Building a Font

[jimandi5000]

Hi all,
Thought I would share how I build a vector based font for a gadget to "draw" letters and numbers.

1. I draw the full set of letters, symbols and numbers.

2. I build a high res grid and label the X & Y and collect the intersections that are used to build each letter.

3. For each letter, construct a poly-line.

This takes a lot of time.

[steve323]

Does each letter become a gadget?

Here is a method I used to create inlay fonts. I wanted to see how small the letters could be made and still be cut with a 1/8" router bit.

Some letters like M, N, and W would look really bad without sharp inside corners. The solution was to break the inlay into multiple segments. The CAD diagram below shows the complete letter set with the corresponding inlay below. The boxes around each letter are used to position each letter manually in a CAD program. Repeat the manual positioning with reverse inlay letters. I wish I knew how to create a TrueType font so you could just type the words.

The main board was cut 1/8" deep in maple. The inlay pieces are cut 3/16" deep in walnut. Painters tape was placed over the inlay pieces and the letters were cut loose on the bandsaw. Add glue into the main board holes and place each inlay piece. Smooth everything with a drum sander or ROS.

Steve

[Adrian]

I wish I knew how to create a TrueType font so you could just type the words.

There are quite a few programs that allow you to do that and even some free online ones. I use the FontForge program a lot to correct loops etc in fonts.

[jimandi5000]

Does each letter become a gadget?

Hi Steve,

No, I have wrote a single function that can be plugged in to a gadget to draw vector based text on the drawing. As you may know, at this time, we do not have an API for the Lua language (Gadget) to put "vector based text" on a drawing. So, I built one and posted to the forum.

have a look: https://forum.vectric.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=33272

please let me know if you have questions.

[zoner]

Having the Text object accessible into Lua would be easier ...

[jimandi5000]

Having the Text object accessible into Lua would be easier ...

Have you done it? I tried building one, but I still needed the vectors so I was back to drawing out the letters.

[rscrawford]

Does each letter become a gadget?

Here is a method I used to create inlay fonts. I wanted to see how small the letters could be made and still be cut with a 1/8" router bit.

Some letters like M, N, and W would look really bad without sharp inside corners. The solution was to break the inlay into multiple segments. The CAD diagram below shows the complete letter set with the corresponding inlay below. The boxes around each letter are used to position each letter manually in a CAD program. Repeat the manual positioning with reverse inlay letters. I wish I knew how to create a TrueType font so you could just type the words.

The attachment Font_test.jpg is no longer available

The main board was cut 1/8" deep in maple. The inlay pieces are cut 3/16" deep in walnut. Painters tape was placed over the inlay pieces and the letters were cut loose on the bandsaw. Add glue into the main board holes and place each inlay piece. Smooth everything with a drum sander or ROS.

The attachment Fonts.png is no longer available

Steve

Steve, you need to learn to do v-carve inlays. You can just type with any font you want and get sharp corners everywhere, and its much quicker to cut.