How do they do this?...

curved text design tool

[AndieR]

Hi there,

I'm new to this forum but I'd really appreciate it if anyone could spare a few moments to check this link out: [speedysigns.com...]

and throw in some ideas on HOW these guys were able to do this? I mean I can't figure out what method/ language/ tool they have been using to make the input text change of shape "effects style" and add a border, etc...

Thank you for any help!

Regards,
AndieR

[Dreamquick]

If I were to guess, I'd say they were programmatically accessing the features of Word that allowed you to do this (WordArt?).

Firstly they are running an ASP site so it's likely they are using Microsoft products, and secondly from what I remember the effects on show are *remarkably* similar to those offered by the "WordArt" component of MSWord.

- Tony

[dillonstars]

That is very cool.

Thanks!

[toadhall]

If you right click the text and choose "save image" you'll notice it's a .png file. I'm not up on the latest ASP APIs but I'd guess it's created by way of an ASP image generator. PHP offers the GD library for image creation and manipulation. It's not too difficult to master.

More at php.net [php.net]

T

[AndieR]

Thanks a lot for all our input! :)

It put me on the right track really. Indeed I had been looking for a way of doing it with PHP without too much maths involved... :)

...but actually they must be using asp.net+gdi. For those interested check this link out: [bobpowell.net...] and this one for a basic editor you can download the source for...
[zedilabs.com...]

Anyway I think that's what they must be using, but any other input will be really welcome.

Regards,
AndieR

[tombola]

Like toadhall suggested, chances are it's GD library.
I use this since years to offer customers the opportunity to create logo's on the fly. There are two supported graphic formats: .jpeg and .png

I use it with Perl.

[john_k]

There are DLLs available for doing image manipulation. They would need something that allows for aligning text to a path as well as skewing or perspective. If they were only doing text, then maybe some simple GDI calls would suffice. But on other pages they also handle images (see the apparel tab).

I can't tell how well the graphics upload and handling works because they are using an unsigned ActiveX control to do it (I don't allow those to run).

I did a very similar setup for a client a few years ago. That was done with a 3rd party imaging "flat" DLL(flat = traditional, not ActiveX). I also did quite a bit of custom manipulation of the raw image data. The DLL licensing was not cheap. The one we used could open about 60 different file formats and had alpha-layer support, so that was why we selected it.

Sticky me if you want a URL to the site or the name of the DLL.

[Under influence]

it looks like it might have been done in java, if you look @ the source code a .js script is loaded @ the beginning and its the only real thing that would do summit like that and isn't pass its abilities.