscape. Draw a curve, type your text, select both and then choose Put on Path from the Text menu. Then select Path> Object to Path and remove the curve so that just the letters are left. It isn't as easy or intuitive as MS Word Art, but it saves some steps and possibly gives a cleaner result.

I don't know how to draw a thing in Inkscape. I tried to do some free-hand drawing and I never could let go of the bezier. (Spelling is such a virtue!)

I did great making both a wavy text using the pencil and then an arc using the circle. Your instructions were right on.

But when I import into SCAL it is wavy and curved but won't each letter print out separately so I loose the curve? What did I do wrong.

There are 2 ways to "keep the curve." One is to put your letters closer together and weld them using the Path>Outline command before saving and importing to SCAL. The other is to cut just like your screen shot shows, then use transfer film to pick your letters off the mat in their still curved orientation and stick them to what you want.
Hope that helps.