Matching font thickness

[Scott Shepherd]

I've been fighting a battle (and losing) this last week. We've been rotary engraving things for several customers for years. Typical setup for the job is a .500" tall letter, and use a .015" or .020" cutter.

Now the laser is here and I can easily get the font height, but the issue I'm having is the fonts are thicker than .015". Almost double in most cases. When put next to the previous work we've done, it's obvious (which is a bad thing for this situation).

I've searched for thin looking fonts, but when I find things that are super thin, they are usually an odd font.

Something simple, like Arial is the style, but it's too thick of a font.

Anyone have any advice on how to make the fonts "skinny" so I can have them match up with the existing rotary engraved work that was cut with a single swipe of the .015" or .020" cutter?

[Joe Pelonio]

I would not want to do it often, but you can convert to curves, then in wireframe more use the Corel contour tool to create a negative contour. Last you break the contour group apart, and delete the originals. That will give you thinner letters. You will have to play with it to find the correct setting for the negative countour amount.

[Dave Jones]

1 - there are several versions of some of the fonts, and each might have regular and bold. For example Arial vs Arial MT vs Arial Narrow vs Arial Black. Make sure you don't have the bold icon clicked, and for Arial, don't use Arial Black if you want thin letters. If there's a "Black" version of a font it is extra bold. If there is a "Narrow" version of a font it usually has thinner lines, but maybe only when the letters are close together. If you widen a "Narrow" font it can end up thicker than the normal one.

2 - If you are rastering the fonts, make sure you have the fill on and the pen outline off in the object properties. Having the pen outline on will fatten the font.

3 - if it's the characters themselves that are too fat, you can adjust character width by dragging the side handles on the selected text (for artistic text, not paragraph text) You might need to then adjust kerning to change the spacing between letters if you do that.

4 - if the lines in the font are what is too thick you could try turning on the pen outline, but make it white so it subtracts from the letters instead of adding to them. This only works if you are rastering the fonts, not vectoring them.

5 - You can also convert the font to outlines and use the interactive contour tool to create an outline that is inside the letters. By default the contour has uniform thickness (or removes a uniform amount) on both horizontal and vertical parts of the font. If you want more removed from either the horizontal or vertical parts of the font you can first stretch the font taller or wider, do the contour, then drag the font back to the original proportions. Depending one which way you scaled it before the contour you end up with taking more off the verticals or more off the horizontal

[Mike Null]

Scott:

On my pantograph the chart calls for a .060" cutter for engraving .50" letters. That relates fairly well to Arial on my laser.

I have a feeling you're going to have to rotary these signs. Or make your own font.

[Scott Shepherd]

Yes, it's all dealing with the actual thickness of the character of the font.

We picked this job up a couple of years ago, dealing with matching what was already there, hence using small cutters for larger letters.

I just had a small one come through where the characters were .200 tall. They were engraved with a .015" cutter (some other company did them). Yet, when I laser them, they are closer to .020". In a small font like that, it's noticable, since it'll be right between two other pieces done by someone else.

Maybe we can convince them to update all their existing work ;)

I think that would be easier than creating a new font.

Good idea about trying a white outline. I'll give it a shot on the next batch.

Or maybe just spend a few hours looking through font sites.

[Tony Lenkic]

Scott,

With laser you will not be able to match existing font unless you
have software that uses single line type of font.
With Xenetech fonts I run my rotary I can use any font in Xenetech
layout, set it with cutter thickness and view as normal and it will draw
text with rounding effect as do the rotary cutters. From Xenetech than
I can drive ULS laser without any problem.

In your case you have it figured out. Tell the customer to update all
other plates and that will give you more work, and job will look perfect.

______________________
Tony

[Wil Lambert]

Another way to create a thinner font is to copy and paste the text, convert to curves, unfill the curves and give the curves a white outline. The white outline will control the text width/ thiness.

Check out the Corel (v10) file I have included for an example.

Wil

[Bill Cunningham]

What I have done in the past where I had to match something as close as the eye will notice (or not notice)
Is Scan the old engraving, and import it (use a line art mode, not colour or greyscale) then in wiremode, overlay the closest font you have, and type in the same text as you have scanned.. Then, using the the 'handles' stretch, compress, and select individual letters to shift them so they sit directly over the scanned text hiding the original scanned letters.. Once you have it as close as you can get it, pick a spot in the text line, and type in the new text.. The new text conform to the same shape, as the old, as if you engraved it.. The only problem that may be obvious particularly if the original substrate is wood, marble, etc.. , is that laser engraved text has a 'flat' bottom, and mechanical engraving will have a slight taper with the bottom of the engraved trench being thinner than the top...
This can really be noticible on some jobs..

[Scott Shepherd]

Complex or lengthy processes don't suit this application, since it's a lot of work on low cost items, and the text changes on every single job. We never do the same job twice for this work, and we're talking about products that range from $8 to $17.

The white outline seems like it'll work perfectly. Just using some guidelines to make the size correct, since the text size will include the white border, I'm guessing. Guidelines will solve that for me.

I haven't tried it on the laser, but on the screen, it looks exactly like the right solution.

Thanks to all- it's greatly appreciated-
Scott