HELP! I want to curve an image to go around a bucket and am having a hard time finding any information that isn’t strictly about curving text. I could also use Photoshop if someone has info on that! THANK YOU!
I’m not sure it exactly curves the image, but Photoshop can distort it into a trapezoid using…um…let me fire up the desktop.
I’m using Photoshop 6.0. Other versions may be different.
Select all or part of your image.
Under Edit, select Transform, then Distort or Skew, they both seem to work the same. Perspective moves both sides at once.
Tug on any little white box to reshape the picture. For a bucket, you’d probably move the two top ones further apart.
Hit Enter when you’re happy, or Esc to exit.
Check out Image/ Liquify; it turns stripes into faux bois!
I used to have a lovely greeting card program that would curve anything, bit it was 16 bit…
Photo Editor : Pixlr E - free image editing tool is a (mostly free) photo editor that will let you curve text if you’re using a paid version. I’m not sure if it will curve images, too. It’s a nice alternative to Photoshop.
2 Likes
As for photoshop info, Adobe stopped selling standalone photoshop years ago and now you can subscribe to it for a monthly fee. I have not subscribed because I have a copy that I purchased that still works. They also sell a version of photoshop called Photoshop Elements which is a one time purchase program, not a subscription. I think its around $100 or so.
Ok, now for the how part.
I think this is what you want to do to make an image fit around a bucket. To do this you use the “transform” tool. I used Transform>distort and then pulled out the top corners a bit to change it to the bottom shape. You will need to start with a blank image larger than the photo you are wanting to distort. Copy/paste the image onto a new layer of its own, then Edit > transform > distort to get it to your desired shape. It may be a little different if using photoshope elements. Here’s the info on that:
adobe photoshop elements on transforming tool:
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/using/transforming.html
3 Likes
We must have been typing at the same time.
2 Likes
Illustrator does it fairly easily as well. I haven’t tried but one of my girlfriends (that I keep trying to tempt over here) likes inkscape.
Thanks everyone!
@steiconi @bluebird I have the last stand alone version of Photoshop and will try again with the Edit > Transform etc. again. Transform was unavailable (greyed out) to me for some reason.
@Animegirlie I don’t have Illustrator, but might still have Inkscape on here somewhere.
@grabacoffee I have only gotten that to work with text, do you know of a way to get that to work on an image?
2 Likes
OH wait - I misread & @bluebird is right - the transform tools will be your friend in any photoshop version OR photoshop wannabe program/
1 Like
Did you have your design selected before trying transform?
Well, it’s open and just one layer and that layer is selected. Is there something else I should be doing? Maybe because it’s a .jpg?
OK! I have made some progress and was able to mostly accomplish what I want! THANKS SO MUCH EVERYONE!!!
Now if I could get Photoshop to consider not making everything ultimately a rectangle I’d be golden!
1 Like
Try making it a layer first (double click on the layer) then try again.
1 Like
Can you show us what your are trying to accomplish?
1 Like
I have created a sign in the style of a workplace safety sign that is to go on a bucket that is wider at the top than at the bottom. I would like the top of the rectangular sign and each line of text to be equidistant from the top. I want to cut this from adhesive vinyl with my Cricut.
< rant >
I can do just words with Cricut (but boy is it a CUSSINGCUSSING HASSLE!) and of course the fonts are limited and there are no other details except letters which is bumming me out. The transform options in Photoshop are also only acting on the words even when I apply the tool to a jpg so that it shouldn’t even know that their are words vs blocks of color.
So far I have spent eleventy billion years hashing around with it since my last entry here just a few hours ago. It’s MIND BOGGLING that there is not even one YouTube about something like this (not on the first page of search results anyway), yet there several dozen for putting “LIVE LOVE LAUGH” on a tumbler. Again.
Anyway, I have one more try in me today and then I may just scratch the message in with a pen knife like a old-timey hoodlum goes at a study carrel in the school library.
< /rant >
1 Like
Did you flatten the layers after adding text? If not, the text is in the top layer, and will be the only thing transformed.
Think how much you’re learning! New ways to Photoshop! New cursewords!
Oh, the whole house and probably some local wildlife learned some new curse words! I had saved it as a jpg so it was just one layer. ANYWAY, I am glad to have learned some Ps and Cricut things in addition to cusswords. BUT. Sigh. Here’s the finished project! I will try to share the image I wanted later - it’s on a different machine.
1 Like
If you haven’t stumbled across it yet, I highly recommend Dafont. There are thousands of free fonts, some with other shapes, flourishes, etc. You download them and install to your computer’s font library, relaunch Design Space, filter on “system fonts”, and voila, free fonts to use with your Cricut!
2 Likes
Oh! I did know about Dafont, but I didn’t know I could upload my own fonts to Design Space! THANKS!
1 Like
You’re welcome! I paid an arm and a leg for the Cricut machine, I’m all about finding ways to use it that doesn’t involve giving them even more money!
Small clarification - it’s using/reading the fonts from your computer itself so you can only cut them when you’re on a computer with that font installed. So you can’t, for example, create it on the computer and then cut it by launching the Design Space app on your phone because your phone won’t have the font installed. You also wouldn’t be able to cut the file if you uninstalled the font from your computer (or get a new computer until you install it again). I always use the same computer to create and cut my files but wasn’t sure your workflow so thought I’d mention.
1 Like
RE the cost of the Cricut machine: I HEAR YOU. We run our home computers and a little network on Linux which lead to me having a VM of Windows. Someone at Cricut actually suggested I just buy another computer… like sure, I’ll just go drop another few-to-several hundred dollars in order to use my $300 machine that I have to buy expensive mats, blades, etc. to use. Makes total sense. [eye roll]
And thanks for that info! I have just moved my Windows based stuff to a new machine with none of my fonts on it, so I have some work ahead of me!