Issues centering text

[CanuckSigns]

I seem to be having issues with text centering in coreldraw x5, we are setting up files with 3 numbers centered in a square of a certain size, it seems that corel centers the text to the bounding box of the text rather than to the text itself. as a result text (especially numbers) are way off centre in the square (see photo)

my current workaround is to convert the text to curves, which adjusts the bounding box to fit exactly snug along the letters, however this is not ideal when we are doing thousands of these (they are engraved tags)

does anyone have any idea or workaround for this? i would even be open to a Macro of some sort I could purchase.

Thanks

 

[CanuckSigns]

That's weird, I've never noticed that.

To shorten the workaround (you may already be doing this) would be using shortcuts, so Ctrl Q then P which would convert then center on page.

You could also easily record that as a macro then apply to all pages in the document.

Yeah i've done the shortcuts, after page 300 of ctrl+Q, P, PgDn, you start to hallucinate lol.

I've never had success recording a macro, have you done it? can you point to a tutorial online?

 

[Kottwitz-Graphics]

That's weird, I've never noticed that.

I've noticed that Corel does that. It's a pain in the butt, but I always seem to have to make a second set of copy / numbers, convert to curves, and then recenter it. I keep the unconverted text off to the side so that if I ever have to go back, I know what font I used.

 

[J Hill Designs]

Ive noticed it too, but, especially with text, there is almost always a need to visually center it anyway, 1's being the worst

 

[graphicwarning]

I've never had success recording a macro, have you done it? can you point to a tutorial online?

If you go into the Macro Manager and Create a new project (under global macros) use this code...

ActiveSelectionRange.AlignRangeToPageCenter (cdrAlignVCenter)
ActiveSelectionRange.AlignRangeToPageCenter (cdrAlignHCenter)
ActiveSelectionRange.OrderBackOne

When you run it, anything that is selected at the time will do the same thing as Ctrl P, Q & PgDn

For tutorials... there is A LOT of tutorials in the CorelDraw community/forum. I don't remember Johns username... but there is a guy in there named John that did a lot of blog posts/tutorials in the Corel forum of basic macros... and Shelby in the oberonplace.com forum has lots examples also!

 

[CanuckSigns]

If you go into the Macro Manager and Create a new project (under global macros) use this code...

ActiveSelectionRange.AlignRangeToPageCenter (cdrAlignVCenter)
ActiveSelectionRange.AlignRangeToPageCenter (cdrAlignHCenter)
ActiveSelectionRange.OrderBackOne

When you run it, anything that is selected at the time will do the same thing as Ctrl P, Q & PgDn

For tutorials... there is A LOT of tutorials in the CorelDraw community/forum. I don't remember Johns username... but there is a guy in there named John that did a lot of blog posts/tutorials in the Corel forum of basic macros... and Shelby in the oberonplace.com forum has lots examples also!

thanks!
I your script seems to work great for single page documents, however when we setup files for engraving, each tag has it's own page, soo 300 tags = 300 page document, how would you word a script that converts multiple page documents to curves, centres the object to the page and moves on to the next page?

 

[bob]

I seem to be having issues with text centering in coreldraw x5, we are setting up files with 3 numbers centered in a square of a certain size, it seems that corel centers the text to the bounding box of the text rather than to the text itself. as a result text (especially numbers) are way off centre in the square (see photo)...

That's because, with most fonts, numerals are mono-spaced so you can line them up in columns. It's been this way pretty much since the dawn of movable type.

 

[graphicwarning]

thanks!
I your script seems to work great for single page documents, however when we setup files for engraving, each tag has it's own page, soo 300 tags = 300 page document, how would you word a script that converts multiple page documents to curves, centres the object to the page and moves on to the next page?

Sorry... I misunderstood what you were trying to do... but I think I get it now.

There is no error handling in this, and it's not pretty... but I believe it does what you want.

Save your documents first... I'm not responsible if it crashes Corel! :Big Laugh

I did it in X7... but I think everything should be X5 compatible.


Sub ConvertAllPages()
Dim pg As Page
Dim i As Integer

ActiveDocument.BeginCommandGroup ("Convert all Pages")
Application.Optimization = True

For Each pg In ActiveDocument.Pages
i = pg.Index
ActiveDocument.Pages(i).Shapes.All.CreateSelection
ActiveSelection.ConvertToCurves
ActiveSelection.AlignAndDistribute 3, 3, 2, 0, False, 2
Next pg


ActiveDocument.EndCommandGroup
Application.Optimization = False
Application.Refresh
ActiveWindow.Refresh

End Sub

 

[graphicwarning]

And I might add to my previous post... be patient. 300 pages might take a minute to convert... it doesn't necessarily mean it's not working.

 

[shoresigns]

That's because, with most fonts, numerals are mono-spaced so you can line them up in columns. It's been this way pretty much since the dawn of movable type.

Exactly. And this will typically cause centering problems when the number "1" is at the beginning or end of the line, since it's much narrower, but it typically only becomes a problem when you have extremely tight margins around the text.

You can either convert to outlines or you can manually adjust the kerning before/after the 1.