GravoStyle Tutorial Chapter 5 031130.pub

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Description

LESSON 5: DIRECTORY PLATE WITH SPECIAL EFFECT TEXT In this lesson we’ll learn how to use some of the special effects text tools. The concepts we’ll learn are how to: How to proportionally resize an object How to position text in an arc Howxt vertically How to change the spacing between text let-ters. Select a font appropriate to the job. We’ll use the job from lesson 4 as the starting point for this lesson. Our job’s design specifications are: Filename: Medical Directory 2.gnh Material: 6 inch wide by 8 inch high Gra-voply 2 #381 plate with a .1 inch border Finished Plate Figure 5-1 Text: “MIDVILLE” placed in an arc with 0.45 inch high letters “MEDICAL CENTER” in 0.40 inch high letters “54 ASHFORD ROAD” in 0.30 inch high letters Directory entries sized appropriately for the plate size. Our job plan is to: Open the finished job of lesson 4, then Resize the directory text, then Convert “MIDVILLE” to text on an , then Change the font for “MIDVILLE” to a font appropriate for this job, then MEDICAL CENTER” to match the font of “MIDVILLE”, then Convert the street address to vertical text, then Position all the elements of the job on the plate, then Verify the job on GravoSyle’s WYSIWIRE screen. New Hermes GravoStyle 5 Tutorial 5-1 STEP 1: OPEN THE DIRECTORY PLATE FROM LESSON 4 (Figure 5-2) STEP 2: RESIZE THORY TEXT. We’ll resize the entire text table of the directory. We’ll ...

Informations

• Publié par: Zowyong
• Nombre de lectures: 57
• Langue: English

Extrait

New Hermes GravoStyle 5 Tutorial

5-1

In this lesson we’ll learn how to use some of the special effects text

tools.

The concepts we’ll learn are how to:

•

How to proportionally resize an object

•

How to position text in an arc

•

How to position text vertically

•

How to change the spacing between text let-

ters.

•

Select a font appropriate to the job.

We’ll use the job from lesson 4 as the starting point for

this lesson.

Our job’s design specifications are:

•

Filename: Medical Directory 2.gnh

•

Material: 6 inch wide by 8 inch high Gra-

voply 2 #381 plate with a .1 inch border

•

Text:

•

“MIDVILLE” placed in an arc with 0.45 inch high letters

•

“MEDICAL CENTER” in 0.40 inch high letters

•

“54 ASHFORD ROAD” in 0.30 inch high letters

•

Directory entries sized appropriately for the plate size.

Our job plan is to:

•

Open the finished job of lesson 4, then

•

Resize the directory text, then

•

Convert “MIDVILLE” to text on an , then

•

Change the font for “MIDVILLE” to a font appropriate for this job,

then

•

Change the font for “MEDICAL CENTER” to match the font of

“MIDVILLE”, then

•

Convert the street address to vertical text, then

•

Position all the elements of the job on the plate, then

•

Verify the job on GravoSyle’s WYSIWIRE screen.

LESSON 5:

DIRECTORY PLATE WITH SPECIAL EFFECT TEXT

Finished Plate Figure 5-1

New Hermes GravoStyle 5 Tutorial

5-2

STEP 1: OPEN THE DIRECTORY PLATE FROM LESSON 4

(Figure 5-2)

STEP 2: RESIZE THE DIRECTORY TEXT.

We’ll resize the entire text table of the directory.

We’ll find

the “Transformation tools” icon on the left toolbar, click on it

and opent the transformation tool pallet (Figure 5-3).

We’re interested in the transformation tool at the upper-right

corner of the pallet - it’s labeled proportional scale.

As its name implies, the “Proportional scale” tool lets us resize our selected object (or objects)

either larger or smaller, keeping the envelope of the selection in the same ratio of width to

height as the original.

To do the resizing, we have only to click

on a corner of the selection and drag the mouse cursor (with

the left mouse button held down).

