Important to note: Many things that consume fonts will choose to pretend that the shapes are closed, even when they are not. So in those environments, they [the deliberately unclosed single-stroke glyphs] will look like bizarre/bad shapes that are not useful to anybody. At a practical level this can be almost indistinguishable from the thing you might be worried about, the font editor closing the shapes for you.
I suppose it might be possible to simulate an open contour with a closed contour by having it retrace the same path (or almost the same path) twice thus getting back to its origin then it could be a closed contour and might also be compatible with CNC Engraving machines.
I don't know maybe I'm missing something which makes this approach impractical.
Yes, it's for a plotter holding a pen. We currently have a custom scrip font already done for a special occasion but there's a desire to use plotter to "write" using that font. I have zero experience with engraving fonts though, so I'm lost.
I've only used some low end prototyping machines, so forgive my ignorance. Do all CNC machines actually use movement path based input, or do you even need the actual movement paths? I recall the Roland machine I used accepted even pixel images and would internally calculate its required tracing paths based on the bit you selected via some proprietary software. Even if you had a path-only font, wouldn't that still be a step removed from actual milling bit movement instructions, plus you'd have a font design that does not scale with physical size or milling bit size?
My experience with customer requests has been that the path-based font I describe above (and in my FontLab blog post) was what they needed, and worked for them.
For what it's worth, I've just done a custom CNC font, and the client specifically did not want a single line font - just a thin monoline outline font.
For what it's worth, I've just done a custom CNC font, and the client specifically did not want a single line font - just a thin monoline outline font.
Interesting, opposite of my experience—but I expect it depends on the device, and that needs may have changed / be changing over time.
Comments
In this format open contours are the norm, i.e. contours which do not (necessarily) return to their starting point.
https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/single-stroke-font-like-font-for-cnc-engraving/660/4
https://forum.glyphsapp.com/t/help-with-glyphs-path-definition-for-single-stroke-typeface-for-cnc-engraving-use/3390
Above I am quoting from what I wrote about how to do this in FontLab Studio 5 back in 2015. I have not yet revisited the question for FontLab VI. https://blog.fontlab.com/type-design/how-to-make-stroke-only-fonts-in-fontlab-studio-5/
I don't know maybe I'm missing something which makes this approach impractical.
Oh, and the font was created with Glyphs, not FL.
Even if you had a path-only font, wouldn't that still be a step removed from actual milling bit movement instructions, plus you'd have a font design that does not scale with physical size or milling bit size?
Creating a single stroke ttf from ai files