How to curve an image in Cricut Design Space or Photoshop?

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!

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Try making it a layer first (double click on the layer) then try again.

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Can you show us what your are trying to accomplish?

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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 >

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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.

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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!

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Oh! I did know about Dafont, but I didn’t know I could upload my own fonts to Design Space! THANKS!

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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.

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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!

This is the image I made for the project. So, yeah… compromises were made. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

So of course I downloaded your image to see if I could replicate your problem.
And of course it transformed just fine. I added an image and flattened; that transformed just fine. I added text on top of that, and the whole thing transformed.

It’s clear you’re having bad juju. Sometimes computers take an evil glee in foiling our plans. I know my inkjet printer hates me.

My brother gave me his old desktop; I only use it for Photoshop. It isn’t up to running the slicer software, so I had to load Linux on my chromebook. That worked for a while, then refused. I found an online slicer, and that’s working now. I wonder what will go wrong next.

I am not sure to be honest… but I see you made it.
I am using Sketchbook for making my pictures first, then just importing to Design Space, so not very familiar with the program. Also, I am mainly using it for cutting wool-blend felt :slight_smile:

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I experimented in Photoshop too, but I have the latest, greatest, version. I get to work in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign for my job. It’s Ice Cream! all the time. I do eLearning and use Storyline these days, but editing photos makes it all easier. I don’t know what I will do when I retire, probably pay for a subscription though it’s rather spendy for the core products. But I love them. Maybe someone will leave me some money!

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@grabacoffee Yeah, I usually make something in Photoshop to import because it’s what I have and am used to. Mostly I cut paper.

@marionberries Lucky! I was able to buy the last hard copy version back in the day through a friend who worked for Adobe at the time. Employees got a certain number of discounts/year and she shared one with me and it was a HUGE discount. Alas… it is no more.

I’m sorry I didn’t read this sooner, as this info is probably no longer useful, but there’s also a “warp”
option on the Edit>Transform menu, and that allows you to actually curve the object. I hadn’t seen anyone mention it. It was added in version CS2, so it should be in your version.

Screenshot 2021-10-08 102520

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THANK YOU! I think this will be great info to have in the future!!!

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PS 6.0 doesn’t have the warp option. Sigh.
And my printer died today. Sigh.

I feel your pain. Our all-in-one printer died about a year and a half-to-two years ago and I can’t work up the interest to research a new one. We’re limping along with a black-only laser printer and taking the occasional thumb drive to Staples.

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Two hours of google-fu, experimentation, and judicious cussing got the printer working. Although the error message I was getting AND the tech help line said the printer needed professional attention, it turned out it just needed new print cartridges. I didn’t have new ones, but was able to refill some grotty old ones and print the forms I needed.
Computers, making our lives easier.

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