Increase spacing between letters

[Rocketdc]

I've got a new plasma table and I've been practicing cutting out words and logos to get a better idea of how small I can accurately cut without losing details. One of the issues I'm having is the letter spacing is too tight with some fonts. Does anyone know how to increase the letter spacing in QCAD?

[Rocketdc]

I also noticed when I draw a program in QCAD to a certain dimension, its a lot smaller when I import it to CommandCNC. Not sure if the problem is in my initial drawing in QCAD, sheetcam or CommandCNC?

[acourtjester]

You will find some thing are not directly transferred equally, even using the same file format. DXF is not the same between programs, even though it is a standard. As to you letter spacing you should start learning Inkscape, it is a very handy program for Plasma cutting projects. When you have you selection of fonts and typed out the string, you can use the Alt key and the arrow keys to move the letter positions. you can increase or decrease spacing between letter, and move them up or down in relationship to the line of letters.

letters.JPG (17.57 KiB) Viewed 589 times

[Rocketdc]

Great, thanks for the tips! I like the example

[Larry83301]

I have found that to add spacing between letters sometimes just inserting a space with the spacebar adds a small amount, it's not a full letter amount. I have used this in several programs, also sometimes the space between words is not enough so I use the letter X with a space on each side to add what I need. If I need a little less I use the lower case x or an i.


Larry

[adbuch]

I also noticed when I draw a program in QCAD to a certain dimension, its a lot smaller when I import it to CommandCNC. Not sure if the problem is in my initial drawing in QCAD, sheetcam or CommandCNC?

Sometimes a program will import something originally drawn in inches as metric (mm). In this case scale it up after importing by a factor of 25.4:1. If it is only slightly smaller - then place a dimension and scale accordingly.
David

[Rocketdc]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll have to be a little more observant of all the parameters I'm using. This is all new to me so I'm trying to soak it in as fast as I can through trial and error, I'm sure there's a lot of basic stuff that's flying over my head.

The Inkscape tip works perfect for adjusting the spacing. In QCAD I couldn't figure out how to slightly move the letters instead of a full space tab. I was learning how to manipulate the text in QCAD for adjusting the font to retain the inside cutouts of letters like D & O. Looks like I can do that too in Inkscape, I just have figure out those commands.

[acourtjester]

there are so many tutorials for Inkscape on YouTube, you can type in the function or name of what you want to do and somebody has does it and posted a video. Don't just connect it to Plasma, there are all kinds of people with hobbies that have done many things with Inkscape. Also if you have a question about a special part just post it here or use the search function in the upper right.

[Rocketdc]

there are so many tutorials for Inkscape on YouTube, you can type in the function or name of what you want to do and somebody has does it and posted a video. Don't just connect it to Plasma, there are all kinds of people with hobbies that have done many things with Inkscape. Also if you have a question about a special part just post it here or use the search function in the upper right.

[tcaudle]

When you select a Font in a prgram like Inkscape its a FONT and each font has rules that go with it as long as its a text font . Ecah leeter has spacing rules between lettes and even between lines . a line if text is an grouped object . click on the Text tool in the left menu and click on the line of text you typed (the text tool put you in edit mode for that text. Up at the top you will see things like the text font name, the normal or bold the size (in points ) BTW a point PT is 1/72 of an inch (don't ask me why.) In that menu will see some input boxes . Hover over the one that say Spacing between letters and type a number in the box. it increases the kerning . You can do it in decimals increases like 0.5. At that point the line is still text and a font . can then do things like wrap it around a circle or along an arc or line . or just more and place you can leave the text tool and use the object picker (top arrow in the menu) and then stretch it vertically or horizontally . Usually when you do things to the text line it is not longer a font but a group of objects. You can break it apart and deal with each letter but its easier to do a line at t time if its all the same change.