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I would love to make something like this for personal use/as a printable, however, I lack the know-how to space the numbers and to neatly create the circles.

My goal:

Create a pdf file with several circles. One for the months, one for the days (numbers) and names of days. Plus ideally another circle to create an overlay effect (to single out the days & month)

https://www.presentandcorrect.com/products/perpetual-wall-calendar

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/519833417/perpetual-calendar-wooden-perpetual

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/20829217012627477/

Problems I run into:

  • Type on a path tool makes the circle disappear (I use a circle with no fill, just the stroke, I assume I need to use two circles to create one - one to place the text on, and one to have as the background colour, or could leave plain white)

  • The numbers/text are not spaced properly. There surely must be a trick for this! But I'm not sure what I'm looking for/what it is called to space everything evenly.

  • The text floats above the circle/outside of it. Stroke issues, but not sure how to fix it.

Any advice is much appreciated!!

Thanks

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  • Hi! Can you provide some images of what you accomplished so far?
    – Peacekeeper
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 13:44
  • Hi there! Thanks for your response. Right now, I'm back at square (eh, circle) one. I started over and have 3 round strokes.
    – user14545
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 14:24

3 Answers 3

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I'm not sure about whats your goal but to create a design similar to the examples you provided is quite simple.

  1. Create a circle with the Ellipse tool (with the size you want to print) and create two more identical circles. Scale one of these circles down to 75% and the other down to 50%. You should create something like this: enter image description here enter image description here
  2. Then select the middle circle and use the Scissors tool to open the path. Then use the Text tool to write the numbers / letters on the top of your new path. Adjust the space and size of your font. enter image description here enter image description here
  3. Adjust the size of your donut by resizing and centering each circle enter image description here
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  • Thanks!! I'll give this a go! Amazing forum
    – user14545
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 20:57
  • @user14545 dont forget to accept this answer as correct ;) good luck
    – Peacekeeper
    Commented Feb 1, 2019 at 18:30
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Obviously you cannot place texts and numbers consistently. This is one way to place them for a reading hole at three o'clock like in your first example:

enter image description here

  1. Write one day name. Be sure it's aligned to middle of the line in type settings. Left or right will fail. Draw about a rotating disk wide rectangle around it and place the name properly thinking the disk. I did it only approximately.

  2. Make a rotated copy with Object > Transform > Rotate > Copy The rotation angle must be 360 degrees divided by 7 in this case

  3. Make 5 more copies by pressing Ctrl+D. Group the results temporarily. You will need it as a group when you align the cirles later.

  4. Draw three circles: The midpoint, the middle line of the texts and the outline of the disk

  5. Ungroup the weekday name pack, delete the rectangles

  6. Change the names, you may be forced to insert a space for better alignment or in other way to adjust the placement in type controlling panels. I added only a couple of spaces. The needed adjustments depend on used font. Constant width letters surely need nothing.

For better control you can inset 2 extra circles to show the width of the day reading hole.

enter image description here

Radical changes in type character panel can make the text unpleasing, so try to select a font which doesn't need wide adjustments. This is one:

enter image description here

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7
  • Howabout just using rotate tool instead of making a complete mess.
    – joojaa
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 16:59
  • @joojaa It's a beautiful dream, but only a dream (you will still need auxiliary shapes for the job)
    – user82991
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 17:16
  • No you dont, rotate tool allows you to place teh pivot wherever you want, you can really do this without a single auxilliary shape
    – joojaa
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 19:46
  • @joojaa to want some place I must have there to be something. That limited I unfortunately am. In addition In my ancient system the rotation tool can be more limited than in current Illustrator. Rotating easily the wanted amount needs something where one can snap to. Otherwise I must enter the value numerically and that's not other than using Transform.
    – user82991
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 19:57
  • Well yeah the method that i am descibing has been in illustrator since version 5.1 or 1996, probably was there before that. So more aincent than your method.
    – joojaa
    Commented Jan 31, 2019 at 20:01
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Solutions for the problems you run into.

  • Type on a path makes the path invisible. Yes you may need to create two more concentric circles in donut shape to get that background.
  • Try the below approach to space the text evenly.

Follow the below steps to get the result you wanted in the first link you've given.

Step 1: With the ellipse tool, make a perfect circle, and change it to a pie by changing the angle. In this case, I've taken 360°/7. (360° for the full circle degree and 7 for seven days of the week.)

How to change the circle to a pie.

Step 2: With the Scissors tool (C), change the pie into an arc by trimming at either end of the arc. Turn on Dynamic Guides to help select the right point with ease.

How to change the pie to arc with Scissors tool.

Step 3: With the Text tool (T) selected, click at one end of the arc, to make a text to path. Type in MON for the first day of the week. And Center Align the text.

How to place text on a path.

Step 4: With the Rotation tool (R) selected, Alt + Click at the end of the pie to make it as the Arc's rotation center.

How to change the rotation center of an object.

Step 5: Now rotate the Arc to 51.43° (360°/7) and copy it 6 times. That makes a total of 7 texts in Arcs in a complete circle.

Rotate an object and make copies of it.Making multiple copies.

Step 6: Edit the text to Weekdays.

enter image description here

  • The text's baseline aligns with the path. You may try shifting the text's baseline in the Character panel. How to shift text's baseline.
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