Need Alignment Help

[David Sabot]

I am using a Mercury 25 watt engraving machine and we are trying to engrave Alumimark nameplates.

I have created a template in CorelDraw X5 which has a rectangle that is 2.5" x 1" (size of the nameplate)
Using a piece of acrylic I cut out this shape and then inserted the nameplate into the template.
Using the same template, I typed three letters in Times New Roman, 36pt font (LFA).
I selected the text, then SHIFT and selected the box and did a C and E to center the text horizontally and vertically.

When I view the finished engraved piece, it is perfectly aligned on the horizontal, but the vertical is off just a mm or two.

I tried to demonstrate this by drawing a line from the top horizontal of the box to the top of the first letter, then drawing the same sized line from the bottom horizontal to the botton of the first letter. You can see from the picture the word is definitely not centered on the horizontal.

nameplate.jpg

[Gary Hair]

Convert the text to curves and try again, it will probably align properly. Text vs curves align differently.

Gary

[David Sabot]

That was text as curves. I've done it both ways, same results. If I convert to curves, then break curves apart, I can get the F to align properly.

[Rich Harman]

The "A" is slightly taller.

[David Sabot]

The "A" is slightly taller.

Hmm, I didn't notice that. Is there an easy way to convert all the text to the exact same height?

[Rich Harman]

Not that I know of but you could type "LF", center it vertically, type the "A" then center it horizontally.

[james burchfield]

convert to curves , then break curve apart, select each individual letter and re-size.

[Mike Null]

The letters in the font are not necessarily the same size in height or width. If you want them the same height follow the advice others have offered.

I would be inclined to align the curves to the base then group and align to the center.

[Tony Lenkic]

That is the way the font is created.
If you need to have all of the characters same height convert it to curves, pull down guide lines and adjust each one by playing with the nodes. "S" and some other letters are considerably taller than most.

[Richard Rumancik]

It is probably the enlarged "A" that is causing the perceived alignment issue. Corel will draw an invisible bounding box around a shape and then find the center of the shape. Then it aligns that center point in the vertical and horizontal directions. So Corel is doing it correctly, it is just that you do not have a uniform sized piece of text. In this case, I would probably cheat on the font design and make the characters a uniform height, and then do the alignment.

[George Carlson]

Many fonts, like TNR, have different heights for the characters, which gives the font its mojo. In TNR, the heights vary, but the baseline is fixed.
Break the text apart. Center the text vertically. Then select each character and set the height to a size of your choice. You can eanble the proportion lock or not (your choice). This should make all characters the same height and on center.
Do they really need to be that precise?