Expert: Amy - 6/4/2009

Question
Hi Amy,
I'm a screen printer who needs to distort artwork, so when it prints on a cone-shaped bottle, it will appear straight. I need to "flair" or "fan" the art at the top, but leave the bottom undistorted. For example, if my artwork consists of a  2" square which must increase its width 10% at the top, I need to distort it in a way so as to end up with a new shape that is still 2" at the bottom, but 10% wider at the top (2.2") I've tried Envelope Distort --> Make with Warp --> Shell Upper --> 0 bend/0 horiz distort/-10% vert distort and achieve what I want at the top, but it always pinches the bottom inward the same amount when I need that to stay UNdistorted. Can you suggest another way to achieve my goal?

Answer
Hi Marianne.

I can think of two ways to do this.

I would use the Free Distort and just move the top corners out.
You might want to draw some guides so you can meet the 10%. It will be frustrating because there's no real precision in the preview but you should be able to do it.

Then, there's this kludgey solution. Make a rectangle that's about 2.5" x 5" tall and place your label art center top of this rectangle, so that it kind of looks like... this. The placement of the artwork in the rectangle is important.

http://amylynpace.com/friends/marianne/

Then group your artwork and the rectangle together <-- important.

Then do your distort, the same way you did before.

Since the effect is relative to the size of the object, the bottom points of your artwork won't move at all... that is, if you get the placement correct within the holding rectangle. You might have to try a couple of times to get the placement exactly where you need it.

I am unclear as to whether you are using Illustrator or PhotoShop to do this - these instructions are for Illustrator, as that's where I am listed in allexperts.com.

Hope this works for you!
Amy