Text

The Text Tool in Linearity Curve offers you many creative options to edit text elements.

Double-click on any text box when in Select Mode to start editing the text in it. When selecting a text box, you can change the font by tapping the Font button to access the Font Picker.

By selecting a text box, you can edit the content within it. Double-click to select the specific text if you want to edit a specific word or paragraph in your text box. Each Font used in the box will be displayed in the Font Picker.

‍The Text Panel

When in Text Mode, you’ll find options for changing how your text looks in the Style Inspector on your right. Here, you’ll find options for:

• A | Setting the Font Family with the Font Picker.
• B | Basic Styling (bold, italic,).
• C | increasing or decreasing the Font Size up to 1000pt.
• D | setting the text to bold, italic, underline, and strike out text.
• E | Alignment options.
• F | Kerning, Tracking, and Line Height.
• G | Text Box behavior (Auto Width, Auto Height, and Fixed Width.)
• H | Create Outlines from Text

The Font Picker

On the Mac App, the Font Picker displays your three recently used fonts at the top of the list.

You can search for a Font by scrolling up or down or tapping on one of the letters on your keyboard to jump directly to the fonts that begin with that letter.

Kerning, Tracking, and Line Height

These text transformation options allow you to better manage the spacing between letters and text lines by entering a new value numerically.

Remember that all the transformation options are non-destructive so that you can type in regular sentence case, transform your text tracking to 1 at once, and revert the changes anytime.

How to change Kerning and Tracking values

Kerning refers to the amount of space between two individual characters in a line of text. It also refers to spacing adjustments to improve legibility and avoid disruptive gaps between your letters.

To change the spacing manually, you can enter a numeric value with your keyboard. You can set the spacing to a negative value, which will cause the letters of your font to overlap. You can now adjust the kerning of a single character to improve the overall legibility of the text body.

Tracking, however, allows you to simultaneously adjust the space between all your characters of the entire word. In Linearity Curve (formerly Vectornator) you can change the tracking values from 0 to +300 pt.

How to adjust the Line Height

Line Height (also known as Leading) refers to the spacing between the baselines of the typeface.

When you create a new text, its Line Height will automatically adjust to match its font size. To change this setting, enter a numeric value in the Text Section. Observe how the distance between your lines of text decreases or increases depending on how you adjust the numeric value.

The Line Height will remain consistent if you change the typeface or font weight within a paragraph. In Linearity Curve, you can change the tracking values from 0 to +1000 pt.

Adjusting the Text Bounding Box behavior

Since our 4.13.1 update, we’ve added three new text box behaviors for the Text Tool:

1. Auto width (the text box will expand horizontally when text is added)
2. Auto height (the text box will expand vertically when text is added)
3. Fixed width (the text box width remains unchanged when text is added)

Rotating the Text

Click and hold the orange Pivot Point at the top center of your text box and drag it to rotate the text box clockwise and counterclockwise. You can also do this by activating the Rotate Mode in the Toolbar

Changing the Text Color

In the same way, you can change colors for a shape and the color of your text by editing the Fill and Stroke color.

Alternatively, you can apply a gradient to the text and change the direction of the gradient. Remember that this action will apply the gradient to the whole text inside the text box.

How to create multi-colored text

With the new Multi Color Text feature, you can add different colors to different words or singular letters within the same text box, giving you more creative control and flexibility over your designs.

Our feature is outstanding; you can set an individual alpha value and stroke width for each letter or word.

This feature allows applying different colors to the stroke and fill of each selected word or singular letter.

Activate the Text Tool and write text with your keyboard. Select a word or singular letter by clicking and dragging over the word or singular letter.

You can set the currently selected text's color and alpha value in the Fill and Stroke Section of the Inspector or with the Color Widget located below the Toolbar.

Additionally, you can set a different stroke width and alpha for each word or singular letter within the text bounding box.

When you apply multiple stroke colors within a text box and then toggle the stroke color off, the multi-color stroke attributes will be lost. When the stroke is toggled on again, the currently set stroke color will be applied to all text box elements.

The flexibility to apply multiple colors within a text is indispensable for marketing designers.

Converting Text to Shapes

Select your text box to convert text into shapes and click Create Outlines from Text at the bottom of the Text Context-Aware Options in the Inspector. This will allow you to edit the text like any other vector path. Alternatively, press ⌃⌘O to convert your selected text into vector shapes.

Be aware that converting text to outlines is a destructive operation. After you convert your text into shapes, you won’t be able to edit the text itself again, so it’s better to convert a few words and not an entire paragraph unless you're sure you won't need to edit your text again later.

Also, when the text is converted to outlines, all of its text properties (such as font type or font size) are lost, and the text can no longer be edited using the text controls.

When you convert text into vector shapes, each letter will be divided, so it's important to group the letters immediately after the transformation if you want to keep the alignment of the letters intact.

Placing Text on a Path

While you have a text box selected, you can activate another button inside the Path Tab to attach text to a vector path. To do so, you’ll need a text box and a path.

Select the vector path and the text using the Multi-Select Mode (1) and then click the Place Text on Path button (2) at the bottom of the Path Tab.

The specific text properties will be maintained when a text is moved along a path. The individual text properties are still adjustable when the text is attached to the path.