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Hi, I would like to use a font in Photoshop, create a path that goes through the middle of the letters. If I create a path now it's always and outline. I am using the command stroke path and I only want the text to be stroked once, not back and forth. I can't create my own paths by hand. So what is the way to do this in Photoshop?
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Hi Dan, thank you. I am trying to accomplish this without having to draw over the text. Is there a way to do it?
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You can add a line through text using Strikethrough:
You can't customize how that looks (position, thickness, etc), but it will make the horizontal line through the middle of the text for you automatically.
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Hi, thank you for your answer, however I am not looking for a strikthrough line, I am looking for a line in the shape of the font, meaning at the the center of the font instead of an outline of a font. Sp the path that is created now if you create a path is actually an outline, and I need the path to be a 1 line path.
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Oh, sort of like converting to outlines... but only one line in the center of the shape of the text? Like you're retracing the character shapes with a single link? I don't know of any way to do that automatically in either Photoshop or Illustrator.
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Yes, exactly, there should be a way to do this. I have been looking for 2 days now, but the closest I can get to that result is just using a single line font, but still it makes an outline. If anyone knows, please respond here, it would be much appreciated 🙏
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Fonts will always be fills and not strokes.
The image you just shared looks like it was created in Adobe Illustrator as a blend using a custom spine path that was drawn by hand.
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No it was not actually, I created it myself, it was created with a single line font in photoshop, created a path (which became an outline) and then stroke path.
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Actually, here's a technique that uses Adobe Illustrator's Image Trace to convert it a path. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi-soCp7dbc
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If you need the path in Photoshop you can copy and paste from Illustrator into Photoshop.
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Hi, yes thank you, I did find that video as well, but I don't have Illustrator and don't have to time to learn it right now. I was just wondering if this can be replicated in Photoshop in a different way, the illustrator way does not work in Photoshop
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Photoshop is pixel-based with some vector editing capabilities. Illustrator is a vector-based app, and fonts are vector... so you can do more with Illustrator. Therefore Photoshop does not have the same high-quality conversion to vector feature that Illustrator has.
At the moment I can't think of a way to do this exact same thing only using Photohop without Illustrator.
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Hi, thank you so much for your help, maybe we can find someone who has tried this before, I would like to keep the question open so if someone knows the way, I would appreciate to learn about it. I thought if you have a single line font with a 1 pixel line it should work, but it doesn't so would be good to understand how to get that line in the center using pixels.
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I too had this very same challenge. I wanted to animate a signature like it was being hand written.
After going down many of the same resources, I finally discovered an option that worked for me.
First, I found a single line font, which seems to be popular with CNC cutters. I found a free one <https://k40lasercutter.com/product/fancy-king-single-line-font/> and installed it on my system.
I then used Illustrator to create the name, converted to outlines, the copy and pasted directly into After Effects where I could animate using the genate stroke effect.
Worked as I had hoped.
I think the key take away here is to find and use a single line font that you like.