"Stick" Fonts

[swissfreek]

I use vector graphics to run a CNC and engraving machine. One of the tricks for text is to use stick fonts, single line fonts, whatever you want to call them. The ones I use are actually regular true-type closed-outline fonts, but they have been designed so that the outline overlaps and presents a single line.

 

Anyway, I have an issue where when I create text and then change it to one of these "single-line" fonts, the text disappears. I don't mean it's background-colored, I mean that the text box vanishes and is no longer editable or selectable, and for all intents and purposes has been deleted. You don't even have to actually select the font, just hovering the mouse over it in the font menu will make the text box disappear (I'm assuming that's because of a live preview). Hitting undo to go back to the old font does not bring the text box back, and in fact if you scroll over one of those fonts in the list without clicking and the text disappears, scrolling to another font doesn't bring it back. You have to create a new set of text, and change the font back to one that does not exhibit the behavior, such as Arial, before typing any text.

 

Here is a link to one set of the fonts I use that exhibits this behavior for those wishing to test the behavior. I have several, from different sources, that all do the same thing, this is just one of them:

 

http://www.mrrace.com/CamBam_Fonts/index.htm

 

I don't know if this is intended behavior, a bug, a yet-to-be-implemented feature, or I'm just dense and don't understand what's going on. Does anyone have any thoughts?

[TonyB]

Thanks, I will have a look at the font on Monday and see what is happening.

[Andy Somerfield]

I haven't seen the font yet, but if the glyph are not closed curves, you might have to set a line weight on the text (Line panel, top left), before you will see anything..

 

AndyS

[swissfreek]

They are closed paths, just designed so that the paths are directly on top of each other, giving the appearance of open path fonts but still maintaining compatibility with software that may not support open path fonts.

 

Thanks for the tip on line weight, though, I was looking in the strokes panel for how to do that, so I have learned something here. I will see if that changes anything, but if that were the issue I would expect the text to not be visible, but would not expect the whole text box to go away.

[swissfreek]

I haven't seen the font yet, but if the glyph are not closed curves, you might have to set a line weight on the text (Line panel, top left), before you will see anything..

 

AndyS

 

I tried to mess with the line weight on the text, and it did not make a difference. The whole text box disappears when it tries to preview the fonts I loaded.

[Andy Somerfield]

Same here - I have started to look into it - seems like CoreText claims there is no outline (curves) for the glyphs. This beyond my pay grade, so I will get DaveH to look at it soon..

 

Thanks,

 

AndyS

[Dave Harris]

I've been experimenting with 1CamBam_Stick_1. It's a strange font. It appears to be missing some strokes. According to the preview on the web page, the lower-case 't' has a horizontal bar, but when I use it in TextEdit the bar is missing so it looks like a 'j'. The vertical strokes on 'b' and 'k' are missing, and 'l' is missing altogether. It's that missing ell that causes a problem for Affinity. It will be fixed in the next update.

 

With the fix, you'll still need a line style to see the text, because most of the glyphs have no interior to fill. (The glyphs that do have an interior, such as 'o', probably shouldn't, but that's the font designer's choice.)

[swissfreek]

Thanks! I concede that it's a very strange font.

 

The funny thing is, it looks totally bizarre in FontBook and TextEdit and such, but throw it in Illustrator, or VCarve, and set the fill to 0 and stroke to anything more than 0, and it looks just fine (well, it looks exactly like it is supposed to look). Not sure why MacOS has such trouble with it. Guessing it has to do with interpretations of what should be a fill and what isn't. The other, similar fonts from other sources that I have do the exact same thing.

[MaxClass]

swissfreek,

 

Would you have to export your graphics as EPS in order to send your graphics to your engraving machine?

 

Do you have software that will convert EPS graphics into HP/GL for your engraver?

 

Is there any reason why you can not use fonts like Helvetica, or Helvetica Neue Ultra Light which is pretty narrow?

 

Max

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[swissfreek]

I use a piece of software to read a vector graphics file and create gcode, which is what the CNC machine uses to engrave or carve whatever it is that I'm working on. The graphics file can be .svg, .ai, .pdf, among other formats.

 

The problem with using "regular" fonts, no matter how thin they are, is that gcode generation software reads paths (strokes), not fills, so if I engrave a regular font, it comes out as an outline, not a solid line. The fonts I am using here are simulated single-line fonts. They are in fact closed-outline fonts, but the outlines are one on top of the other, giving the illusion of a single line. This makes for nicely engraved text. If you click the link below, you will see an example of a "traditional" font engraving at the top, and a "stick" font at the bottom of the page.

 

http://michaellord.me/2014/06/12/stick-font-a-practical-application-solidworks-draftsight/

 

Also, here is another set of fonts I am using as well, in case that helps illustrate anything:

 

http://www.fontspace.com/philing/cnc-vector

 

This one is more clear without having to do anything special to it...

[MaxClass]

swissfreek,

 

Okay, I understand your problem. Many years ago I produced the Mac program “SignPost” for vinyl graphic cutting direct from Adobe Illustrator files and we had the same problem when trying to send text outlines to small engraving machine. The fonts all worked perfectly for cutters but not for engravers because of the very problem your describing. I was also able to export AI files in “dxf” format for import into some very large Laser cutters that cut out 3 dimensional font letters like you might see on the front of a Bank, or architectural fonts cut out of aluminum or plexiglass, etc.

 

One of the main problems we found was that dxf files did not have bezier curve entities so they all had to be exported as a series of very small line segments instead of bezier. I never did work with g-code but understand its basics. The fonts on the links you posted looked more like bitmaps on the curves. Again probably because of no bezier support in g-code.

 

AD may not like the design of the “Stick Fonts” because they lack certain aspects that “font” are supposed to have. Never the less they are still fonts and should work but may take some time and tweaking to get them to work. It could also be because of some aspects of the fonts as designed by the font designers that were not properly set up and may be missing something “good” fonts are supposed to have. I would try to contact the actual font designers and give them the specifics of what you need and the equipment that depends upon them. Maybe then can tweak them internally to fix them.

 

I know this is not much help but I do understand your need.

 

Max

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