Text appears bold when width is changed.

[mdclement]

I have been having a problem I hope I can get some answers to.  When I change the width of any text that has a style which is set at Arial, it prints bold.  It doesn't matter if I increase or decrease the text from 1.  All other Arial text set at 1 prints fine.  It appears bold on the Print Preview as well.  I am running AutoCad Lt 2024 and a different employee that has full AutoCad 2020 can print the same drawing and it is fine.  We have compared all of our print settings and they are the same and are using the same Plot Style Table (from a customer).  Position Z is already set to 0.  This happens with attributed text, multi-line text, and single-line text.  I have done some experimenting and it only seems to be happening to True Type fonts and SHX fonts are not affected.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[hwalker]

Are you sure Z =0? Don't fully trust the properties. Depending on what number of decimal places you have showing you could be missing something. It could be as simple as no decimal places will always show 0.4 as 0. Manually type 0 in the Z properties and see if anything changes.

Also can you post a drawing with the problem text in it so we can have a look.

[mdclement]

Thanks for the reply.  I checked and Pos Z is set to 0.  I did a little more experimenting and have attached a drawing showing the issue I'm talking about.  I had to change all the info related to the customer but I think you will be able to see the problem.  It is happening when text is set to "FIT" as well as when I manually change the width.  I also tried printing to a PDF to make sure it wasn't something to do with the printer and it's happening on the PDF as well.  Although it isn't as bad as when I print it.  I'm using an HP LaserJet M712 so nothing out of the ordinary.

[hwalker]

It looks like it's a weird property of TrueType fonts. I created a new font using Calibri and got exactly the same problem

I even went back to using DX11 and still the same problem

[pendean]

In your DWG file that you shared, which are the problem TTF mtext? They all look absolutely normal on my screen in LT2023-24-25 and AutoCAD 2023-24-25 in Windows10Pro.

Can you show us what you see in screenshots?

Did you edit and change to use 4-different fonts in this one area as a test for something? It's visually odd to do that otherwise for most of us

[hwalker]

This is what I see and I assume the OP sees this as well

The text items for the truetype fonts in which he has changed the kerning width, both appear bold

[pendean]

@hwalker @mdclement We all need to see the results from their AutoCAD vs LT in screenshots to better understand the differences the OP is suffering from. Hope those are forthcomming soon.

In the meantime...  AutoCAD does not have or 'do' kerning in the work processor type feature, never has, still does not. But I do see the width changed: when you widen the letter in AutoCAD, you also widen "the letter" too.

Same when you shrink the width.

The TTF font never maintains its integrity. The program has always done that. Wider looks 'bolder' for sure, see all three I letters below for a perfect example of hat I'm trying to explain ('normal' width is in the middle)

Here is MSWord results: notice slight similarities with the results but also notice the big differences, and how kerning kerning fixes the look.

[mdclement · Accepted solution]

I figured it out!  I selected Properties for the printer, then Device & Document Settings, then Graphics, then True Type Fonts, and changed it to As Graphics.  Had to save the new printer properties as .pc3 and it prints perfect.  Still appears bold on the monitor but it prints correctly so I'm happy with it.  Hope this thread helps someone in the future.