how to make dashed or dotted writing

[sisdsigns]

Is there a way to make dashed or dotted writing for something like pre-school work where the student will trace along the dots? Attached is a picture of what we can do- We can make the outside dashed but the fill is what we want to make dashed and we haven't been able to do that. Is there a way to do it?

[Old Bruce]

5 minutes ago, sisdsigns said:

We can make the outside dashed but the fill is what we want to make dashed and we haven't been able to do that.

Make some lines (they can be dashes, I used solid) nest them inside the letters.

[NotMyFault]

1. create text layer
2. convert to curves
3. use node tool
4. set stroke, Dashed

[MEB]

Hi @sisdsigns,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
You didn't specify which you are using, so I'm giving you instructions that will work in all.
Select the text, switch to a vector tool (for example Rectangle Tool), click the stroke width dropdown in the context toolbar and set the style (on top of the panel) to Dash Line Style. Adjust the Dash values on the bottom in the same panel as desired. Then just remove the fill colour from the text to leave just the stroke. If you are using Designer you can use the Stroke panel to set the style and adjust the dash values. [Point missed - see MikeW reply below for proper answer].

 

@NotMyFault,
There's no need to convert the text to curves.

[NotMyFault]

8 minutes ago, MEB said:

@NotMyFault,
There's no need to convert the text to curves.

So true.

But this is a adrenaline boosted race to provide the first answer - no time to consider details. As i entered my answer and heard the sound that @Old Bruce beat me by a split second i had to click "Submit Reply" before i could correct this obvious amateur mistake. At least i beat you by almost a full second 😂😂😂 including a screenshot

[MikeW]

40 minutes ago, sisdsigns said:

Is there a way to make dashed or dotted writing for something like pre-school work where the student will trace along the dots? Attached is a picture of what we can do- We can make the outside dashed but the fill is what we want to make dashed and we haven't been able to do that. Is there a way to do it?

If you mean a single center-line, there is no means of so doing.

There are fonts with/without direction arrows, dashed or dots, with/without "line rules," and for connected or not connected writing.

The sample below is a cursive one.

[sisdsigns]

That is what I am looking for! Do you have any idea what the font is called? We don't want cursive, but there's likely an option that just prints?...

[MikeW]

3 minutes ago, sisdsigns said:

That is what I am looking for! Do you have any idea what the font is called? We don't want cursive, but there's likely an option that just prints?...

There are different makers. The sets I purchased were from the link below. I bought these as the school district I was doing the work for specified them. The link is specifically to the block writing page, but I needed to purchase both cursive/block styles.

https://www.schoolfonts.com/cursive-font-blockletter/_BlockLetters.html

[sisdsigns]

Ok thank you! We will definitely be giving that a try!...👍

[MikeW]

1 minute ago, sisdsigns said:

Ok thank you! We will definitely be giving that a try!...👍

You're welcome. 

[Alfred]

Jess Latham’s Learning Curve fonts are free for personal and commercial use.

[sisdsigns]

Hmm sounds interesting....

[Wosven]

11 minutes ago, MikeW said:

The sets I purchased were from the link below.

They are really nice, I can only imagine some as  color fonts, to get the guides in a light color, the characters in light grey, and perhaps the  arrows red.
(I've also seen ugly photocopies of photocopies given to children, where the lines were stronger than the pencil they had to use, and I would have never been interested to begin writing if I had such examples... Our mistress just took some time in the day to write a lower case, an uppercase and a word on 3 lines of our notebooks. She was one of the worste teacher I ever had — bruttish with children unable to learn —, but at least she gave good models).

[MikeW]

42 minutes ago, Wosven said:

They are really nice, I can only imagine some as  color fonts, to get the guides in a light color, the characters in light grey, and perhaps the  arrows red. ...

Yes, color fonts would be nice. I used a 50% shade of black if I recall properly. But having solid colored arrows would be nice, except for certain people with color sight deficiencies. 

[lacerto]

(...)

[Alfred]

I’ve just discovered Alanna Munro’s Formulate.

[kenmcd]

Cursive Kids - the 2017 version is free open source license (OFL).

Cursive Kids

Cursive Kids Trace

I can post the fonts if anyone is interested.

 

[lacerto]

(...)

[sisdsigns]

Looks fun! We use the 'print clearly dashed' which works beautifully for our project- thanks for updating us...👍

[lacerto]

(...)

[sisdsigns]

While we're on the topic of writing here's another question- How do you create text on a path in Affinity? Attached is an example of how we did it in another app and we haven't figured out how to do it in Affinity... I'm sure it's just common knowledge but that's how it goes when you're new to the designing/ Affinity world...😐

[walt.farrell]

8 minutes ago, sisdsigns said:

Attached is an example of how we did it in another app and we haven't figured out how to do it in Affinity... I'm sure it's just common knowledge but that's how it goes when you're new to the designing/ Affinity world...

1. Create a path.
2. Click on it using the Artistic Text Tool.
3. Type your text.

See the Help for more details.

[sisdsigns]

Perfect thanks so much!!!

[Old Bruce]

18 minutes ago, sisdsigns said:

Perfect thanks so much!!!

There is a caveat that Walt neglected to mention, in Designer the Path will disappear. If you want it to remain visible then you have to duplicate it. In Publisher the Path can be given a stroke by using the Text Frame panel and applying a stroke to the 'frame'.