How can I add text with some subscript/superscript to a picture?

[KIAaze]

Hi,

How can I add text with some subscript/superscript to a picture?

I tried with Gimp and Inkscape. Gimp doesn't seem to allow it at all and in Inkscape I could only change part of the text to bold or italic. I couldn't find any subscript/superscript functions.
I can of course create the text elsewhere, convert it to a picture and insert it, buit I'd like to know if Gimp, Inkscape or any other image editor allow to do it directly.

I'm using Ubuntu 10.04 at the moment, so maybe later versions have such functions. If this is the case, please let me know.

[earlycj5]

Hi,

How can I add text with some subscript/superscript to a picture?

Inkscape would be my recommendation.Just click the superscript or subscript (xy) button in the text menu bar.

[KIAaze]

Thanks. I installed the latest inkscape version from source (Inkscape 0.48.1 r9760 (May 25 2011) and it indeed does have subscript/superscript.
(Inkscape 0.47 r22583 (Apr 4 2010) which comes with Ubuntu 10.04 doesn't)

However, in the meanwhile I used openoffice presentation, which also works quite well. I just have to export as PDF and then convert the PDF to an image afterwards. But adding text with subscript/superscript is easy in it.

[ApOgEEs]

I think it should be easier in Inkscape. After you have added your text over the image, select the image and press Shift+Ctrl+E to open an Export Bitmap dialog.

Set the Width or Height of your resulting image, set the filename and click on Export



Therefore, you don't have to convert to PDF and convert it back to image.

[rajan]

<dig> I discovered a native, but somewhat subpar way to make superscripts in Gimp, and I figured I should share it before I forget. If you're interested in getting special characters in Gimp, use the control-shift-u key combination that you usually use for inserting things like Greek letters, or math symbols, but instead use the unicode code for a superscripted number/letter.

Basically, instead of [control-shift-u] + 03b2 for a Greek "beta" letter, use [control-shift-u] + 2093 for a subscripted "x"

The problem with these unicode sub/superscripted letters/numbers is that they still are required to fit on the same line, so they don't look as good. It's faster than creating your own sub/superscripts by creating layers of text and aligning them by hand.

Here's the unicode directory:

http://www.unicodemap.org/

For OP's question, it seems like Inkscape works best, but hope this helps someone save some time while using Gimp.
</dig>