Changing alignment of text on a path hides characters
Migrated from https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1753534
From 2018-03-05
Original title: Center text in a circle
Steps to reproduce:
- Draw a circle
- Create some text that is aligned left (default)
- Set text to the circle path
- Select the text and hit center alignment.
What happened?
Text gets cut out.
Actually, the text left of the center point is hidden. According to the XML Editor, the text is still there but it is neither selectable nor editable from the canvas. Words added to the visible part of the text cause existing text to be pushed left but hidden.
Additionally, text edits made in the XML Editor are not reflected until a "Remove from Path" is applied. Investigating further, changes may be made from the Text and Font dialog's Text Editor: these changes are reflected immediately after pressing "Apply" but the text is still half hidden.
The only resolution is to start over and align the text before attaching it to a path.
What should have happened?
Expected behaviour text wrapping around the circle
Additional Information/Comments:
Original submitter Alfredo Monclús (alfredomonclus) goes on to say...
Problem: it should not matter if you click center before or after the text is in the path, it should work regardless.
TylerDurden (8thrule) offered this non sequitur on 2018-03-06:
Maybe you have seen this:
"There are two competing camps for how angles should be defined. Fortunately for the peace, Inkscape supports both through the Compass-like display of angles option under the Steps tab in the Inkscape Preferences dialog (File → icon Inkscape Preferences... (Shift+Ctrl+P))."
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Coordinates.html
Alfredo Monclús (alfredomonclus) wrote on 2018-03-06:
You are missing the main point here, let me rephrase:
If you center the text BEFORE it's applied to the path, it works. If you center the text AFTER it's applied to the path, it doesn't.
Inkscape Apologist TylerDurden (8thrule) wrote on 2018-03-07:
This is the same for text on any path.
Changing the text anchorpoint (L,C,R) changes the text relationship to the anchor.
The effect snaps the text anchor point to a path endpoint or centerpoint, and chooses which, based on the position of the text anchor point.
Centering text after the effect is applied, still simply changes the text relationship to its own anchor. It has no idea it's part of an effect essentially downstream of its own style info.
Screen capture: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nmiw3ub0hv3semp/2018-03-06_22-00-50.gif?dl=0
Migrator's Notes:
- TylerDurden...frankly, who cares?! The user wants to put text on a path (a circle in this case); a simple enough request. A user doesn't care what's the underlying "logic" behind Inkscape's indefensible handling of this problem. A user just wants their text on a path, not half the text to disappear upon an alignment change! If the text is not where they'd hoped, give them a non-difficult way to modify the alignment/position of the text placed on a path. This kind of apologist behaviour just burns my toast!
- After following Steps to Replicate, Inkscape gives no method to resolve the problem other than starting over.
- Replicating this issue, you'll notice that the text's anchor point is way off in left field with no way to grab it.
- An example of properly handling this issue:
Version Info:
- Inkscape Version (migrated issue): 0.92.2
- Operating System: unknown
- Inkscape Version: 1.1-dev (7802ed9, 2020-09-04) and 1.1.0-dev (48d18c81, 2020-07-08)
- Operating System: macOS 10.13.6 (17G12034)