Convert text to outline doesn't seem to work

[JohnJR]

Hi Folks,

I have a single letter at a large point size inside a text frame.  And there it sits; a big solid letter that overwhelms the line weights of a shape frame that the text frame partially resides in, but not totally and not combined.  To gain some balance I thought I would just outline the text and adjust the resultant line weights accordingly.

Selecting the text frame, I followed the Item > Convert to > Outlines.  Nothing discernible happens, it just sits there a big opaque letter.  I tried progressing to the recommended Item > Ungroup.  That wasn't an option--selection greyed out.  I tried working with options in the properties palette: Line and Fill to see if that changed the outcome, nothing did, see enclosed zip file.

The only results I seemed to notice is that in selecting Outlines is that it changed the frame to something other than a text frame(?).

I have Scribus 1.5.2 running on OS X 10.11.6.  I have Scribus 1.4.2 as well.  In the meantime I will experiment with placing the text frame outside the shape frame entirely, perhaps the overlap is effecting it in some way.

Thanks,

[attachment deleted by admin]

[JohnJR]

Hi,

Update:  I did try my Scribus 1.4.6 and in so doing I may have realized that the perimeter of the font does not appear, but something has been created outside the perimeter, fattened it up--Outlining not Outline.  It seems this new "outline" straddles the edge of the letter and has to be   re-manipulated with Multi Duplicate to at least eliminate the portion of it inside the edge.  Is this the only method to achieve the original goal above?

Once this external outline is created, the text frame, even with the cursor blinking, no longer selects the letter, nothing more seems to be able to be done with it.  If I Convert to > Polygon, which would be okay, the outline (and the letter too I suppose) disappears.  I suppose the latter because I've made the letter itself 100% translucent in order to be have only the new exterior outline visible.

Can I take this outline and turn it into a shape?

Thanks,

[utnik]

hi john

converting a letter to an outline doesn't change the look of it. but with the letter 'V' in your file you can change the fill color to 'none', the stroke to 'black' and adjust the line width (or even combine it with the circle, using the path tools...)

...it is an outline and not a letter any more...

utnik

[JohnJR]

Hi Utnik,

Thanks, I sort of ferreted something like that out, but its nice to see it succinctly stated.  It will save fumbling around again.

I discovered another problem I'm having, and that is Shift-Selecting one shape inside another to combine them.  Because it is a different topic, I thought I would give it it's own post.

Thanks again,

[JohnJR]

Hi Utik,

I thunk'a sumtin else, dang.  Somewhere, whether in a text frame or perhaps in Convert to > Outlines, I could select the frame at one of its handles (not nodes) and as I drug it around the large initial went with it distorting the letter in lots of fun ways rather than just moving statically with the frame.  Do you know what I did to cause that effect?

While I'm at it, I noted when selecting the large initial that the blue selection box included the 1.5 line spacing area.  The result when the included line spacing (that grew proportionally with the initial) reached the bottom of the text frame the whole enterprise would disappear.  Both in the properties palette and in document set up I tried to reduce the line spacing to as close to 0.00 as I could and nothing changed, that long blue edge wouldn't budge off the 1.5 spacing, it would default back to that.  The result was the initial itself was marooned far above the bottom of the text box.

Thanks again,

[utnik]

...whether in a text frame or perhaps in Convert to > Outlines, I could select the frame at one of its handles (not nodes) and as I drug it around the large initial went with it distorting the letter in lots of fun ways rather than just moving statically with the frame.  Do you know what I did to cause that effect?

sure! – after converting a text into an outline, you will distort the whole graphic when distorting the frame (as it isn't text any more...)

utnik

[JohnJR]

Hi Utnik,

Thanks for the tip, I finally ferreted that out just before you posted.

If it may help others, I stumbled on a crucial intermediate step to arrive there by sort of going back to the original question.  Before a user can take the outlined text/letter and effectively use the tools under Item > Path Tools, the text frame itself seems to require a transformation.  I believe this is how its done as I recall; the cursor is placed at, say the top left corner of the text and dragged through to enclose the text in a light blue translucent frame.  The user can know they are on the right path because the frame takes on a crawling dashed line at the perimeter as you are dragging.  (I saw reference to this phenomenon somewhere.)

Upon release of the cursor the text box in the Properties palette suddenly becomes un-greyed out (active) and the name in the properties palette becomes something like "Text123 + U321".  Its the U-factor. Once you see that your enclosed text finally is a shape --achievable in no other way I could find, Shape box icon would not activate at least in any way visible.  Now distort-able in lots of fun ways plus Path Operations > becomes active to Combine Polygons, etc.  And away you go.

Thanks again,