CurveLayout GX is a Control Panel for the Macintosh. It allows the user to select text and a path (i.e. Curve, Line, Polygon, etc.) and have the text drawn along that path. It also allows the user to undo curved text, returning the two original objects to the user. This extension should work with most drawing programs even if they are not GX savvy.
Instructions for Use:
To use, place the Control Panel into the Control Panels folder in your System Folder. You must restart the machine for the Control Panel to take effect. After restart, open the CurveLayout GX Control Panel and choose the key combination you would like for CurveLayout GX to activate. It is not necessary to restart the machine after changing the key combination. You may select the "Remove Original Objects" box if you want the Control Panel to cut the selection from the document instead of copying it.
Now launch any drawing application. A drawing application is one where each shape is treated as a separate movable object. Photoshop or MacPaint are not drawing programs. ClarisDraw or LighteningDraw GX are the types of programs designed to work with CurveLayout GX.
Type some text into a text field. Now draw a rectangle, circle, oval, or a path. Highlight both of them and hit our secret key combination. You should see the Edit menu highlight and in about a second or two the curve layout will be pasted back into your application.
You can treat this object the same way you would any other. You can size, scale, copy and paste. Depending on how your application interacts with QuickDraw, there will be no degradation of the image upon printing.
OK, now we've placed our text but we see a spelling error. How can we change this? CurveLayout GX makes this simple. Just highlight the curve layout and hit the secret key combination. After a bit of processing the CurveLayout Control Panel will paste the original two objects back into your drawing window. You can modify with ease.
Requirements:
Any Macintosh computer running QuickDraw GX 1.1 or later
Limitations:
CurveLayout GX will not preserve transformations when a curve layout is recreated after an undo.
You cannot use the keys: ~, e, u, i, or n when the Option Key is being used as a modifier. This is because the system defines these as "null" keys. Thus, they will not generate a keydown event for CurveLayout to handle. These combinations are used by the system for accents and diacritical marks.
Known Wierdness:
Because of the way CurveLayout GX interacts with applications, certain programs will display curious tendancies. The user may experience the following:
1. With certain applications, CurveLayout GX double pastes into the document window. (i.e. You get two copies of whatever you create) There is nothing that can be done about this. It is resultant on the way that certain applications process the clipboard. Two applications that exhibit this are LightningDraw GX and Canvas.
2. Sometimes you have to hit the secret key combination twice to get any effect.
3. Sometimes after processing nothing will be pasted back into the document window. If this happens, quick the program and start again.
4. LightningDraw GX has been known to crash when CurveLayout GX is invoked. By setting LightningDraw's clipboard exporting to "QuickDraw GX Format" instead of "GX PICT Format" you will eliminate 80% of these crashes. (It will also double the speed of CurveLayout GX)
