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Paint Shop Pro 7 Tutorials
Creating Vector Text on a Curved Path
Part One

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This tutorial is for PSP 7 beginners- This tutorial also utilizes Bezier Lines and Vector Shapes

Dis Dat Designs Curved Wavy Text

Color Palette   

1. Create a NEW IMAGE - 500 x 500 (give yourself lots of room to work).

2. Click the DRAW LINE tool. Click the Line Draw Tool ~ Make sure your foreground color is Black and your background color is NULL. Textures are both NULL.
***See My Color Palette Tutorial if more details are needed.


Bezier Line Options Box

In the Tool Options dialog box, choose line type: BEZIER curve, width: 1, Antialias and Vector CHECKED. Close Path NOT checked.


3. Bezier lines consist of 3 consecutive clicks of the mouse. Click once and drag a straight line across the canvas - long enough for your text.

Second, starting on the left side of the line, click above and about 1/3 the length of the line.

Last click, on the right side, above the line, and about 2/3 the length. This should make an arch in the straight line.

Bezier Line -- 3 clicks of the mouse

Because the line you made is Vector, a new layer is added automatically, (Vector layers are noted by the red square with 4 blue corner nodes) and an editing box is around the line. Move your mouse to the top node -- it should change to an up/down arrow. Use this to edit the curve -- making it higher or lower. Use the side nodes, to make the line longer.

Use the Vector box to edit the curve


FILE> SAVE > PSP.extension. If you plan on opening this image in a previous version of psp, then click OPTIONS and choose the appropriate compatible version.


Vector Text


4. Click the TEXT tool. Change your Background color to Purple (or color of your choice) -- Leave the Foreground color as Black. Move your mouse over the vector line, and when the cursor turns into the letter "A" with a curve under it, click. The Text Entry Dialog Box appears:

Vector Text Dialog Box

In the Text Dialog box, I used Font: Pickwick, Size: 36, Alignment: Center, Vector: Checked. The Foreground color (black) is the Stroke/Outline color and the Background (purple) is the fill color. Use the Proof button to view how the text will look on your canvas. It is not a good idea to keep the "Autoproof" button depressed, it takes a lot of memory, and sometimes slows text rendering. Click OK. SAVE again.

Let's get to Part 2

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