windows arial outline font

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

For many years, drafters at our firm have used SHX fonts to make white outlines with text. The text is duplicated, the back text having a wider pen width or line-weight and set to white. This method provides high quality drawing presentation, making all text legible on hatches or images.

We now want to change from SHX to TTF, opting to use the standard ARIAL Regular provided with Windows. But - how do you produce an outline with TTF? I found that the standard Windows SWIS 721 works well -  2 fonts provided, make sure the outline text is in front of the solid text. I guess I need an outline font for Arial - or is there another way? Where do I get / purchase that ARIAL outline TTF windows font ? Or ... is there maybe a way to make the font?

Thanks for your patience.

Regards,

Kevin.

Image below ... SWIS below ARIAL, SWIS having 2 text objects..

[nrz13]

I know of no way to do this without finding a TTF font with the outline built in.  In that case, you probably wouldn't have control over the outline thickness either, unless the font family had various fonts with different outline thicknesses, in which case you'd choose something like Light Outline, Medium Outline, Heavy Outline from separate font entries.  I would also be interested in seeing if anyone knows of such a font, as we have occasional use for this as well.

By the way, we use Verdana instead of Arial because Verdana distinguishes between capital I's and lowercase l's.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

If the outline does not really need to be text, you could explode the text using the Express Tools>TXTEXP.

If you rather have it remain as text, I found an outline font on this site.

I have provided a link to an application or add-in that MIGHT provide the extra functionality for which you are looking. Please note however, this is not an Autodesk product or endorsement. You should take all precautions whenever you elect to download/install/utilize any application and do so at your own risk.

Please review the developer’s documentation and disclaimers before proceeding to utilize their product(s).

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[elshawadfy]

Hi @Anonymous!

A possible (but not optimal) workaround would be to:

1- Copy all texts (after finishing) to a new layer

2- Give the new layer a suitable white color and a higher lineweight than all original texts..

3- Send all objects in the new layer below all original texts using DrawOrder

Regards 🙂

[Anonymous]

that only works with SHX fonts (duplicate with greater line weight) - does not work with TTF fonts ... we are already doing that, already using SHX , want to change to TTF

[Anonymous]

John ... thx for the hollow zip ... I tried that already, it's almost correct, it's letter spacing is slightly out - does not exactly match the standard TTF ARIAL. I also found an ARIAL SHX .. that had the same problem - incorrect spacing. Looks like I will need to find a utility to make my own ARIAL outline font or ... purchase a an outline ARIAL font. There's one for sale at an embroidery web site ,,, may take the plunge .. buy it blindly and hope it's spacing is correct.

Exploding is not an option.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I did it ... made an outline arial ...

install fontforge

https://fontforge.github.io/en-US/

make a copy of the arial TTF fonts

start fontforge; open the TTF;edit the font info; select all; style > outline; specify outline width (I used 25 for this example); Generate font

Install font

...

[nrz13]

Too bad you still have to use the overlapping text method, though.  It'd be nice if you could give the TTF a black fill and then the outline color would assume the layer/color value in AutoCAD.  Thanks for sharing your files.

[Anonymous]

Update .... attached zip provides outline arial with regular and bold ... I plan to do another update with thicker oiutline...

[Anonymous]

nzr ... I agree with you ... many years ago, when you wanted graphic work you would use CAD and not WORD ... but ... these days, WORDS text graphic options (word art) are just so far ahead of AutoCAD ... this kind of text graphic task SHOULD be a standard feature in CAD software

[elshawadfy]

Hi @Anonymous!

Sorry for the late response..

I think a better solution would be to abandon duplicating the texts altogether, and:

 - Turn on the "VSSILHEDGES" instead

 - Control the edge thickness using "VSSILHWIDTH".

 - Control the color with "VSEDGECOLOR".

Pros:

1- Much simpler, you needn't go through all the hassle of duplicating texts, setting draw orders.....

2- Changing the text will change the outline automatically, whether you changed the contents, the style, the formatting... or anything else.

3- You can readjust or fine tune the thickness and color of the outlines very easily in each viewport using "VSSILHWIDTH" & "VSEDGECOLOR" without the need to recreate a nee font..

Cons:

1- Both variables would need to be set in each viewport. (You can create a custom visual style with these settings and app;y it to all viewports using the properties palette in each layout simultaneously / or use a built-in visual style that has the silhouette edges on by default like the Hidden v.s. ) 

2- The settings you choose are global per viewport (the thickness and color are constant in each viewport regardless of layers, line weights, font sizes ...)

3- This can affect the appearance of 3D objects & 2d solids in your viewport.

Regards..

[ChrisRS]

Italic would be nice as well!

[Anonymous]

When I turn on VSSILHEDGES it just makes the background black/gray. It creates a border around all of my hatches, but not text. Is there a way to pick what you want to have VSSILHEDGES on? Else I rate your advice 2/10, doesn't seem like a solution.

[tbelmo]

I discovered that LibreOffice has an option for outlined text.  In an Excel spreadsheet you would use LibreOffice Calc.  It is a white font with your choice of an outline color.