How does Diptrace handle True Type fonts?

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SteveW
Posts: 21
Joined: 05 Oct 2019, 11:49

How does Diptrace handle True Type fonts?

#1 Post by SteveW » 06 Oct 2021, 04:07

I need to further my understanding of font handling in DT. I am quite comfortable in Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator and Autocad, to mention a few and use them regularly for different "chores". And since TrueType fonts can be substituted for the awful (mentioned many times here before) standard vector font in DipTrace, does DT automatically convert the T/T font to curves when it is placed in a drawing? I do not see any options anywhere to CHOOSE whether to 'convert to curves' or to retain the font. Every other drawing package I work in specifically tells you to convert all fonts to curves before sending a file to a service bureau for printing. But leave them as fonts while you might be editing your drawing. But it is always an action that isn't easily undone - once a letter has been changed to a curve outline with multiple nodes and solid fill, it does not easily change back to True-Type. But this does allow quality printing of a file without any concern about having the original font file installed at the receiving end.

So a wordy explanation but a simple question: Can I use ANY TrueTYPE font on my computer and take advantage of various stroke styles (normal, italic, bold, narrow, etc.) that I have installed? And will Diptrace properly convert that text to curves (without my having to TELL it to do so) and then output to Gerber from that? I have noticed, as others have commented here, that TrueType fonts are very poorly rendered on screen unless you set the graphics mode to Windows GDI. Then they are much smoother.

Alex
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Joined: 13 Jun 2010, 23:43

Re: How does Diptrace handle True Type fonts?

#2 Post by Alex » 06 Oct 2021, 20:23

True Type text is vectorized when exporting Gerber files, i.e. Gerber files consist of apertures but DipTrace file keeps True Type text. Some round-off errors are inevitable during the conversion but they shouldn't be distinguishable on real board. There is no option to convert TT font to curves or customize vectorization. In general, we recommend to use vector font except the cases when you need nice-looking logo or text on foreign language or Unicode symbols.

Italic, bold, narrow, etc. styles are not supported in DipTrace. In many cases you can choose similar TT font where letters already have slope, fat or thin.

SteveW
Posts: 21
Joined: 05 Oct 2019, 11:49

Re: How does Diptrace handle True Type fonts?

#3 Post by SteveW » 09 Oct 2021, 05:35

Thank you, that is helpful. The recommendation to use the built in vector font is a bit puzzling because it "looks" ugly and unprofessional compared to True Type. So in my computers, there are separate True-type files for Bold, Narrow, Italic, etc....... in most cases. And they are saved as separate .TTF files in the font directory, with names that indicate something about them. For instance, my usual san-serif font I use for almost all labeling and used for 20 years making CorelDraw artwork of my boards to send to the service bureau is Univers. Univers is very clear in small sizes and has worked great all this time. There are 7 separate files in the folder labeled: univer.ttf (Univers Regular), univerb.ttf (bold), univerbi.ttf (bold Italic), univcd.ttf (condensed), univcdb.ttf (condensed bold), univcdbi.ttf (condensed bold italic) and univcdi.ttf (condensed italic). Are you telling me that Diptrace will only recognize the "regular" file and will just ignore all the others? That would seem odd.

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