Laser cut names - font issue

Tags: #<Tag:0x00007fa492770ab8>
#1

Hi all,

I am laser cutting table place names for my wedding and spent (waaaaay) too long setting up the file of names to cut, only to find out when I opened the svg file in Ruby on the laser computer, the design went, for lack of a better term, cray cray.

I thought at first it was the font not being installed on the laser computer, but all the elements of the design were (I’m pretty sure) converted to objects/paths so shouldn’t be a problem. Looks like the outlines stayed the same but the font converted to something standard. It also didn’t alert me to any missing fonts etc when the file opened.

The original file was taken from the induction ‘First Project’ (thanks @Brendon and Laser Techs!) to make it easy to work with. The annoying thing is it worked for my test print a month back for one name.

See below for two images of what it should look like and what it opens as.

Anyone have any ideas what might be happening?

TIA

How it started:

image
821372C9-6A38-4DF3-9962-D76367154A53.jpeg828×1015 801 KB

How it’s going:

image
89A8C8F9-CA16-4588-98B6-15DB7EBCCAF2.jpeg828×953 1.31 MB

#2

The font you need is probably not installed on the computer, you probably want to install it

#3

I haven’t looked into the First Project files but looks like the font you used isn’t installed, or maybe not compatible with Ruby (not sure if the front end or back end of Ruby converts the font glyphs to paths for the laser cutter). For this reason, the font gets changed to a default available font. As far as I recall, SVG files are capable of embedding font data inside them but it’s uncommon to do so and probably not supported by Ruby either.

You mentioned you are pretty sure you converted the elements to paths but 100% this would not happen if you did it successfully. It will turn the text object into a plain drawn path and preserve the glyph (which is now a basic closed shape) which will work when importing to Ruby. Double check that. If you double click on the text object in your editor, does it let you alter the text? If so, it is still a text object that has not been converted to a path.

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#4

When I save from inkscape to svg, it always asks if I want to embed the font, which should avoid this problem. So try opening your file in inkscape on your computer, save it as a new svg and select ‘embed font’.

#5

I would definitely convert text to paths.
However, a recent Ruby update provides an alternative: https://www.troteclaser.com/en-gb/learn-support/ruby-help/ruby-2-5-release-note

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#7

Thanks all. I think I have a few options to solve this problem, much appreciated.

I will follow the below process and test after each one and share where I went wrong for future users.

Step 1: check font has been converted to paths
Step 2: save svg file and embed
Step 3: install font on computer (@lasertechs will i have the correct permissions?)
Step 4: burn everything

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#8

My Google search suggests that Inkscape doesn’t allow font embedding (because SVG doesn’t have that feature).

#9

The Ruby link suggests a way that you can import the font into Ruby.
However, I have never tried it.

#10

I mean, it is possible to embed font data via CSS within SVG files, but it’s understandable why applications don’t do it natively, it’s bulky and ugly. The image here is an SVG file, feel free to look at source. :smile:
test

But best practice is to finalise a design and convert to path as mentioned before.

#11

I live and die by the XML viewer/editor in Inkscape! Maybe things should be more ergonomic but it works when diving into issues like this.

2 Likes
#12

Backend last time I looked into it; you’ll see a full image upload to the backend if you open up the console

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#13

Can confirm, Kyle showed me this and it was game changing

2 Likes