We’ll do this with our direc-

tory text, and …

we can’t resize it!

Why?

Because GravoStyle’s “Text in columns” feature pro-

duces a

very special

object which is neither pure text nor a

graphical element.

“Text in columns” combines our text

with

its

relative positional information and the program safeguards

against any unintentional changes to it.

Before we can resize

the “Text in column” object, we have to convert it to something

more editable.

For this we’ll use the “Text into curves” tool (Figure

5-4).

Figure 5-2

Directory Plate from Lesson 4

Figure 5-3

Transformation Tool

Pallet

Look Further

Other tools in the “Transformation tools” pallet let us move, stretch and mirror our select objects.

Figure 5-4 “Convert into curves” Tool

New Hermes GravoStyle 5 Tutorial

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We’ll make sure that the text table is selected and we’ll open the “Text tools” pallet and click

on the “Text into curves” tool.

We can now resize our text table.

Again, we’ll click on a corner

of the table and drag the cursor inward to reduce the table’s size.

We’ll reduce it to 80% of its

original size (this should give us an approximate text height of 0.25 inches) and note the ac-

tual reduction as we drag at the left corner of the information bar at the very bottom of Gra-

voStyle’s screen.

When we’ve reached the desired size, we’ll release the mouse button.

Our

job will now look as it appears in Figure 5-5.

We’ll leave the directory table where it is and do

our final positioning later.

STEP 3: TEXT ON ARC

We’ll now place the word “MIDVILLE” on an arc:

•

First, click on the word to select it, then

•

Open the “Text tools”

pallet, then

•

Click on the “Text on an

arc” tool (Figure 5-6)

The “Text on arc” dialog window

will open (Figure 5-7) giving us the

place to define the arc to which our

text will be shaped.

Look Further

Typed text (or numbers or punctuation marks) is not really

a true graphic; that is, a collection of lines and curves.

If it

were, then text couldn’t be changed by re-typing or spell

checked, just as a circle that we draw couldn’t be changed

to, say, the letter “G”.

Text and graphics are different, and

to edit text as we would edit

lines and curves, we have to

first convert the text by using the “Text into curves” tool.

(This is a one-way conversion - we can’t go back.)

GravoStyle’s “Text into columns” produces yet a different

kind of object.

When we apply the “Text into curves” tool

to it, it transforms the text table into normal text that can

now be edited like any other text.

A second application of

the “Text into curves”

tool would then convert it into pure

graphics (lines and curves), but this is not necessary for

this job.

Figure 5-5 Directory Table Resized

Power Tip

GravoStyle has an easy but

powerful way to let you do

transformations that you do

with a mouse (such as resiz-

ing) with precision.

When we

start dragging the cursor,

press the “F2” key on the key-

board.

A dialog box will open

and give you the opportunity

to enter an exact value for

what you’re trying to achieve!

Remember, the “F2” feature

works with most

moves, re-

sizing, etc.

Figure 5-6 “Text on an arc” Tool

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Note that the “Text on arc” dialog does

not force us to

enter the radius of the arc.

Rather, we

can enter information of more direct use to us, namely:

•

The length of the chord of the arc on which we’ll place our text.

This is equivalent

to the horizontal width of our baseline.

We’ll enter 6 inches.

•

The distance from the chord to the line of the arc.

This really defines the visual cur-

vature of our text; the smaller this number is, the flatter our arc will be.

We’ll enter 3

inches for this value.

•

The angle of the arc.

This defines the maximum length

of the curved baseline of the text.

We’ll leave the de-

fault value of 90 degrees.

•

The coordinates for the center of the arc’s circle.

We’ll

leave the default values and move the text later by visu-

ally dragging it.

Finally, we’re asked to specify the placement of the text on the

arc.

We’ll select “Clockwise/outside the arc”.

We’ll now click

“OK” and our job will appear as it’s shown in Figure 5-8.

