Help with text software?

[harrybarnes]

So I’m not sure if this is the appropriate, but here we go. I’m looking for a software, or possibly a way to do it in Word, where I can input the physical dimensions I would like a phrase to be formatted. For clarity, I want to print a banner with the classic: “IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY.” with the dimensions of roughly 2ft 8in by 5in. I attempted to do this in word by using the ruler margins as my guide, but that quickly made me want to ***** a power outlet with a metal cock. Anyone have suggestions?

 

[David H. Lipman]

You posted in the Malware Removal sections which is for requesting help in such actions.  As it was not about being infected and a request for malware removal assistance, your post was moved to;   General Windows PC Help  where the subject matter is much more apropos.

Let me understand your request. 
Do you want the paper to be 2' 8" ( 2 ft 8 in or 32 in ) or the words “IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY" with a height of 5" ( 5in ) ?

To create a banner that is at least 32 inches long you either have to have a printer that uses rolled paper or you will have to use standard flat paper and physically join them together. For example if you use standard paper which is 8.5" x 11" you would orient the paper in Landscape such that the length is 11 inches.  That would require 3 sheets to be a total combined length of 33 inches. 

In MS Word you would set the document to be Landscape and set the Top, Bottom, Right and Left margins to be small.  Such as 0.2"

The next would be to format the characters.  The "text" contains 19 characters.  There are two type of fonts in question here.  Fixed and Proportional fonts.  Fixed fonts have a fixed width so a thin letter like "I" would have the same width as a wide letter such as "M".  A proportional font means the width varies with the letter's proportions so the letter 'I" would take up less horizontal space as the letter "M".

If we start with the assumption that each character is 2" wide then 2 x 19 = 38" which is greater than 3 feet long and will take 4 sheets of 8.5" x 11" paper but, a two inch character will not be 5" tall unless the aspect ratio of each character was greatly exaggerated.

So there is the conundrum.  Do you want it to be a 1 line banner that is much longer that 32" so the characters are 5" tall a two line banner that is 32" long, etc. ?

When dealing with such banners, you start to leave the capabilities of MS Word and move into the realm of MS Publisher, Adobe Illustrator or LibreOffice Impress or  LibreOffice Draw ( LibreOffice  is free ) where you can create a virtual banner paper and use text and fonts as needed to fit the paper.

 

 

Edited April 2, 2019 by David H. Lipman
Edited for content, clarity, spelling and grammar

[Firefox]

All great info that @David H. Lipman provided above.

I used to create such banners myself, however I used Microsoft Publisher which had a banner template.  If you have that software installed with your version of office that you have installed.