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Text inside a shape (character)

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Helder Luis

21 Sep, 2017 10:59 AM

Hi, i'm new to Nodebox and i was wondering if it's easy to make a long string of text fit inside a shape (rectangle) or a character shape (an "R" for example)…

Thanks!

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by john on 21 Sep, 2017 10:49 PM

   

   Hi Helder,

   Welcome to the NodeBox community!

   Yes, placing text inside a shape is fairly easy. There are several ways of doing it depending on exactly the effect you are trying to achieve.

   I am attaching a demo NodeBox network for you to play with. At the top I use the Gettysburg Address for the text and a giant R for the shape. You can connect a rectangle instead of the R if you want and resize both to see what happens.

   At the bottom are three different possible outputs (see screenshots for each). If you render the combine1 node you will see the text overlaid with a transparent outline of the shape. For this option I set the width of the text path to the width of the shape and aligned them.

   Combine2 shows what happens if you use a "fit_to" node. Notice that the text shrinks to fit the height of the R. Turn the "Keep Proportions" parameter in the fit_to node on and off to see what happens. There is also a "fit" node if you want to fit the text to a numeric height and width.

   The compound node is the third option. Render it to see the text clipped inside the R. Note that compound is set to Difference with Invert Difference set to true.

   Please let me know if you found this helpful and if you have any further questions.

   Thanks!

   John

   • text_in_shape.zip 1.59 KB
   • text_in_shape1.png 680 KB
   • text_in_shape2.png 587 KB
   • text_in_shape3.png 463 KB
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2. 2 Posted by Helder Luis on 22 Sep, 2017 11:39 AM

   

   Hi, thank you very much for your help!

   I've seen something that i think might have been produced using NodeBox that's why i thought of giving it a try… but it might be out of my league.

   Here are a few examples of similar things to what i want to achieve…

   Thank you!

   • Screen_Shot_2017-09-22_at_12.33.35.png 285 KB
   • Screen_Shot_2017-09-22_at_12.35.41.png 262 KB
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3. Support Staff 3 Posted by john on 22 Sep, 2017 07:48 PM

   

   Nice images. They might very well have been made using NodeBox.

   It's an elegant design, but with NodeBox might be easier to make than you would think. NodeBox can easily break text into individual letters and arrange them in concentric circles. As I've shown you it's also easy to determine which of those letters fall inside another shape like a big M. You could then vary the font size of inside vs. outside letters to create this effect.

   I encourage you to give it a try. NodeBox is designed for play. Every time you attach a new node the output instantly changes so you can experiment effortlessly. Once you have a design you like you can export high-res vector SVGs or PDFs for professional results. You can also produce interesting animations that would be hard to make with any other tool.

   If you get stuck just post your questions on the forum. I or someone else will be glad to help.

   John

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4. Support Staff 4 Posted by john on 22 Sep, 2017 10:03 PM

   

   Helder,

   I made the attached image in a few minutes using only 16 nodes. I've also attached the network I made; you can look at it or ignore it if you'd rather figure out how to do it yourself.

   Enjoy!

   John

   • text_fun.png 310 KB
   • text_fun.zip 1.45 KB
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5. 5 Posted by Helder Luis on 23 Sep, 2017 07:35 AM

   

   Wow! Awesome! Thank you very much for your help!

   I will experiment with this and definitely i'm going to learn how to use NodeBox.
   Can you suggest any online courses or tutorials besides the NodeBox website?

   Thank you!

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6. Support Staff 6 Posted by john on 23 Sep, 2017 07:52 AM

   

   I am not aware of any online tutorials. But there are two resources some people overlook.

   At the top of every forum page there is a Search button. Whenever you are stumped, try searching for a key word. There are now hundreds of discussion threads in the forum full of questions, answers, and examples. Even if you don't find the answer to your question, you will learn a lot by browsing through other people's discussions.

   In the NodeBox app, under the File menu, click on "Open Examples..." to see a gallery of simple NodeBox examples. Click on any one to open a working network you can play with, modify, or copy from. I had been using NodeBox for months before I noticed this.

   Good luck! And as I said, don't hesitate to ask for help.

   John

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