Vertical type using "tiles"

[graphikal]

Is there a way to create vertical, variable type using the 'tiles' style of Expression (high-rise windows)? In other words, how do we break after each letter in the name?

 

Thanks in advance

[Dan Korn]

In the Font Setup panel in FP Expression, you can specify any character to be used as the manual line break character for the template. So you can set up a character, let's say the pound sign (#), then insert that character in between each character in the personalization text, and each letter will be on its own line.

 

If you're driving this from FusionPro, you can use some simple JavaScript like this to insert the manual line break character (pound sign in this example):

var myPI = Resource("YourExpressionTemplateResourceName");
myPI.AddData(Field("YourFieldName").split("").join('#'));
return myPI;

Or:

return PersonalizedImage("YourExpressionTemplateResourceName", Field("YourFieldName").split("").join('#'));

[graphikal]

Thanks Dan -

 

I'm wondering if I'm not understanding something. Specifically in Expression, if we are reading from a data file to create our variable images, how do we indicate a symbol break, i.e. #, after each character?

 

Also, are you saying the Expression variable images can be altered from within Fusion Pro in a single data merge, rather than as two seperate steps (create images, then use Fusion Pro to import the final personalized images into our layout)?

 

Appreciate your help,

 

Don

[Dan Korn]

I'm wondering if I'm not understanding something. Specifically in Expression, if we are reading from a data file to create our variable images, how do we indicate a symbol break, i.e. #, after each character?

You have to supply the data to FP Expression with the line break symbols already in the text. If you're not using FusionPro to drive the image generation, then you'll need to either manually edit the data or write a simple utility to modify it.

Also, are you saying the Expression variable images can be altered from within Fusion Pro in a single data merge, rather than as two seperate steps (create images, then use Fusion Pro to import the final personalized images into our layout)?

Yes, absolutely! This integration is included with FusionPro 7. All you need to do is point FusionPro to the .fpx template and you can invoke personalized images with a single line of code, as above, directly from your FusionPro composition. You don't need a separate step to import them. There's also a Web Service available for FusionPro 6.x integration.