Fonts: How-To and Good Source for single-line Laser / CNC / Engraving Fonts?

Laser
#1

Can anybody recommend a good source for free / low cost fonts well suited to the laser cutter, or for that matter other CNC cutters in the Makerspace?

I’m looking for a nice variety of fonts which are defined as a single pixel or line wide, so that they can be quickly laser cut partway through material in vector-mode. It seems difficult to find a similar free variety as can be found for computer display rendering.

These look promising, but it seems there has to be more options hiding out there somewhere:
http://www.mrrace.com/CamBam_Fonts/

http://www.e-engraving.com/fonts/One_Line_Fonts.htm

These look hopeful, but can quickly get expensive:
http://www.letteringdelights.com/searchprod.php?search=thin+fonts

http://www.onelinefonts.com/

Also, can anybody talk to the Hershey Text extension for InkScape? Since I don’t know InkScape, I’m wondering about learning curves vs benefits…
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2011/hershey-text-an-inkscape-extension-for-engraving-fonts/

1 Like
#2

I use the Cam Bam on our CNC router, and they work fine!

1 Like
#3

Great post @cottjr
Is there any way to pin this to the top of the laser section? I’ve run into so many members with this question and never had a good place to point them.
Thanks,
Nick

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#4

Thanks Nick,

I only recently joined & can’t tell for sure, but it looks like only somebody with ‘Leader trust level status’ on this board can pin topics..

FWIW - I’m happy to help update docs or wiki’s in the process of putting my newbie status in the past :smile:

Carl

#5

Yeah, We found last night another thing that needed to be updated on the laser printout that they give in the laser class.

When printing to the laser software, we were losing the colors in the vector file. It came to be that a line with a stroke of 1pt would only show up as black, but when I changed the line stroke to .001pt it suddenly understood the different colors.

This was a file drawn in cad and imported into Illustrator, so it may be due to something with importing, but we should add it to that document as a possible fix for the software now seeing your colors set in the file. There is a little section that it would fit into.

Here is a link to the laser wiki, not sure where the handout I saw is stored.

https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/CNC_Laser#Member_Submitted_Hints_and_Tips

#6

Interesting.

It strikes me that there is the general overall flow, which is what I learned in the training class.
But then there is the next level of actually doing it, which appears more and more to vary based on particular tools you use.

I’m thinking it would be nice to compile different workflows that people use. For example, for my first attempts ever (ie. yesterday), I used TurboCAD 2.0 to create an SVG (don’t get me started :), and then I imported that to InkScape for printing to the cutter. I quickly found the issue that normal fonts intended for computer displays were converted to a hollow outline plus a *** very intense *** attempt by the driver to fill the outline with a vector cut.

FWIW - Google Drive suggests that the link on that wiki page is dead… “The laser training materials can be found here:
Current Training Presentation: http://tinyurl.com/DMS-LayZr”

#7

yeah, that link is dead for me as well.

#8

Another thing to watch is the color selections in Inkscape. Sometimes the laser software cannot differentiate between the shades of a color and it will select the wrong color. I try to keep my colors close to the core 8 in the laser software.

#9

I have used Hershey fonts using the Inkscape Hershey font extension and they work great.
They are rendered and not editable, but they do transfer well and do not need the corresponding font on the control computer.
CamBam fonts are editable fonts, they are widows compatible, but I have not had success with using them on inkscape and the laser. They need to be converted to paths (rendered) before transferring to the control computer as they are not installed on the control computer. And even then, even though they appear correctly on retina engrave, parts are missing on the final laser pass for some of the types. The two top horizontal lines of E for instance. They are also closed path fonts and the laser traces them twice.