Creating true outlines

[capnhud]

I came across this tutorial and was wondering how do you create true outlines in inkscape for text?

[heathenx]

MMM...Tacos. Good.

Well, if you cannot get your hands on the taco font, find one that is close and adjust the kerning to push the letters into each other. Once you have that then convert your text to a path (Path>Object to Path). Then select your text and do an outset (Path>Outset). Now give your text a stoke color. Adjust the stoke size to make it fatter (or phatter). Duplicate, turn black, send to back and shift to do the drop shadow. Give your text a gradient and add some bubbles like the tutorial and Bob’s your uncle!

[capnhud]

I keep noticing that on tutorials when it comes to text the suggestion is to create outlines. I take it that essentially they are indicating to just stroke the text? It just seems that the text itself does not become smaller because the width is sharing room with the stroke. It is as though the text itself actually has an outline and remains the same. Am I wrong in this assumption?

[microUgly]

When they say to create "outline" the Inkscape equivelent is to convert the object to path. "Outline" is what the same feature is called in Illustrator.

[capnhud]

In illustrator when you create an outline are you still able to manipulate text as though it is text?

[microUgly]

No, it's no longer a text object - just like Inkscape.

[kelan]

Actually, you can keep the object as text if you use a linked offset.

Create your text. Kern the individual letters to give whatever zany letter layout you want.

Now under the Path menu, select Linked Offset. Give the offset a black fill, and use its one node to pull it outward, giving the desired outline thickness. This is a "true" outline as mentioned in the article, because it doesn't exist as part of the letters, but behind them. Therefore it won't cause any of the three problems he points out at the bottom of the article, and you can still edit the original text object as text.

[microUgly]

and you can still edit the original text object as text.

Will that update the linked offset though? I think that is what capnhud is looking for.

[kelan]

Will that update the linked offset though? I think that is what capnhud is looking for.

Sure does, which is why linked offsets are so great. They're an oft-overlooked feature of Inkscape, in my opinion.

[capnhud]

So when I read tutorials that indicate create an outline of the text use the link offset command to make sure the text does not lose its orginal fill shape when outlining. Now I just need to remember the shortcut on a regular basis. Thanks for the advice kelan.

[heathenx]

@kelan

i have to admit, i do not use linked offset as often as i should. i sometimes get used to doing things a certain way because that how i had always done it. same with the cloned copy. i do not use that when i should either. linked offset does make the most sense in this case. great tip.

[capnhud]

The tutorial also mentions welding letters together before outlining. How is welding letters together before creating an outline done in inkscape?

[heathenx]

i haven't heard of the term "welding" before. that would be most likely kerning in inkscape. try it out. open inkscape, type some text and then use alt+ arrow keys to move the letters around. or just watch my kerning episode on the screencasters' web site.

http://screencasters.heathenx.org/index_03.html#ep012

[microUgly]

By "welding" I think they mean "union". The example shows one letter overlapping the other letter. If you do a union all the letters become one solid object so the stroke flows around all letters rather than each letter individually which would cause overlapping.

[heathenx]

oh, i see. cripes!, i was way off then.

actually, all that is needed is a manual kern on the letters and then a linked offset. that's probably the quickest method and it's non-destructive too...meaning that the text can still changed.