jennmarie Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 Hello! I'm doing some work with an engraving machine and need to use special single-line stick fonts, instead of the usual closed-path outline fonts. Affinity (and most other graphic design software) doesn't play nicely with fonts that have open paths, so instead I'm using fonts that *look* like they're single-line, but are actually normal fonts where both sides of the outlined letter have been placed directly on top of one another. This works great, except that it produces a lot of unnecessary overlapping paths that are exactly the same - and then my engraver wants to cut the same area twice. After converting the text to curves, is there a simple way (without manually selecting individual nodes) to automatically find & delete all duplicate lines in a project, or merge the redundancies into a single path, etc? I have both Photo & Designer, so suggestions for either are welcome. Alternatively, is there any possibility that Affinity might add support for true single-line fonts? The OC font format discussed here would be perfect if Affinity didn't add closing lines to the letters: http://www.onelinefonts.com Thank you! Brian M 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Leigh Posted October 24, 2017 Staff Share Posted October 24, 2017 Welcome to the forums Jennmarie There's no automatic feature to remove duplicate nodes/paths, sorry. Feel free to start a thread in the Feature Request section for the OC format Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venti Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 Is there an update on that? I have the same problem with my laser engraver. Alternatively: Does anyone know how to achieve this with another Software like e.g. Inkscape? Brian M 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Leigh Posted January 27, 2020 Staff Share Posted January 27, 2020 Welcome to the forums venti We've made some improves to Expand Stroke in our latest beta builds that might resolve the issue. If you can tell me which font you're using I will look into this further for you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venti Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Thanks for looking into that. As context here is a video what happens on the laser cutter with a single line font, which is actual a font in which every line exists twice (CNC vector is used): https://photos.app.goo.gl/5jPmZiaUJPS54rCo6 The laser engraves each character twice while other design elements (e.g. borders) are engraved only once. A typical example would be CNC Vector from http://philing.net/ or any font from http://www.imajeenyus.com/computer/20150110_single_line_fonts/index.shtml listed under "True single-line fonts" In an ideal solution, the svg export would convert each character to a curve and then remove every duplicate line since most CNC software and Laser engravers cannot import svgs with embedded stick fonts / single line fonts. In my case the target application is https://lightburnsoftware.com/ BR and if you need more videos or demos, just ask. cnc_v.ttf Brian M 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Leigh Posted January 28, 2020 Staff Share Posted January 28, 2020 Thanks for the info venti. I can see the issue and AFAIK there's no way around this using our apps without the need of manually tweaking the paths after converting to curves. I could also replicate the issue using the CNC Vector font and other vector apps too. On 1/26/2020 at 10:05 AM, venti said: Alternatively: Does anyone know how to achieve this with another Software like e.g. Inkscape? Inkscape has a plugin called Centerline Trace that i've seen recommended by other users - not sure it works but you could perhaps see if that improves things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRoberts Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 (edited) Hello, I just found this thread and am looking for a way to do single line font conversions within Designer, as well. Inkscape does have the Centerline Trace plugin, however I'd rather stick with what I know (Designer) than switch to another piece of software. Does Affinity have plans to incorporate something similar into future versions of Designer. Is there a plugin like that found in Inkscape? Thanks Edited June 29, 2020 by KRoberts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Leigh Posted June 30, 2020 Staff Share Posted June 30, 2020 18 hours ago, KRoberts said: Hello, I just found this thread and am looking for a way to do single line font conversions within Designer, as well. Inkscape does have the Centerline Trace plugin, however I'd rather stick with what I know (Designer) than switch to another piece of software. Does Affinity have plans to incorporate something similar into future versions of Designer. Is there a plugin like that found in Inkscape? Thanks Welcome to the forum KRoberts AFAIK, we currently have no plans to add a feature similar to the plugin mentioned above, sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EllenWasbo Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 Here is a link to my blog discussing the options available for single line fonts using Inkscape: http://cutlings.wasbo.net/single-line-fonts-options/ And here is a link a web-based tool where you can generate single line text and download the svg for it https://msurguy.github.io/cnc-text-tool/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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