Single Stroke font ( like font for CNC / engraving )

[mekkablue (Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer)]

You can automate the (re-) opening of paths in Ai. Ai path items have a closed property. You could control that with a little JavaScript.

Does it have to be Ai/InD? There used to be a special engraving software that would take OTFs without subroutines and with a different suffix, and it would leave out the closepath statement when interpreting the paths. Should be mentioned somewhere in the depths of the forum archives.

Edit: Here is AppleScript code that opens every selected path in Adobe Illustrator. Feel free to adapt it to your needs. I guess that something similar is possible in InDesign:

tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
	tell document 1 -- frontmost document
		set numberOfPaths to count path items
		repeat with i from 1 to numberOfPaths
			set thisPathItem to path item i
			if selected of thisPathItem then
				set closed of thisPathItem to false
			end if
		end repeat
	end tell
end tell

[Eames]

No, it doesn’t have to be Ai. They will use Id to compile/arrange the text, then send it as vector PDF to InkScape, which then will be drawed with AxiDraw (as I understood).

I found this page with some good info. By “temporary closing paths” they mean closing on export as with your Python script? Then using other script to reopen? But how will that last script know which nodes to cut?

[mekkablue (Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer)]

@Eames

But how will that last script know which nodes to cut?

It does not need to; it just removes the closepath instruction at the end. Please read this post from further above to understand what closepath means:

Single Stroke font ( like font for CNC / engraving )

It is a tricky topic. Technically, all paths must be (and are assumed) closed in an OTF. Thing is, practically every interpreter implies a closepath instruction at the end of a charstring. A charstring is the literal definition of the glyph. One example in TTX code: 600 139 318 rmoveto 304 -10 -100 94 -204 10 rlineto endchar The first line defines the width of the glyph as 600 units, then moves the first point of the path to x=138, y=318. rmoveto means “relative move-to”. A “move-to” instruc…

[GeorgSeifert]

A different solution would be so use drawbot to make the pdf. Then you have full control over the paths. And drawbot can be easily automated.

[bluedog]

@mekkablue

Or do it with a design hack: Close all your paths with a node you put 100 units above everything else, then typeset in AI and convert to paths. It shouldn’t be too hard to just select those top connector nodes and delete them in one step.

Hello, I’m new to Glyphs and am trying to do a similar thing with single strokes but primarily for aesthetic purposes (wanting a very thin, hairline font). Is there an easy way to make this change universally (making a new node 100 units above all else and then closing paths) for all characters in a font? I have figured out how to do it for individual paths but it is very tedious.

[mekkablue (Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer)]

Hi @bluedog:
Where do you want to use it? In AI? Please try the suggestion from above:

1. close all paths in Glyphs (with the script from above)
2. export without removing overlap
3. opening the paths in Illustrator (with the AppleScript from above)

Then you do not need to add any points.

[bluedog]

Thanks—I will try the script above, but I want to be able to use this font as a standard OTF in Word and other applications as well as Illustrator. The glyphs I have drawn are very intricate with many intersecting paths, and when I tried closing the paths previously (and exporting without removing overlap), it resulted in incorrect closures, sort of like the example above:

Single Stroke font ( like font for CNC / engraving )

I mean leaving paths open in Glyphs while unchecking “autohint” and “remove overlap” options. Of course, under the hood paths are still interpreted as closed but… If you have open paths and you choose not to remove overlaps or autohint when you export the OTF, the paths stay open in the final OTF. -mekkablue I tried doing this and the resulting OTF font was invisible in Ai, while TTF was visible. Left side has only stroke and right side has only fill. [image]

So I want to be sure that when I close the paths, it is just making a very thin shadow/double of the glyph and closing the nodes that way rather than closing paths the default way, and I do not want to have to do an extra step of re-opening paths in the application where I am typing. Thus I thought the solution of moving all nodes up slightly and then closing would be the best solution. I appreciate your help.

[bluedog]

Nevermind, I think I’ve figured it out—I outlined strokes in Illustrator, set the stroke to zero pt, and then copied the paths into Glyphs, and now upon export (after fixing compatibility and unchecking “Remove Overlap”) it is looking fine. Thank you!

[nicoaad]

Hi @mekkablue, @GeorgSeifert:

1. I should export using .OTF format, is that correct?
2. Are both scripts up to date? I’m using the latest versions of Glyphs 2, and Illustrator 2021, running on macOS 10.15.7 Catalina. If not, would you be so kind to update them, please?

Sadly it’s not possible for us to avoid AI in our workflow due to the software compatibility requirements of the laser machine we work with.
The font has 868 glyphs so far. It’s really frustrating not been able use it for its main purpose.

I hope you can help. Thanks in advance.

[Tosche (Toshi Omagari)]

Hi Georg, I’ve got a possible AutoCAD project coming and want to use the plugin, which doesn’t work in G3. Could you update it please?

[GeorgSeifert]

What plugin do you mean?

[Tosche (Toshi Omagari)]

Sorry, this one. Releases · schriftgestalt/Glyphs-Plugins · GitHub

[GeorgSeifert]

That is funny. I though I had written this but couldn’t find it when I was looking for this a few days ago. Thanks for reminding me. I’ll have a look and fix it.

[GeorgSeifert]

The plugin is in the Plugin Manager now.