Very interesting question!
RJSim, if you are satisfied with the above answers in your case, then it's OK and you may use them freely.
But, actually, none of them work well enough in the general case:
To be able to change the text freely so that it later fits appropriately in the pennant contour.
And it sure is the tricky one!
Turning a text to Smart Object in PS effectively makes it a raster layer. PS makes the raster copy of the text and all further transformations will be applied to this raster(not vector!) copy. It’s not good at all.:frown:
Using Illustrator won't help here either. Smart Object from Illustrator doesn't have all the options for transform.:frown: Turning it again to Smart Object will AGAIN make it raster:frown:
And, in general, Smart Objects can’t help here much because their transformations depend on the size and position of the original text block. And changing the text would sure as hell change its size and position!:frown:.
The same goes for Warp functions. The more so they don't give much freedom for precise transformation.
I found some workaround and to those who are interested here I will tell how you can do it.
The idea is to record an action which changes the text in the text layer, then converts it to shape, and then applies the transformation.
The only problem here is: the transformation in PS depends tightly on shape's size and position. To solve this problem we can use custom shape.
When we create an instance of a custom shape in PS, recording this as an action, PS places the instance with an absolute linear size and position in the current document. So if we later apply the transformation to this instance it will fit in the pennant contour properly.
This way if we later change the source shape, redefine the custom shape and place it in the document the resulting shape will have the very size and position we recorded in the action. And any further transformation will fit the pennant contour perfectly.
Ok, here is the action I propose:
1. Activate the current text layer.
Comment: Just double click the text layer. This step should have a toggle dialog option on, so we can change the text in our action.
2. Layer via Copy
Comment: Make the copy of our text layer, we don't want to lose it. Just press Ctrl-J.
3. Convert this layer to shape.
Comment: Just right click the layer and choose “Convert to Shape”.
4. Make custom shape
Comment: Just go to Edit->Define Custom Shape
5. Delete the shape layer. Once we’ve defined the custom shape in step 4 we don't need it any more.
6. Place the instance of this custom shape in the document.
Comment: Just anywhere, any size.
7. Transform this shape so it fits the pennant contour.
Comment: Use any transform options to make the shape fit the pennant contour.
8. Delete the custom shape we’ve created from the presets.
Comment: We don't want it to mess up with the next run of our action
You can freely add any other steps to customize the action for your particular case in hand.
This way you have a text layer, holding your text. Select this layer and start the action. You can change the text in the first step anyway you like: make it bigger, multiline, any format … Just anything. In the end it will eventually fit the contour of your pennant!
