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Scribus => Tutorials, Tips and How-Tos => Topic started by: GarryP on August 01, 2013, 04:21:25 PM

Title: Creating a simple "sewn label" graphic effect
Post by: GarryP on August 01, 2013, 04:21:25 PM
The visual graphic of a label that looks sewn onto a web page (see the first attached image) is quite popular at the moment so I thought I'd put this little tutorial together showing how you can easily achieve something similar using Scribus.

[Stage 1 on the second attached image.]

* First draw a circle, fill it with your preferred colour, and remove the outline.

[Stage 2]

* Then, double-click it to open the Node editing dialog.
* Click the "Add Nodes" button and add a node at the top-right of the circle (on the line, not outside the circle).
* Select the node you've just added and click the "Reset Control Points" button.
* Drag the node up to the top-right to "square the circle" (so to speak). You'll need to do this carefully to get things lined up properly, then "End Editing".

[Stage 3]

* Select the shape and go to menu "Item -> Multiple Duplicate" and create one copy with no offsets. (The normal duplicate is normally set-up to duplicate with a set offset and you'd have to mess around moving the duplicate back otherwise.)
* Re-select the shape (actually you're selecting the duplicate) and double-click to go back to the Node editor dialog.
* Use one of the "Shrink by" functions to make the new duplicate image smaller (e.g. by 10%) and "End Editing".
* Set the outline colour of the shape to white (or whatever you want), then set the type of line to one of the dotted choices (which one depends on the size of your shape).

[Stage 4]

* Now make the line width bigger (you choose what looks best) and make the "Endings" as "Round Cap" (choose a different line type if it doesn't look right).

[Stage 5]

* You're now ready to add a text frame and align it with your label. (I wouldn't recommend converting the shape to a text frame as you'll have all sorts of problems getting the text to line-up nicely as it will want to go into the corner you made.)

And that's it. Of course, you can mess around with colours and line types/widths until you get the result you want.

(And if you just want to use one of the pre-defined shapes you can miss out Stage 2 altogether.)

I hope you've found this useful.

Happy labelling!

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Title: Re: Creating a simple "sewn label" graphic effect
Post by: GarryP on August 15, 2013, 02:52:52 PM
And for people with a bit more ambition - or those who want something a bit more realistic - you can use a few more techniques to create a faux-leather label, like the attached image below.

To get the background:

* Convert the outer shape to an image frame an give it an appropriate texture image.
* Round-off the top right corner of the outer shape using the Node Editor (e.g. add two nodes to either side of the top-right node, then delete the top right node).
* Remove the background colour of the inner shape.
* Darken the line colour of the inner shape.

And for the text:

* Select the text and "Convert to Outlines".
* Then "Ungroup" the shapes created.
* Then "Item -> Combine Polygons".
* Then "Convert to Image Frame".
* Put the same texture image into this new image frame and apply a "Brightness" effect with a negative value (e.g. -40).
* Duplicate the "text image" and change the brightness of this to lighter than normal (e.g. +30).
* Centre the two "text images" using the Alignment palette and nudge the the lighter image down and right (using the cursor keys or by manually changing the position).
* Bring the darker "text image" above the lighter one (if necessary) and move them both over the "tag" as looks best.

And that's it. It might look like a lot of work if you just read it but doing it doesn't take much time at all. (Of course, you can take as much time as you want tweaking all the details to get things just right.)

I know that much better results can be achieved with something like GIMP or Inkscape so I'm not saying that this method is best. It's just that it uses simple techniques and only needs Scribus experience so I think it's a useful tutorial for beginners looking for something different.

Anyway, I hope some people get some use out of this.

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Title: Re: Creating a simple "sewn label" graphic effect
Post by: JLuc on September 06, 2013, 12:47:33 AM
thank you for this nice tutorial :) it is clear and well stuctured, with several interesting techniques described in it.

however, forums are usually thought to be a place to ask and get answers
whereas this is a ready to publish tutorial,
so i think it should rather be included in the documentation wiki.

See for example http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Creating_a_tiled_image
It is part of the TIP category page http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Category:Tips
and i feel your tutorial could be part of this category

Look at the "source" code of these pages ("view source" link) and see how to format text and images.
Notice that the begining of the page is "{{TIP Index}}
[[Category:Images]]  [[Category:EN]]"
This is for automatic cross references and you should do the same in your new page.
Title: Re: Creating a simple "sewn label" graphic effect
Post by: GarryP on September 06, 2013, 02:05:52 PM
Hi JLuc.

Thanks for the kind words, they're much appreciated.

My longer-term idea for this was to, eventually, put it on the Wiki but I thought that adding it to the Forum first would give more people a chance to comment and add improvements before it became an "official" tutorial. (My reasoning was that there are probably more active Forum members than active Wiki contributors.)

Once it is on the Wiki I can then edit the initial Forum post to direct people to the Wiki version instead (while still allowing people to comment in the Forum version, of course).

I realise that forums are generally for questions and answers but the description on the Forum topic says specifically:
Quote"This is not a place to ask questions. Post tips, tutorials and how-to documents here."
So that's what I did. (Maybe the description for the topic is wrong but that's not for me to say.)

Anyway, I appreciate your feedback and hopefully - when I get some time - I'll try and remember how to edit Wiki pages (it's been a while) and I'll get this article up there for non-Forum-members to see. (Although it is also posted with a link on the Scribus Google+ community page too.)

Cheers, Garry.