Text Flowing into Frame is upside down and mirrored

Bug #727876 reported by Steve Allen
22
This bug affects 4 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Inkscape
Invalid
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

Running Inkscape 0.48 and 0.48.1 on Ubuntustudio 10.10 - 64 bit version.

When I try to flow any text into a frame, the text goes to the bottom of the frame and is upside down and mirrored. If rotate the frame, the text still stays in the bottom inverted and mirrored.

I am not having the same problem with it in either windows XP or in Ubuntu 10.4 on 64 bit machine

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su_v (suv-lp) wrote :

Could you attach a sample SVG file where this error occurs?

Can you reproduce it in a new document (from the default template), or does it only happen when you work with an imported or opened PDF/PS/EPS file?

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Steve Allen (steve-pomprint) wrote :

It happens in all documents, either from a template, resized or opened pdf files. I have also tried out various fonts. All give the same result.

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su_v (suv-lp) wrote :

Possibly related to bug #259329 (could be that I closed it prematurely)?

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Steve Allen (steve-pomprint) wrote :

On the surface this would appear to be the same bug. I confirm however, that it happens on a new page and is not at all related to a pdf import (although I regularly import and export pdf files).

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su_v (suv-lp) wrote :

The file you attached was originally an opened PS/EPS file (as far as I can tell from the layer name) [1]. Do you use a custom template on your computer where this error happens with every file?

[1] the top-level layer has a transform attribute with "matrix(1.25,0,0,-1.25,0,1700.7874)" (as a result of the conversion to SVG) which isn't correctly compensated for the text object. The error does not occur if you add a new layer, move the polygon to the new layer and create the text flowed into the frame there.

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Steve Allen (steve-pomprint) wrote :

You appear to be correct. I changed layer, repeated the exercise, and the text flow works perfectly. I have also created a new document using a 'standard' template, and this also works.

I created the template that I use a long time ago to fit my cutting media, and it would appear that this was done after opening and modifying a pdf. I will therefore replace this template.

Problem (from my point of view is now solved, but I guess that it still needs fixing if someone trys it out after opening a pdf which couls be quite a common event.

Thanks for solving this for me. It is very much appreciated.

Revision history for this message
su_v (suv-lp) wrote :

Reproduced with Inkscape 0.48 and 0.48+devel r10074 on OS X 10.5.8 (i386).

Will create a more generic test case to investigate whether bug #259329 needs to be reopened or if it is a special case where the parents transforms of groups are not correctly compensated for (flowed or flowed-into-frame) text objects.

Changed in inkscape:
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: New → Confirmed
tags: added: text transformations
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Steve Allen (steve-pomprint) wrote :

Please let me know if you need any fixes testing out in Ubuntu. I would be pleased to help.

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su_v (suv-lp) wrote :

As far as I can tell, I closed bug #259329 wrongly - see attached test cases with flowed text / frames inside/outside flipped groups (same effect as when working with imported/opened PDF/PS/EPS files).

Proposing to reopen bug #259329 and link this one as duplicate to it.

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Steve Allen (steve-pomprint) wrote :

I have not encountered the third one, all problems that I have seen have been as per the middle column - vertically flipped.

I have not found any problems with text flow since getting rid of the 'imported pdf' layer, I am pleased to say.

Unfortunately, in my company, we have to transfer files in pdf format as some of our cutting machines only run in windows, and we are using CorelDraw to drive these. I would like to change over fully, but this would mean having to re-do 7 years of work and training, so this is not a good idea. It does, however, illustrate the necessity for Inkscape to be able to convert to pdf accurately (ditto CorelDraw).

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su_v (suv-lp) wrote :

I was wrong about your report being a duplicate of bug #259329 .

As far as I understand now, it's intentional - or at least difficult to avoid: normally you'd want the flowed text to respect the transforms of the parent group, so that if the text-flowed-into-a-frame is inside a regular group which gets rotated, the text rotates with the parent group and does not stay horizontal (as it does when you rotate the referenced frame/shape itself or create a text object inside the transformed group - because then the transformation is compensated so that the baseline of the text is or stays horizontal).

Layers in Inkscape are normal groups (with a special attribute for inkscape). Maybe these 'layer' groups could get a special rule, OTOH they might be intentionally mirrored or rotated. How could Inkscape know?

Attached example illustrates the difference in behavior depending on transforming (rotating) the parent group (or layer) and the linked frame (into which the text was flowed into).

tags: added: eps importing pdf
Revision history for this message
su_v (suv-lp) wrote :

Similar case occurs when extension scripts create text objects (see bug #571373) - the result is unexpected because it is not obvious to the user that the layer itself has been transformed (flipped and scaled).

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Steve Allen (steve-pomprint) wrote :

What you are saying, if I understand correctly, is that the flowed text remains horizontal until the container and the text are grouped. If they are grouped, then the text copies the same transformations as the container?

There is a problem, however, when the two are ungrouped again as the behaviour of the flowed text seems to be inconsistent. I'm not certain what I expected it to do though, possibly revert back to its original format?

Revision history for this message
Nathan Lee (nathan.lee) wrote :

Closing as part of bug migration from launchpad to GitLab.

Issue still exists and is being tracked in https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/issues/2615

Thanks for reporting, and please feel free to file new bugs about the issues you're seeing at
http://inkscape.org/report.

Changed in inkscape:
status: Confirmed → Invalid
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