This is a read-only archive of the inkscapeforum.com site. You can search for info here or post new questions and comments at I'm trying to set text against an elliptical path, and I can't figure out how to move it. Specifically, the text flows around the elliptical, but it starts in the wrong place.
How can I move it so that it starts in the right place, and (if necessary) flip it around the path so that it is on the inside rather than the outside of the ellipsis?
Text on a path?
Re: Text on a path?
There are a couple of approaches to this. The first uses the text on the ellipse as you probably have it now:
1) To change the start position of the text, put the cursor before the first letter, hold ALT, and use the Left/Right cursor keys to adjust the position of the first letter. It's cheating a bit really - what you're actually doing is setting the horizontal kerning for the space before the first letter, but the effect is usually good enough. Use ALT-UP and ALT-DOWN to position the text outside or inside the ellipse whilst keeping its orientation.
2) If you want to change the orientation of the text when you move it inside the ellipse, just flip the ellipse horizontally or vertically. Flip it both ways to move the text to the opposite side of the ellipse. Combined with the above, you should be able to position it wherever you want.
The second approach is, arguably, less cheaty - but does require a second ellipse:
1) Duplicate your ellipse and put the text on that one - let's call it the "construction" ellipse. Resize the ellipse to position the text inside or outside (plus the horizontal/vertical flips from above).
2) To change the start position of the text, switch to the
tool and use the small round handles on the ellipse to turn it into an arc. You can move the start point of the arc and the text will move with it.
3) When you're done, change the fill/stroke of the ellipse to transparent so that only your original ellipse is still visible (you can get back to the construction ellipse using View ‣ Display Mode ‣ Outline, then selecting it and changing the stroke back to a visible colour and thickness).
1) To change the start position of the text, put the cursor before the first letter, hold ALT, and use the Left/Right cursor keys to adjust the position of the first letter. It's cheating a bit really - what you're actually doing is setting the horizontal kerning for the space before the first letter, but the effect is usually good enough. Use ALT-UP and ALT-DOWN to position the text outside or inside the ellipse whilst keeping its orientation.
2) If you want to change the orientation of the text when you move it inside the ellipse, just flip the ellipse horizontally or vertically. Flip it both ways to move the text to the opposite side of the ellipse. Combined with the above, you should be able to position it wherever you want.
The second approach is, arguably, less cheaty - but does require a second ellipse:
1) Duplicate your ellipse and put the text on that one - let's call it the "construction" ellipse. Resize the ellipse to position the text inside or outside (plus the horizontal/vertical flips from above).
2) To change the start position of the text, switch to the
tool and use the small round handles on the ellipse to turn it into an arc. You can move the start point of the arc and the text will move with it.3) When you're done, change the fill/stroke of the ellipse to transparent so that only your original ellipse is still visible (you can get back to the construction ellipse using View ‣ Display Mode ‣ Outline, then selecting it and changing the stroke back to a visible colour and thickness).