PDA

View Full Version : I knew I wasn't crazy - Corel text center isn't accurate.. How do I fix?



Adam Craig
02-05-2010, 10:51 PM
Hello, I'm an illustrator guy coming in to corel and am having a tricky time.
I have been trying to center some text on an aluminum plate and it always seems to be about an 1/8" off. I checked everything and finally discovered that corel caluclates the center of text with a seeming space at the beginning of the text. I verified this two ways. First I typed in some uniform text, maked the edge of one side with a piece of tape on my monitor and them rotated it. It was Off by about 1/8th of an inch!! Then i simply typed "M"s in corel (being uniform) and the bounding box points (the 4 small squares) really made the flaw obvious. Attached. Does anyone know how to fix this issue? I need my text to be dead center on my plate.

John Noell
02-05-2010, 11:01 PM
It's worse than that. If you first type some text (say your Ms), the put dots on the screen at each end and the middle (where Corel's bounding points are), then rotate the text 180 degrees, the end dots and centre dot can move a bit from side to side. HOWEVER, you can later do the same test and have the ends flip evenly and the centre stay in the centre. Yay Corel X4!

laura passek
02-06-2010, 2:16 AM
Adam
Are you using your laser table size for your page size.
I had this same problem and I contacted Epilog thinking it was an alignment issue, they had me run a test and it came back negative, the alignment was dead on.
The Tech suggested I try using my plate size instead of table size and I haven't had any more issues except for operator errors.
Worth a try.

Kim Vellore
02-06-2010, 2:43 AM
Adam,
If you convert your text to curves it fixes that but you loose your text editing feature.
Kim

Mike Null
02-06-2010, 11:28 AM
I don't have any problem centering text and I've been using Corel for twelve years.

I'd look at what you're trying to center it on.

For example if you're trying to center it on a plate that is 3" wide then set it at 1.5".

If you are trying to center it in a box, click on the text, hold down the shift key and click on the box, then push "c".

Bob Davis
02-06-2010, 12:12 PM
but it's usually close enough for most purposes.
If you centre it to a box and the change it to curves you will find that the X position (indicated in Corel) will change slightly. If there are a number of centred lines that you have broken apart and converted you will find that each now has a different X coordinate and will clearly change if they are again aligned.
I often do jobs where I create a block of centred text and the break them apart so it is easier to change a single line (due to font/italics etc). I usually select all the lines again and re-centre them and there is a marked difference.

Lee DeRaud
02-06-2010, 12:18 PM
Ok, I just did a quick check...

New document, created a text object ("MMMMMMM", 48-pt Arial), and centered it at on the page:

X = 8.0000"
Y = 6.0000"
W = 3.8369"
H = 0.4772"
Then I selected "Convert To Curves":

X = 8.0247"
Y = 6.0000"
W = 3.7874"
H = 0.4772"

Looks like the text object indeed has some whitespace attached, and it's not symmetrical between left and right. It's not a lot of difference, but if you're working with big text in a tight place, it can matter.

Even more interesting, I created another text object as described above, and then changed the font to Times-Roman...and it moved to the right over 1/8". Looks like there's some mismatch between how Corel handles the anchor point between text and curves.

James Stokes
02-06-2010, 12:20 PM
If i want to get picky I will draw a thin box from the edge of the paper to the edge of text. Duplicate that and move the duplication to the opposite Side. Then select all 3 and go to distribute and hit equal spacing. That will line it up as close to dead center that any one can see.

Scott Shepherd
02-06-2010, 12:54 PM
That's not a Corel issue. That's a font issue. Fonts have whitespace around them and it varies on how the font was created. Different letters have different spaces around them.

If I need something dead center, I ALWAYS convert to curves in Corel or Illustrator.

It does the same thing in Illustrator.

Martin Boekers
02-06-2010, 7:38 PM
Are you measuring on your moniter?

It can get "Squirrely" when you zoom in and out too.

Try instead of rotating it to flip it instead. You can do that by duplicating the flip.

Does it print an 1/8 inch off?

I haven't really had an issue with centering, but thanks now first thing Monday I probably will!:D

Marty

Randy Walker
02-06-2010, 11:20 PM
Well that explains a few things. I have done a few pieces of jewelry for my wife and occasionally the typing is off center. I use a fixture that I made with the laser and Corel then I use the same template and fixture to engrave the jewelry pieces. I think that I will try converting to curves next time this happens. Thanks for the insight.

Randy Walker

Tim Neal
02-07-2010, 12:59 AM
Yep...the problem is definately for real...at least in X4. I just created some name plates with different fonts and they were all a little off center. How far off depended on the font...so i'm inclined to go with the "it's a font problem" theory. Anyway...thanks for the convert to curve tip, I'll try that next time.

Mike Null
02-07-2010, 9:33 AM
The fonts do have white space which is part of the self kerning of the font. Whether you convert to curves or not the image can be centered. Converting to curves removes the white space and sometimes means you have to manually kern the text. It also means that the center relative to the page or box will change.

Scott Shepherd
02-07-2010, 10:01 AM
Here's a V12 file that shows the basic issue at hand. Not the best explanation, but hopefully after reading this thread and looking at it, it'll make sense.

It's not a Corel issue. It does it everywhere. I have Illustrator and it does it in Illustrator too. It'll do it anywhere, because it's how fonts are created and how they work. If there were no white space built in around letters, to a varying degree, then when you types words, the spacing would be all out of whack, so it has to be there for typing purposes. For alignment purposes, you don't want it there.

In the example, the red outline is the size of the text or the size of the text once converted to curves. You can see the space to the left of the "M" has white space as text and it's not there when converted to curves.

Careful doing this too much because you lose all font attributes when you do this, so if you go back into the file 3 months from now and you can't recall the font size or the font used, you'll have to figure it all out again. I normally either type a note on the screen out of the work area, or I copy and paste the text out of the work area and I leave that one as text, then convert the one to curves that's in my work space.