How to Curve a Multi line text box in CS2

May 11, 2009 9:51 PM

How do I curve a text box in Adobe Illustrator CS2

I have Adobe Illustrator CS2 and I'm looking for a way to curve a text box.

I know you can curve a single line of text along a path however, you don't seem to be able to curve a multi line text box along that same path.

I have also seen how you can apply an arch or other similar effects to a multi line text box bt hese do not seem to work very well.

If anyone knows how to do this, it would save a life time of extra work.

posted by Man_in_staysis to computers & internet (4 comments total)

If you're putting the text in a text frame, no, you cannot have it follow a curve, because it's in a text frame. If you want to have a multi-line text follow a curve, take out the hard and soft returns and paste it on a text line.

As for the arch effect, I believe those are Envelope Distortions, which I have used maybe twice in seven years of graphic design, and which are under the Object menu.

If I'm misunderstanding you, please post a screenshot or upload a sample AI file somewhere for us to take a look at.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 10:08 PM on May 11

Make your curved line, and convert it to a text path (with the text tool)
Duplicate the text path, creating each line of text. This can easily be done with copy and paste or alt-drag.
Paste your clean text into the first line. A red plus symbol will appear at the end of the line. Double click it, and your pointer will change into the load text tool. Hover it over the next text line, and it will change to links. This will link your text paths together. Rinse and repeat, and the text will flow continuously along the curved paths.
posted by fontophilic at 10:22 PM on May 11

not sure if text distortion is an issue, but you can also just select the text box and apply the "warp" effect... tons of options too & the text stays editable.
posted by wackoacko at 5:40 AM on May 12

I've had textboxes inside warp effects freak out and reflow unexpectedly if a line ending is too close to the edge of the text box or, worse, decide that they are immune to overprint settings or transparency modes. (Solution: group the transform with itself and apply the blending change to the group).

fontophilic's technique is probably more reliable, but my shop avoids it because it breaks with another 3rd party plugin we rely on (Esko's DynamicContent plugin.)
posted by nathan_teske at 9:54 AM on May 12