I need to design a label for the outside of a cylinder and I have been unable to find anything that would get me there. The cylinder is real world and I need to be able to print a 2d label which will wrap around it without a seam. I have done something like this in Flash (i think). I have been assuming that it would be easy in Illustrator, and it doesn't seem all that complicated but I'm not getting anywhere. I recall a canvas on which an object that was dragged off the right side would begin appearing the opposite side as it disappeared on the right. Does anyone know what I'm looking for here?
As I (mis)understand it, you just need to make the label with the desired H(eight) and a W(idth) that is PI (3.14159) times the thickness/diameter to have it fit to meet itself; you may wish to have a small gap rather than a possible overlap.
That is correct, however i'm not sure if you're restating the problem or trying to provide the answer. I can do the math, what I need to know is how to get a 360 degree canvas to make sure everything aligns. What I'm trying to get Illustrator to do is extremely simple compared to just about everything else I've seen while looking for my answer. Mapping a piece of art to a 3d object is several orders of magnitude more complex.
I need to design a label for the outside of a cylinder
because the flat label just needs to fit the (cut and) unfolded (flattened) cylinder which is simply a rectangle, still depending on the possible/desired stretching of the label.
There is more challenge, and fun, in creating a label for a conical shape (maybe even with a flat top).
Thank you Larry, you understand what I'm looking for. But is there no way to get Illustrator to do this without me doing it manually? The designs I'm contemplating can be pretty complex and to do this without automated help will be drudgery with a high probability of errors which in turn would mean endless tweaking. The whole purpose of an application like Illustrator its to avoid those very issues. There are hundreds of free programs on which the above method would work. Illustrator is most definatly not free therefore I expect it to do most of the work.
For a continuous/endless label there is no way to avoid repetition in the artwork.
But you can create it in the original artwork making it larger with the repetition built in so that the two sides (and the top and bottom) go past the label size (corresponding to bleed), then create a rectangle of the exact label size and make it a dieline, placed where you want the lable boundaries.
Not to beat a dead horse but do we still not have this feature? This is the exact functionality i want and having to suffer through hoop jumping to achieve it is depressing. But dont worry we have AI? SMH
I recall a canvas on which an object that was dragged off the right side would begin appearing the opposite side as it disappeared on the right. Does anyone know what I'm looking for here?
Well I tried the pattern editing mode to no avail. I appreciate everyone's attempts to help me but it has become very apparent to me that, without major contortions, Illustrator is unable to accomplish this simple task. I am stunned by this fact, but if 3 certified experts are unable to lead me to a reasonably simple process then I'm obviously barking up the wrong tree and illustrator isn't the right tool. Simple things should be simple, and if they're not, there is a problem. Again I want to thank everyone for trying to help me.
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