Single line font

[Bill Stein]

Mark,

Single line fonts are actually nothing more than vector graphics. Corel displays them just as well as it displays any other vector graphic.

Bill

[Mike Null]

How do you explain that you're only getting bits and pieces?

By the way, I've loaded these fonts and I also get bits and pieces. It wasn't worth pursuing further.

[Bill Stein]

Hi Mike,

The fact that you are getting bits and pieces indicates to me that the files are corrupt -- or not complete.

As to how I explain that bits and pieces are missing? Some of the vector equations are missing. For example, on an upper case E, the middle horizontal line is missing. But to completely discribe the E, you need four equations -- one for the vertical line and one for each of the horizontal lines. If one of the equations for the horizontal lines is missing, you will only have two horizontal lines.

Bill

[Mike Null]

I suspected the same thing but I believe others were able to load and use them.

[Ed Lang]

I downloaded the fonts and they work just fine. The bits and parts are due to the line thickness. I selected the text and changed it to hairline and it all shows just fine.

[Bill Stein]

I downloaded the fonts and they work just fine. The bits and parts are due to the line thickness. I selected the text and changed it to hairline and it all shows just fine.

Ed,

I wish that I was as smart as you . I looked at them in wireframe view and could see all of the parts. I then tried to print them and the parts that I couldn't see in Enhanced view didn't print. I never even thought about the line thickness .

Thank you for pointing out the solution in "simple" English that I was able to comprehend .

You da man!!!

Bill

[Ed Lang]

Hi Bill,

Funny I didn't see this post a few days ago.

I googled for single line fonts for a CNC job I am running. I read this post and thought what the heck, I'll try it.

I saw the choppy letters and such. If it had not been for me spending hours and hours changing line width on another project, I may have missed it too.

Long story short, I am glad I posted how I fixed it and was able to help someone else too.

I love it when a plan comes together.

[Eric Allen]

I need vector fonts regularly as a power issue. All I do is highlight the text in any font I'm using in Corel X3 and change the properties to hairline or some small dimension that vectors, if that's any help. Gives you a lot of font flexibility.
I'm not 100% sure all came out single line, I use 3pt fonts so it's hard to see the laser tracing a pattern that tiny I believe they are, because for my application they would look strange otherwise. I use something smaller than hairline by plugging in the dimension most of the time because it's easier to read that tiny text if it's a little thinner. That won't affect the laser, it reads anything below a certain threshold as hairline. Hope this helps

[Pierre Clouthier]

(I realize this post is four years old, but I came here today looking for stick fonts and found very useful information).

I also see parts of the letters missing, but if you blow up the single-line fonts to 36 pts. or 72 pts. in MS Word, you see the missing parts starting to appear as thin hairlines.

Funny thing, I am able to display the single-line fonts with no missing parts in my application, even at small point sizes. I am a programmer, and Windows fonts have a property called 'pitch and family'. These single-line fonts have unusual values for this field, unlike regular fonts, which may be causing other apps (Corel, Word) to treat them differently.

Just my 2¢.

[Craig Matheny]

understand these are not a true single line font they are one line on the other there is no such thing as a true type single line font being they are all objects. Brack it apart and pull the nodes you will see these are the closet you will find for the laser and do work very well

[Pierre Clouthier]

In fact the "Eng_" series of fonts is truly a single-line font, not made up of polygons like other fonts. See the attached images for an "X-ray vision" view of the inclined letter 'P' in three different fonts.

The Arial, and even the Hershey fonts are made of polygons that outline the shape of the letter.

The Eng_FuturaLine version is a single line. Using this font would cut the job in half, time and cost-wise. But they are not very attractive.

[Craig Matheny]

In fact the "Eng_" series of fonts is truly a single-line font, not made up of polygons like other fonts.

Pierre I hate to say this but this is not correct I have attached a file to show what the font truely is but better then that here is the info on these fonts from Corel Via Epilogs website http://www.epiloglaser.com/tl_single_line_fonts.htm

Technical Library: Working With Single Line Fonts in CorelDRAW X4

Single-line fonts are in high demand by traditional engravers. Corel has recently attempted to meet that demand by creating a set a of new fonts that emulate the single-line effect.

While they are not true single-line fonts, CorelDRAW X4 has created 10 fonts that they call “Engraver’s Fonts”. These fonts emulate the look of traditional engraving fonts, but like all of the fonts you use in Corel they do have outlines and fills associated with them. Unless you create your own font you will never find a true type single line font out there. We have created many of our common words we use in single line by tracing the font this works we I have a few font guys trying to make a true single line font but they are having no luck. You can get them in Auto Cad and other type programs but it seems in True Type fonts it is still a no go.


Hope this clarifies this for everyone if not do a search on Yahoo or Google and look for single line fonts if yo own cad equipment of engraving equipment you will find it but not for lasers.

[Glen Monaghan]

In fact the "Eng_" series of fonts is truly a single-line font, not made up of polygons like other fonts.
[snip] The Eng_FuturaLine version is a single line. Using this font would cut the job in half, time and cost-wise. But they are not very attractive.

Well, not quite. This just bit me yesterday while trying to engrave very small text on very thin plywood (1/64") without burning through. I happened to select Eng_Futura because I, too, thought it was a true single line font and would work well for small and fast text, but I noticed that the beam was tracing and retracing each letter. Trying to figure out why, I converted the text to curves and checked the nodes. It seems that Windows needs outline fonts, so Eng_FuturaLine actually provides the outline, simply making both "sides" of the outline overlap 100%.

Take that "P" you show, convert to curves, and use the Shape tool to examine the nodes. You'll find that they form a closed curve, starting at the bottom, going up to the top, around the loop back to the stem, then reversing back around the loop to the top and back to the bottom where the curve closes on itself.

Consequently, it LOOKs like a single line font, but definitely doesn't cut the job in half as you might think because it's still technically an outline font.

I'm still trying to figure out a way to "collapse" the final text into curves that DON'T overlap and only make one pass over each character. Anybody have any ideas on how to do that?

-Glen

[Craig Matheny]

Glenn you could convert the font to curves and use the breack apart tool but this is time consuming The other option is if you can color map then make your fonts all one independent color and turn the power way down and the speed up this would allow two passes with little power each time Good Luck.

[Pierre Clouthier]

they form a closed curve, starting at the bottom, going up to the top, around the loop back to the stem, then reversing back around the loop to the top and back to the bottom where the curve closes on itself

By golly, you're right! I had not noticed that, as I don't have Corel Draw. I exported an EPS of the letter 'A' (see attached). If you look at it with a text editor (Notepad), you can clearly see it's retracing over itself.

I am writing software to generate native engraving files. I break each letter into its elemental components. I will be able to compensate for this overlap problem by having the program compare each individual line, and discard duplicates, thus getting the equivalent of a single-line font.

Unfortunately I can't output the "stripped-down" version as a new font, so it wouldn't be suitable for general purpose use.

Thank you Craig & Glen for setting me straight.