Not sure if this helps but after you create your text you can use the scale tool break the link between Width and height and scale the text on the width only.

From: zhangweiwu@realss.com
To: gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:05:12 +0800 Subject: [Gimp-user] how to make condensed text along path

Hello. I followed the tutorial of how to make text along path:

http://gimp-tutorials.net/node/114

My difficulty here is to make manually condensed text along path. I want the text so much thin that any font's condensed version could not do. To make such condensed text, I either scale the text layer with layer scale tool, or I convert the text to path and scale the path. However after scaling layer or path, "Text along path" no longer apply.

Any idea? thanks in advance for hints.

Attached is the "text along path" I made, with the ordinary text, not condensed (only 1.4KB).

__________________

Yeah after the fact I looked at it more and I see your problem exactly. Perhaps a font editor that would let you change the font at the source?

Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:33:56 +0800 From: zhangweiwu@realss.com
To: gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu Subject: Re: [Gimp-user] how to make condensed text along path

danny tauro wrote:

Not sure if this helps but after you create your text you can use the scale tool break the link between Width and height and scale the text on the width only.

I did exactly this (use the scale tool on the tool box) but this would make the layer as "changed text layer" that text layer tool "Text along path" could not work on, unless I allow "text" tool to revert my changes to make it a text layer again, which reverts height/width ratio.

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 11:05 PM, Zhang Weiwu wrote:

Hello. I followed the tutorial of how to make text along path:

http://gimp-tutorials.net/node/114

My difficulty here is to make manually condensed text along path. I want the text so much thin that any font's condensed version could not do. To make such condensed text, I either scale the text layer with layer scale tool, or I convert the text to path and scale the path. However after scaling layer or path, "Text along path" no longer apply.

Any idea? thanks in advance for hints.

I'm not sure of any way to do this within GIMP. I was able to to this in Scribus[1] however, by following these instructions: http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Text_on_a_Path

Then I was able to set the text width to 50%.

Then selecting the text, doing Object->Convert->To Path, then File->Export->SVG I was able to make a SVG file that could be opened inside of GIMP.

It's a somewhat clumsy method, but maybe it will work?

Chris

[1] http://docs.scribus.net/index.php?lang=en&page=download

Yeah after the fact I looked at it more and I see your problem exactly. Perhaps a font editor that would let you change the font at the source?

Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:33:56 +0800 From: zhangweiwu@realss.com
To: gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu Subject: Re: [Gimp-user] how to make condensed text along path

danny tauro wrote:

Not sure if this helps but after you create your text you can use

the

scale tool break the link between Width and height and scale the

text

on the width only.

I did exactly this (use the scale tool on the tool box) but this would
make the layer as "changed text layer" that text layer tool "Text along
path" could not work on, unless I allow "text" tool to revert my changes
to make it a text layer again, which reverts height/width ratio.

Hi,

I wonder why you can't use Inkscape to do this?

Fontwork in Open office will do it too...then just copy and paste into Gimp it works on windows at least.

-------------------------------------------------- From: "Owen"
Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2009 5:34 PM To:
Subject: Re: [Gimp-user] how to make condensed text along path

Yeah after the fact I looked at it more and I see your problem exactly. Perhaps a font editor that would let you change the font at the source?

Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:33:56 +0800 From: zhangweiwu@realss.com
To: gimp-user@lists.xcf.berkeley.edu Subject: Re: [Gimp-user] how to make condensed text along path

danny tauro wrote:

Not sure if this helps but after you create your text you can use

the

scale tool break the link between Width and height and scale the

text

on the width only.

I did exactly this (use the scale tool on the tool box) but this would
make the layer as "changed text layer" that text layer tool "Text along
path" could not work on, unless I allow "text" tool to revert my changes
to make it a text layer again, which reverts height/width ratio.

Hi,

I wonder why you can't use Inkscape to do this?

On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 6:58 AM, Zhang Weiwu wrote:

Owen wrote:

I wonder why you can't use Inkscape to do this?

Because I tried.

Yeah - I tried Inkscape first too - there seems to be no way to condense the text once it's on a path. Did you try Scribus?

Chris