I was wondering if it was possible to surround a text body with text
like so:


+--------------+
|ABCDEFGHIJKLM |
|H            N| 
|A  Main Body O|
|L  Text goes P|
|B  here      Q|
|-=+_ZYXWVUTSR |
|              |
|              |
|              |
|              | 
+--------------+

This seems far-fetched, but just curious. I suppose that I could just
move stuff around by hand in the GIMP later on, but there's probably a
{better,more {extensible,clean}} way of doing it from (La)TeX.

-FreeSmith

ptjm@interlog.com (Patrick TJ McPhee) wrote in message news:<bffbhe$per$1@news.eusc.inter.net>...
> Peter Flynn had an example like that, which he either posted here or
> posted a link here. It was something to do with a certificate -- try
> searching for his name and that word in google.
> 
> It wouldn't be hard to do with metapost. I have a macro called `pathalong'
> which puts text along an arbitrary path.

Well, it's been a while, but I finally finished it. It's a little job
I was doing for an upcoming wedding. At any rate, I used pstricks to
make the text go along a path, along with a couple of hacks for sizing
(from graphicx) and kerning along the line (from soul). Here's the
code (don't laugh):

CAUTION:THIS CODE MAY MAKE YOU WRETCH
---SNIP---

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{pstricks,pst-text,nopageno}
\usepackage[width=8.5in]{geometry}
\usepackage{soul}
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

\begin{center}
\begin{pspicture}(0,0)(20,20)%
\psset{linestyle=none}
\it\Huge
\sodef\an{}{.0000047em}{.276em}{.0714em}
\pstextpath[c]{\psline(1,17)(19.5,17)}%
{\resizebox{!}{.35in}{The angels shall dance between you,}}
\pstextpath[c]{\psline(1,15.5)(16.5,15.5)}%
{\resizebox{!}{.35in}{and they will rejoice in}}
\pstextpath[c]{\psline(1,14)(19,14)}%
{\resizebox{!}{.35in}{the dance of life you do together.}}
\pstextpath[r]%
%{\pscurve(2,-1)(20,-1)(20,-16)(1,-16)(1,-2)}
{\psline[linearc=1.2](1,19)(20,19)(20,12)(0,12)(0,18.5)(1,19)}
{\normalsize{\an{ the bride is carrying a rosary her grandmother
brought back from a trip to the
Vatican for something \textbf{old} for something \textbf{new} the
bride  chose a
strapless Peau de Soie ball gown in ivory a good friend lent the bride
a
handmade lace and satin garter so she'd have something
\textbf{barrowed} and
to complete tradition a sapphire nose ring adorns the bride as
something
\textbf{blue}}}}%\mbox{}\hspace{\stretch{10}}\mbox{}}
%\end{minipage}
%\end{center}
\end{pspicture}
\end{center}
\end{document}

---SNIP---

Thanks all for your tips!!!

Happy TeXing!,
-Freesmith