Font Forum

I am using a small plotter with a pen. After I type text, the software requires that I convert the text to path in order for the plotter to plot it. Unfortunately the plotter plots the font outlines, which means that doing small fonts is not practical.

I need some type of single stroke text so that when the plotter plots it, the pen does a single stroke - not an outline of the font.

Does such font exists which can be typed on a keyboard and that is editable.

In order to solve my problem, I have created picturs of letters using single lines. This of course is not a good solution.

I have read that some machines, like laser cutters, use some sort of font called either Machine Font or Hershey Font.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Shab

We got into this subject back in 2008. This may help you.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2336

Also:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=901&p=3267&hilit=plotter#p3267

Thank you for the reference to the old postings on the topic. I have actually looked at these before posting my question, but didn't find them very useful. I am looking for a True Type Font that has a single line rather than ways to modify an existing font to create images rather than actual font.

I am aware that there are some machine fonts, used in CNC machining and laser cutting that are single line, but these are not TTF, they are specific to the software that these machines are using.

I am looking at something that is a true font that can be downloaded (for pay or free) and installed into the Font folder of a computer so it can be used with any type of plotter where the actual drawing tool determines the characteristics of the line rather than the software.

Thanks,

Shab Levy
www.gravitram.com

As an experiment, I have made an experimental TrueType font that very thin lines. I have used a line width of 1 font unit. There are three letters in the font, namely A, H and O.

If you so choose, you are welcome to try the font in your plotter and observe what happens. It might well be that the software would try to draw each line twice with the two lines going in opposite directions, so with some plotter paper and pen combinations that could rip the paper, though it might possibly work with some others.

Anyway here is the font.

If you do choose to try the font with your plotter, I would be interested to know the result.

William Overington

17 February 2011

Why not make them funit 0? Still a closed figure..

Thank you for posting.

Dick Pape wrote:Why not make them funit 0? Still a closed figure.

Because the font does not then pass the Font Validate... test.

After posting the font I realized that I did not need to have had the inner circle for the Capital O, so maybe a font without the inner circle of the Capital O would be useful for a test of the particular plotter. However, even if it worked, that would not solve the problem of drawing a whole alphabet.

William Overington

22 February 2011

It disappears if you do a validate, so don't do a validate. I've got some more. The dingbats I showed some time ago.

-- Block (sc) -- full alphabet -- Astrolog (sc) -- astrological signs -- Robot Crisis dingbats -- cartoons Too much time on my hands...