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Single Line Font


Jan 27, 2012 at 19:18

Not me. But for engraving, embroidery etc purposes you need a CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) file that is compatible with the engraving/embroidery etc machine you are using.
A font, whichever idiot came up with that word for a typeface, is not suitable for that and must first be converted to a suitable CAM file.


Mar 01, 2012 at 20:35

I'm building a robot-like writing machine, and need single-line fonts for that. So I've been looking at what's available, and in what format.
The problem, of course, is that both .TTF and .OTF are intended to store outlines which are closed curves. A few people have abused .TTF
and .OTF to store open curves as a way to represent single line fonts, but the standard programs for processing fonts don't like that. There doesn't seem to be any standard way to store a single-line font, other than some antiquated formats that are all straight lines.

E-engraving has some .OTF fonts that really are one line.

http://www.e-engraving.com/fonts/one_line_fonts/1L/Open_Type/One_Line_Open_Type_Fonts_discription.htm

These generate junk filled areas if displayed in most font programs, but the stored curve is a reasonable pen or cutter path. That's an ugly font, but demonstrates that it's possible to hammer invalid data into a .OTF file to store a plotter font.

I need something that looks like Chancellery Cursive. "Eng_ParkAveLine.otf" is a reasonable cursive "double-line" font, an outline with zero area. The perimeter is drawn twice.

I'm now loading fonts into my own Python programs so I can work on them. I may have to write an optimizer which takes those annoying "two-line" fonts and eliminates the redundant strokes.


Mar 02, 2012 at 18:07

Wrote an optimizer to remove any segment which is entirely on top of another segment. I can now take filled TTF or OTF fonts which represent zero-width or very narrow width lines and turn them into plottable single line fonts that don't draw lines twice. But there's no standard format in which I can write out the results, so I just do it each time my program starts. It takes about five seconds to optimize a font in Python.


Sep 23, 2012 at 01:24

koeiekat said  
A font, whichever idiot came up with that word for a typeface

The word "font" comes from the French "fonte", to melt or cast. Typefaces used to be made of metal slugs in the shape of a letter. Many slugs were assembled to form lines, and pages. A set of letters was made by pouring a lead alloy into brass matrices (from the Latin "mater", mother).


Sep 23, 2012 at 03:51

Koeiekat, before you commented, you should have researched. It seems like the explanation is pretty reasonable.


Sep 23, 2012 at 09:12

As usual only half the story. To keep it short, so that also NY can understand, a font is a size of a face of a type. The one who started using the word font for all sizes of the whole family of a type was an idiot.


Sep 23, 2012 at 23:56

Why is he/she an idiot? I think it's a suitable word.


Sep 24, 2012 at 09:33

Then also you are an idiot.


Sep 24, 2012 at 17:56

Wow...what's your problem?


Sep 24, 2012 at 18:31

If you can not understand a simple line as "a font is a size of a face of a type" ...


Sep 24, 2012 at 19:13

I know that!!!!!!!
However, the original root word has nothing to do with size, that's just what it means in English. So I think that it is a suitable word, since the French root actually means typeface, not size of typeface.


Sep 24, 2012 at 19:33

Laser cutter:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_cutting

G-code is the common name for the most widely used computer numerical control (CNC) programming language, which has many implementations.

Example de G-code :

http://cjoint.com/12sp/BIytzlolDEb_makino_basic_programming.pdf


Sep 25, 2012 at 00:50

@ mal folio
You really are dumb, aren't you? The French root word says exactly what it is. A cast (lead) letter shape at a particular size expressed in points. As it was cast (in the times of letterpress which is far before you were conceived) it hat a fixed size. Not even Merlin could change the size once cast. So dumbo, a font has a fixed size of a face (you probably even don't know what a face is, do you) of a type, which is the main design of the letters of a particular letter-type-design. The ridiculous use of the word font nowadays is the result of the misuse of that word by a stupid uneducated software developer of American origin. Yes, indeed, a lot of comes from people that don't know . Like you.


Sep 25, 2012 at 01:25

I'm not going to explain yourself.
I know what I said and thought. End of story.


Sep 25, 2012 at 01:28

koeiekat said  
@ mal folio
As it was cast (in the times of letterpress which is far before you were conceived) it hat a fixed size. Not even Merlin could change the size once cast.

I think font refers to more than just size.
Anyway, forget about this whole thing, it's just a name.


Sep 25, 2012 at 02:01

Font refers to size in points. But that is something you will probably never get stupid idiot.


Sep 25, 2012 at 02:17

Why do you have to follow me around calling me names?
Playing the big guy on the internet won't make you look cooler.


Sep 25, 2012 at 10:24

yeah yeah, whatever. Cool down.
Just shoot each other through private messsage, please.
Oh, and btw, Kat is right : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font
& "Typeface" is "police de caractères" in french.

Edited 3 times. Last edit on Sep 25, 2012 at 10:29 by vinz


Sep 25, 2012 at 15:22

Thank you so much Vinz for putting an end to this discussion.
I know the Kat is right, it's just that the meaning of the word has changed and that doesn't make anyone an idiot.

Edited on Sep 25, 2012 at 15:34 by malvolio


Sep 25, 2012 at 19:09

The meaning of the word has not changed. The misuse has exploded.



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