Figure 5-7 “Text on arc” Dialog

Figure 5-8 Text Placed on Arc

Look Further

We don’t have to have our text typed first when we place text on an

arc.

We can, if we wish, go into text mode, position a text cursor

anywhere on-screen and then define our font and letter height.

Clicking on the “Text on arc” tool at this point will then give us a

curved baseline on which we can then type.

New Hermes GravoStyle 5 Tutorial

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Figure 5-7 shows that the text is outside of the material.

We’ll fix this by clicking on the padlock on the informa-

tion bar (bottom of GravoStyle’s window) to unlock the

material and margin constraints and drag the curved

text so that it’s up against the material border and visu-

ally centered left-to-right.

Next, we’ll reposition the di-

rectory table and the line “MEDICAL CENTER” out of

the way so that we can have a clearer view of the

curved text (Figure 5-9).

STEP 4: CHANGE INTER-CHARACTER

SPACING

We can see that the word “MIDVILLE” is not visually ap-

pealing.

We’ll improve this by increasing the space between letters of this text.

To do this,

we’ll:

•

Click on “MIDVILLE” to select it.

•

Go into text mode

•

Click on the yellow segment (it’s called a

“rapido” of the text editing dialog area at the bot-

tom of the screen.

There, we’ll enter the value

“200%” in the small window labeled

“space” (Figure 5-10).

This means that the inter-

letter spacing will be twice the normal amount.

When we accept this value, our job will look as it

appears in Figure 5-11.

We have a problem!

The text looks funny.

Why?

We’ve greatly increased the spacing be-

tween letters of a proportionally spaced font and

in so doing, we exaggerated the unequal original

spacing.

Figure 5-9 Text on Arc Moved

Figure 5-10 Changing the Space Between Letters

Figure 5-11 Inter-Letter Spacing Increased

New Hermes GravoStyle 5 Tutorial

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We’ll fix this by changing the font of “MIDVILLE”.

Let’s change it to Roman 3L.

The result is

shown in Figure 5-12

Roman 3L is also a proportional font, but its heavier than the original font, and the thicker let-

ters look much better.

STEP 5: EDIT “MEDICAL CENTER” FONT

Next, we’ll change the font of the line “MEDICAL CENTER”, resize it to a letter height of 0.40

inches and visually position it.

Our job now looks as it’s shown in Figure 5-13.

STEP 6: CREATE VERTICAL TEXT

Creating our vertical text is very much like creating the text on an arc.

They’re both text tools.

Here’s how we’ll proceed:

•

First, we’ll change the height of the address line to the specified 0.30 inches, then

•

We’ll click on the “Vertical text” tool of the “Text tools” pallet (Figure 5-14).

We’ll

accept the defaults for position of the vertical text; we’ll drag it to the desired loca-

tion after the text is made vertical.

Figure 5-12 “MIDVILLE” Changed to

Roman 3L Font

Figure 5-13 “MEDICAL CENTER”

Changed to Roman 3L Font

New Hermes GravoStyle 5 Tutorial

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All that’s left to do now is to visually position both the verti-

cal text and the directory table.

When we’re finished, our

job will appear as it’s shown in figure 5-15.

From New Hermes’ cutting tool size chart, it looks like we can use a 0.040 diameter tool for all

of the letters in this job.

We’ll select this size, enter the WYSIWIRE screen and view it as it

will engrave on a GravoPly 2, #381 plate.

The result is as shown in Figure 5-1.

Figure 5-14 Vertical Text

Tool

Figure 5-15 Finished Job

New Hermes GravoStyle 5 Tutorial

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WHAT WE’VE LEARNED:

In this lesson we’ve learned:

•

How to convert text in columns to normal text

•

How to proportionally resize a selected object or objects

•

How to use the “F2” key for precision when transforming objects

•

How to place text on an arc

•

How to change the spacing between letters in text

•

How to create vertical text