uhebeisen

I've got an answer form Valiant Wings regarding RAF fonts in WW2 they telling me that: all of RAF WW2 'fonts' they are all approximations. The RAF didn't have 'fonts' as such, different aircraft had different styles, and it depends on the date etc. The ones shown in the book are only a guide. In practice the Air Ministry had set dimensions of height, width, and separation, plus the thickness of the brush strokes. Provided that Squadrons kept to those guidelines, the style was left to the Squadron CO, and the artist (if he had one). Therefore using the ATH fonts as a starting point, especially the PW and 841 versions in my case is still fine.

@kenmcd huh, that sounds really great. If you are willing to update these RAF font of WW2 it will help many modellers to do their own decals and I assume there are many other possibilities to use these fonts too. As for my little "project" you are right chances are big that the RAF_PW font will work for me. One of the last steps will be to create curves from the test (or letters). And even they do have these overlaps if I am using just a fill-color (no outline colors) they look in Affinity. I will try to contact the author of my Hurricane book and get some more informations about the fonts. These 6 font styles are listed on Marc Lanes blog (http://www.l8ter.com/?p=896) I assume you have found them there too. About ATH there is little information on this page. I am frequently on the Britmodelerforum where you can find information on the above mentioned topics. And sure if there are new and updated fonts for the RAF in WW2 I gladly will post information about that there too. When searching for details about "our" Hurricanes in the diorama I've learned too that during this time there are a lot of variations in colors and fontstyles. I think there are templates on every airfield to paint squadron letters on the airplanes as they have to replace them frequently. And not all the templates are the same. But having variations for certain letters (eg B, M, W) would be a bonus. On the other hand a modeler working with a program like Affinity Designer can do these adjustments himself. Anyway I am looking forward to see your new RAF-WW2 fonts 🤩

just had a look inside my book from Valliant Wings (The Hawker Hurricane, A Complete Guide to the Famous Fighter). Here are the common RAF fonts shown on page 92. As you can see the PW font, which comes closest to my Hurricane version, even has variations in it, e.g. the letter "B" or the numbers "3", "5" and "8". This would be tricky to implement in a ttf or otf font. Maybe as special characters like opt+3. Otherwise, if there is only one version included in the font, this would be fine too. I have attached a copy of the book p 92 where the A-font comes close the the RAF_PW_ATH variant. Also attached is a picture of the AIRFIX decals for the Hurricane Mk.I kit. ps. I don't know how to place an image inside a topic reply, therefore the attachments.

just changed my mind, if I saw your photos. On a model the squadron and aircraft identification letters are the prominent ones. The RAF_WW2_841 does have nicer numbers but these numbers for the serial number won't be that prominent on a model.

@kenmcd I have a scanned image of decals that came with the AIRFIX kit and the RAF_WW2_841 font comes quite close the the letters on the scan. The RAF_PW_ATH (PW equals pre war, I assume) font looks even better. The pre war font is different in the letters "C" and "G" but for my 'project' either of these fonts will fit. What I would like to avoid are the version with the 45-degree-clipped edges.

@thomaso when investing more in the FontBook program I just see the sample text missing all the uppercase letters and then I read your reply. Great, this is (at least) a way I can work with. I am planning to draw a few decals for British Hawker Hurricane during the Battle of Britain and having a font that comes that close to the original saves me a lot of time. Otherwise I had to find a font that comes close to the letters I need and after converting them to a path, modify it afterwards. And now it comes even better thanks to @kenmcd, wonderfull to have such a font in the near future. Thanky alot!

I have installed a otf font and it is shown in the FontBook of my mac. But if I select this font in Designer the font displayed looks rather like Helvetica than to what I have installed (RAF_WW2_841). How do I have to proceed to get the correct font? RAF_WW2_841ATH.otf

exactly, this is the behaviour. I have to say that the upper half of objects are copied over from a coleagues file (Affinity Designer for Windows) and I can not tell you about his document settings. But if I open the example file in AI and doing a "select same" -> "fill color" then all the white objects would be selected.

Old Bruce, if I understand you correct: if the not selected white objects were created with RGB settings and then copied to the example file which had its document setup (as well as the color wheel) set to CMYK then this would be the cause. White objects drawn in RGB are different to white objects drawn in CMYK? This might be the case since I have copied a few insignias from a colleagues file. But checking them now in my example file the color values are set to all zero values. Therefore I assume the objects are now converted to the CMYK color mode. When opening the example file in AI and doing a "select same" - "fill color" all the objects are selected.

thanx very much for adding this function (select same ...) I have downloaded the this beta and give it a try. One of my frequent tasks is to change all white colors to a substitute color, eg K55. To do so I will have select all objects that are defined as white (CMYK 00 00 00 00) and change their value for K to 55. I found that select select same - fill color with a white object selected already won't do the job correct. Only part of all the white objects are selected. There are other objects with the same CMYK attributes that won't be selected. Attached you may find my sample file. Maybe this can be fixed easy? decals-2020beta.afdesign

@Jowday; I have downloaded the beta for my MacOS and YES, there are two new items in the "Select" menu now: - Select Same - Select Object I haven't checke every possible feature but. But for me most important function would be "select same" - "fill color". When working with my example file I fount that select same - fill color did not select all objects with the value 'white' (CMYK 00 00 00 00). I will have to check that with the developers.

yes Hokusai, you are right. But as this topic is placed a long time ago - 2014 - why would Affinity add it in the next release? They just ignore it. I've been looking for a viable alternative to AI for a long time and have several graphics programs on my mac. As soon as i have done this job i will go through all my options again to finally find a solution. So much in advance, Amadine has implemented this function since the beginning, see screenshot. This is a good candidate, although its zoom function takes some getting used to. ueli

yes, you name it. But I think this shouldn't be done one by one through hundreds of layers. Exactly this is the requested feature: search all parts (or forms) with a color xyz and assign them a new color. As I said I will have to switch back to AI but what can I use AD then for? Maybe I have to look around for other vector drawing programs.

doing decals for airplane models this time I've done all my work in AD. Well almost.... ... now comes the time to change the white forms/elements to a special color value the printshop asks for. The color "white" can not be printed by CMYK printers per se. Since this feature in AD is still missing I have to switch back to AI. But that's not my intention; working with another program to replace AI is key. Strange to see that this thread is open now since 2014, mhh

count me in Currently I am drawing the noseart of a model kit to let print decals by a professional printshop. But to print a white color on an otherwise transparent film can not be done with CMYK. The printer will do this by a second run. Usually in the file the "white" (C=00 M=00 Y=00 K=00) has to be replaced by a certain grey value, e.g. K=11. The print shop then has its software that finds all this forms and will print it in the separate run. My task now is to find all the white elements/forms and change their color values to 00 00 00 11. Since there is no such feature in Designer I wonder how this can be done in an efficient way (fast and secure - each and every element must be changed). Thanks for your support.