Session 13 – LightBurn Text On Path Tutorial

The Lightburn Software Series

The Lightburn Software is probably the best generic laser cutting software available (I use it for almost all of my laser work). This series has tutorials, hints and tips as well as the occasional speed comparisons between it and RDWorks. In this LightBurn tutorial session, we learn all about the feature text on path.

My thanks to the team at Lightburn for allowing me to embed their videos.

Contents

How to use the Apply Path to Text feature in LightBurn.

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Lightburn:  text on path tutorial
LightBurn: Text On Path Tutorial

Transcript for LightBurn Text On Path Tutorial

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0:01 hi there today we’re going to do a quick

0:05 walkthrough and demonstration of how to

0:07 use the new text upon a path feature in

0:10 light bar so this is something that’s

0:13 been requested

0:14 more than pretty much anything else on

0:16 our feature request site so we’re pretty

0:18 pleased with it so let’s get started so

0:20 to put text on to a path or curve of

0:24 text first of all you will need some

0:26 text this feature only works with single

0:30 lines of text so you can’t enter

0:32 multiple lines and wrap them onto an

0:34 object you will have to do the text one

0:37 line at a time so create some text and

0:41 then create a path or a shape that you

0:44 want to put the text on so in my case

0:46 I’m going to use a circle or an ellipse

0:49 select both objects it doesn’t matter

0:51 what order you select them in you can do

0:53 the text first and then the shape you

0:55 can drag select the two of them together

0:56 however you like go to tools apply path

1:00 to text and now the text is locked onto

1:03 the shape in this case the shape itself

1:08 has a starting point down here on the

1:10 bottom that’s where the first node is in

1:13 this object and it traverses this way so

1:15 there’s no 0 node 1 node 2 node 3

1:19 programmers count from 0 if you want to

1:23 put the text on the top of the curve

1:26 which is something that I would like to

1:28 do you can just rotate the ellipse

1:32 object or the path 90 degrees like that

1:35 and now the text is at the top what you

1:38 can’t do is rotate the text once it is

1:42 attached to a path or shape it is locked

1:45 on to that shape and can’t be

1:47 manipulated directly with a few

1:50 exceptions and I’ll show you what those

1:51 are in a moment

1:52 so I’m going to rotate my ellipse 90

1:56 degrees so that the text is up top I can

1:59 scale the ellipse

Transcript for LightBurn Text On Path Tutorial

2:01 manipulate it in the same way that I

2:04 normally used to be able to or normally

2:06 could if I grab and rotate the whole

2:09 thing the text goes with it because the

2:11 text is anchored to it a few other

2:14 things that are worth noting if I select

2:17 the text I can still modify the height

2:20 of the text you can also change the

2:23 alignment of the text now this is kind

2:25 of important if we go back to the

2:28 ellipse shape and I show you where the

2:30 starting point is again so here’s the

2:32 start so it traverses around this way

2:35 if I tell the text to attach itself or

2:40 to align itself to the left the left

2:42 edge of the text is now at that starting

2:45 point if I say right align the text now

2:49 the right edge of the text is aligned to

2:51 that starting point and if I say middle

2:54 now the text is centered on the past

2:56 this is more evident if the path is a

3:00 line or a curved shape that’s open you

3:05 can also align the text vertically so

3:08 right now the center line of the text is

3:11 what’s anchored to the curve if I say

3:13 align the top of the text to the curve

3:15 you can see that the top of the capital

3:18 letters are what’s anchored to the curve

3:20 if I say align the Y to the bottom now

3:22 the bottom of the text is what is

3:24 aligned to the curve a couple of

3:27 interesting things if I take this curve

3:32 and move it this way you’ll notice that

3:34 the text stays attached to its bottom

3:38 edge but now the text is on the inside

3:41 of the curve instead of the outside you

3:44 can use this to your advantage if you

3:48 are trying to manipulate the text into a

3:51 particular arrangement if I stell the

3:53 text if I want it attached to the top

3:55 now it’s attached to the top when it’s

3:57 down here if I grab this shape and pull

Transcript for LightBurn Text On Path Tutorial

4:00 it up the text is still anchored to the

4:02 top of the text inside that shape you

4:06 can

4:07 get the same results by flipping the

4:10 thing inside out the other way if I move

4:12 this scale it inside out left to right

4:16 it has that same effect just be aware of

4:20 how this works it may take a little bit

4:24 of playing with to get a feel for it

4:26 it’s a little bit more obvious if you

4:29 use just a straight line so if I draw a

4:32 line from the left side to the right

4:34 side of the screen and then I draw

4:37 another line from the right side to the

4:39 left side of the screen if we look at

4:42 both of these shapes and we see their

4:44 starting points so this one says I’m

4:46 starting here going this way this one

4:48 says I’m starting here going this way if

4:50 I create a couple of lines of text I’m

4:59 going to attach this text to that line

5:03 and I’m going to attach this text to

5:06 that line now you’ll notice that the

5:10 text attached to the line that is going

5:13 from left to right

5:15 standard North American reading order is

5:18 above the line and the text that is

5:21 attached to the line going from right to

5:25 left is underneath the line if i know’d

5:30 edit this and pull the line the other

5:33 way now the text is up right again this

5:38 is useful to know it allows you to

5:42 control where the text is going to

5:45 appear it’ll also save you some

5:47 headaches if you’re trying to figure out

5:48 why the text popped on to a particular

5:50 side of your line it’s also worth noting

5:53 that in note editing mode the text is

5:56 attached and is live so if I take this

5:59 line for example and I make it a smooth

Transcript for LightBurn: Text On Path Tutorial

6:01 line I can grab the line nodes and edit

6:06 them and manipulate them so that the

6:07 text now bends the preview video that we

6:12 did showed this fairly clearly I’ll show

6:15 a slightly different version

6:17 of this on this circle if I take the

6:20 circle now in order to note it at this

6:23 it’s a primitive shape I’m first going

6:26 to have to convert it to a path so edit

6:31 convert to path now I can edit the nodes

6:35 on this I’m going to delete that portion

6:38 and that portion and manipulate this so

6:45 you can see that the text is following

6:48 the curve completely live as I

6:50 manipulate the curve you’ll also notice

6:53 that as I’m editing the curve the text

6:56 is not welded as soon as I let go it

7:01 does a final pass over it and welds

7:03 everything this is to improve

7:05 interactivity so that as you are

7:08 manipulating the objects the animation

7:11 is smooth we’ve done this in a few

7:14 places in lightburn most of the time

7:16 it’s not noticeable but it does help

7:19 keep the interactivity up

7:25 you can also edit some of the properties

7:29 of the text while it is attached to the

7:31 curve

7:32 you cannot scale or rotate the text for

7:35 example but I can change the size here I

7:38 can change the horizontal spacing in a

7:41 future release of light burn I would

7:43 like to add a width scale as well so

7:47 that you could fatten the text you can

7:49 also make it bold or italic that still

7:52 works change the font and so on all of

7:55 this is still live the only thing you

Tran script for LightBurn: Text On Path Tutorial

8:00 can’t do is stretch skew change the text

8:04 that way if I delete the line that the

8:08 text is anchored to it goes back to how

8:11 it was before it’s its previous shape

8:15 and its previous position hopefully that

8:19 has covered everything if you have any

8:22 questions please come to our forum at

8:25 forum lightburn software com we’d be

8:28 happy to help you there thank you

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Last updated August 26, 2021

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