How to make text follow a curve but remain vertically aligned?

Hi team,
I’d like to create a list of single digit numbers that are mapped to the inside perimeter of a circle, but are vertically aligned at a specific location.

At the moment I’m setting the text to follow the circular path, then ungrouping the numbers and rotating them one-by-one to that they’re readable at the 90 and 180 degree locations on the circumference (pic of the output attached below).

Does anyone know of a smarter way of doing this?

Circular array - like a clock face. There are several How-To videos.

Unfortunately, not the behaviour I’m after.
From the reference image, the wheel on the left rotates clockwise, and the numbers have to be readable only at the 3 o’clock (90 degree) position.
The wheel on the right rotates anticlockwise and the numbers have to be readable only at the 9 o’clock (180 degree) position.

Then you need to change the text to path - then you can rotate each number, in place.

That is what I am currently doing. The purpose of this post is to determine if there’s a faster way of doing it as I’d like to try many different fonts and don’t relish the manual process.

Is this what you’re looking to do?


Circular array tool with variable text. The reverse direction was achieved by placing a - in front of the 360 end point.

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Here is a picture of a prototype. The cog rotates around to a display hole, so that only one number on the wheel is visible at a time. At the moment I have to manually rotate each number to have the correct orientation at the viewing point.

PXL_20241006_011211244|690x388

what @thelmuth said, but start the variable text in the position you want to view.
Like this…

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The picture showing your deisred results helped a lot. Position the first vairable where you want it in the circle before using the array tool.


These are the array settings you want.

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This is exactly the behavior that I was after. Cheers!

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Push every button.

Use the PREVIEW button like it’s a cash-back coupon.

The logic in Lightburn is consistent.