I'm putting text on a path and them making the path invisible by removing the stroke. That seems to work for me but if I need to select the line again, or remove the text from the line how do I find and select the line?
I can select the text and remove text from path but isnt there still an invisible line somepace. I could just delete the whole thing and start over but seems like a noobie move.
I'm think of some kinda of alt?ctrl?shift thing I havent found yet.
My experience in software says that just because something is invisible doesnt mean it won't bite you later. It would seem to be a good pratice to keep my drawing as clean as possible.
I do this fairly often and have the same issue if I need to move the text.
Generally, I just do the 'rubber band' select (hold down the left mouse and drag over the general area) and that will select it. The downside of course is that it selects everything else in the vicinity too, and if you have a lot of objects, that can be problematic cos you've got to click each one to de-select them. I try to keep the path only a little bit larger than my text, so that I don't need to 'rubber band' over a larger area than necessary.
What I've personally found best for me is, while I'm working, to set the stroke to a very low opacity so that it's barely visible. It's still easy to find if you need to move or tweak it, but the colour isn't too distracting from the overall artwork. When I'm finally happy with everything, only then will I change the opacity to transparent. I've learned from experience that it's just quicker in the long run to work this way.
Since I'm not a pro, I'd be interested too if anyone has a better way.
Well, I guess I would call myself a pro when it comes to teaching beginners up to intermediate. But not a pro for the whole program. I imagine threre are very few users who are pros for the whole program. Mostly probably developers 🙂
There is a trick for selecting the invisible path. First select the text, then Shift + D. (It's the same way to find the parent of a clone.)
There is another selection trick that I like to use, for finding invisible objects. First you have to have the Selection tool enabled. Then press the Tab key to select the next object. If nothing was selected when you started, then Tab selects the first object that was drawn. Each press of Tab selects the next object. So for this scenario, you could consider that you probably drew the path and typed the text within a few steps of each other in your workflow. So you could select the text, and then use Shift + Tab (which selects in backwards order) and within a few clicks, you'll select the path. Well, unless you drew the path after the text, then just use Tab without shift.
@brynn 👍thanks you gave me exactly what I was hoping to learn. I figured there must be a way. I can also see where @z2z trick would also be handy. I like having multiple solutions to a problem.
I usually duplicate and hide the text on a sep layer. Then select the text and choose obj to path, which releases the circle ftom the text, then you can delete it. Of course it's no longer text, which is why i keep a hidden copy. Won't work for everything, but meets my needs.
Beyond the Basics selecting the path of "text on path"
Inkscape.org
Hi,
I need a tip from the pros.
I'm putting text on a path and them making the path invisible by removing the stroke. That seems to work for me but if I need to select the line again, or remove the text from the line how do I find and select the line?
I can select the text and remove text from path but isnt there still an invisible line somepace. I could just delete the whole thing and start over but seems like a noobie move.
I'm think of some kinda of alt?ctrl?shift thing I havent found yet.
My experience in software says that just because something is invisible doesnt mean it won't bite you later. It would seem to be a good pratice to keep my drawing as clean as possible.
Is there a best pratice way of handling this.
I do this fairly often and have the same issue if I need to move the text.
Generally, I just do the 'rubber band' select (hold down the left mouse and drag over the general area) and that will select it. The downside of course is that it selects everything else in the vicinity too, and if you have a lot of objects, that can be problematic cos you've got to click each one to de-select them. I try to keep the path only a little bit larger than my text, so that I don't need to 'rubber band' over a larger area than necessary.
What I've personally found best for me is, while I'm working, to set the stroke to a very low opacity so that it's barely visible. It's still easy to find if you need to move or tweak it, but the colour isn't too distracting from the overall artwork. When I'm finally happy with everything, only then will I change the opacity to transparent. I've learned from experience that it's just quicker in the long run to work this way.
Since I'm not a pro, I'd be interested too if anyone has a better way.
Well, I guess I would call myself a pro when it comes to teaching beginners up to intermediate. But not a pro for the whole program. I imagine threre are very few users who are pros for the whole program. Mostly probably developers 🙂
There is a trick for selecting the invisible path. First select the text, then Shift + D. (It's the same way to find the parent of a clone.)
There is another selection trick that I like to use, for finding invisible objects. First you have to have the Selection tool enabled. Then press the Tab key to select the next object. If nothing was selected when you started, then Tab selects the first object that was drawn. Each press of Tab selects the next object. So for this scenario, you could consider that you probably drew the path and typed the text within a few steps of each other in your workflow. So you could select the text, and then use Shift + Tab (which selects in backwards order) and within a few clicks, you'll select the path. Well, unless you drew the path after the text, then just use Tab without shift.
@brynn 👍thanks you gave me exactly what I was hoping to learn. I figured there must be a way. I can also see where @z2z trick would also be handy. I like having multiple solutions to a problem.
For invisible stuff, I would also suggest View - Display mode - Outline or Object - Objects...
I usually duplicate and hide the text on a sep layer. Then select the text and choose obj to path, which releases the circle ftom the text, then you can delete it. Of course it's no longer text, which is why i keep a hidden copy. Won't work for everything, but meets my needs.