Help with circle logos

[knuckler]

I'm using photoshop, and I am really bad at circle logos, so I thought I would ask for some help. Many of you do some tremendous logos using circles.

I have trouble getting the font at the same angle as the circle, and also with making it look correct.

What are some of the steps you guys use when utilizing circles?

Thanks in advance.

[FastLane]

the only thing I really do is try to use fonts that have very round letters. I rarely will do a circular logo unless its going to be based on a circular letter in the font...an o, q, p, d, c, and lower-case e's come immediately to mind. Or if the logo object/mascot lends itself well to being framed with a circle.

I can't give photoshop tips, unfortunately, as I do not have the program to make graphics with. I use Photodraw and am still learning PaintShopPro (and the learning curve hasn't been kind....LOL)

Feel free to respond here, PM me, or msg me thru Yahoo, Knuckler... I think it would be cool to trade tips and swap ideas.

Ciao!

[Eugene Church]

knuckler, when I saw your LA Arrows today, I thought to myself, that you didn't like to do curved lettering...and there it was...very well done.

Curving will really give you a little more variation...glad to see you have the skill.

[eriqjaffe]

Knuckler, if you have access to Adobe Illustrator, it's very easy to add text along a path (such as a circle) and export that to Photoshop.

If Illustrator is out of your price range, you can always use Inkscape, which is open-source freeware. The current release (0.40-1) has a feature that allows you to place text on a path...you can then export the file as a (transparent) PNG file, which you can open up with Photoshop and add to your logo.

[FastLane]

Knuckler, I re-read your post and I see what I had replied earlier was about as effective as if I had told you to douse your head in gasoline and set it ablaze. Sorry, I guess I was bleary-eyed when I wrote my reply to you....

As for getting the proper bend to your circled text, all I can do to tell you is what I am able to do...Use a space between each letter, or even two sometimes...that will help lengthen the word and give it more "slack" for you to bend it. Try different font sizes, too. That helps give you more slack, as well. Photodraw has an adjustible slider bar that lets me bend the text and really fine-tune the angle... I dont know how PhotoShop handles the same application, so I'm no help there.

As always, don't be afraid to try different ways to get it done.

[knuckler]

Thanks for the tips guys. I'd love to get illustrator, but it definitely is out of my range right now. Fastlane, I would love to share some help, that'd be awesome, and thanks for the tip on the space between letters.

Eugene, thanks for the kind words on the Arrows logo, but I'm not completely satisfied with it. The lettering could have been a lot better.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by knuckler

Many of you do some tremendous logos using circles.

Am I being paged?

Originally Posted by eriqjaffe

Knuckler, if you have access to Adobe Illustrator, it's very easy to add text along a path (such as a circle) and export that to Photoshop.

^^^ What he said.

In my case I use CorelDRAW, but any vector drawing program with a good feature set should let you quickly and easily fit text to a curve (or other shape for that matter). If you're trying to do it in Photoshop via the "Warp Text" function then it'll always be a trial-and-error approach.

If you're really in a pinch, you could always drop me a PM telling me what text you want curved and what font to use and I could quickly do it up and send you back the results which you can import into Photoshop.

[Treches]

Text to a curve is quite tricky in Photoshop (at least, as of version 7). Try these two tutorials, I'm gonna leave them there for a week.

http://cbbl.ootp-online.com/zips/Circletext.zip

[Cuss]

In photoshop CS, you can now add text to a curve just like any vector program.

[Le Grande Orange]

I had a feeling it was added to CS. But since I still haven't made the change from 7 yet, I guess I'll stick with my drawing program. I am getting pretty used to it now.

[knuckler]

Originally Posted by Cuss

In photoshop CS, you can now add text to a curve just like any vector program.

Any chance you could point me in the right direction?

Thanks again for all of the help. I really appreciate this forum a lot because everyone is very supportive and offers constructive criticism rather than ripping each other's logos apart.

[Jeff Olsen]

Originally Posted by FastLane

the only thing I really do is try to use fonts that have very round letters. I rarely will do a circular logo unless its going to be based on a circular letter in the font...an o, q, p, d, c, and lower-case e's come immediately to mind.

That's basically what I did with this logo. That circle is really a capital "O" from one of my fonts.

[FastLane]

...I would've engaged my brain before that fateful post.

I was actually referring to the fact that I wouldnt really go to the trouble of making a circular logo with a letter as the main focal graphic UNLESS that letter was going to be a "round" letter. That way the circle would frame it well and set off the shape better. So, when I was trying to explain myself...rather horribly, I might add...I'm sure I left a lot of people scratching their heads trying to figure out what kind of crack I was smoking when I wrote that.

Anyways....

[Cuss]

Originally Posted by knuckler

Any chance you could point me in the right direction?

Thanks again for all of the help. I really appreciate this forum a lot because everyone is very supportive and offers constructive criticism rather than ripping each other's logos apart.

sure knuckler,

First grab your pen tool and draw a curved path, (make sure that you have the path icon selected in the top left corner, instead of the shape layer icon.). You should now see a path on yoru canvas.

Grab the text tool and move near or right on top of the path where the tooltip changes to a different symbol. Then click on the mouse. You should now able to type text on the path.

Hope this is clear enough, I don't have the program open right now but that should be the gist of it. And like mentioned before this is a new feature on photoshop so you will need CS to do this.

[knuckler]

Thanks very much Cuss.