help with text

[cjchasse]

I am trying to create stencils. I am having a problem when I want to do several lines. I was creating them in inkscape and the text would wrap to the next line. I would then export to SCAL but when I make the bridges, the lettering distorts. But if I just create the text in SCAL, I have to manually try to center and space each line. Is there a way to wrap text in SCAL? Or does anyone know why my text distorts once I create bridges?

[Angel135612]

Need a bit more detail about how you are creating your bridges in Inkscape, and how they are distorting when importing into SCAL. I just tried to create a simple stencil font using Arial, in Inkscape, and saved it as svg then imported into SCAL and it imported exactly the way I saved it. What I did was type out my text, and align that exactly the way you want. Then you need to go to Path>Object to Path, to make the text a path. Then I created a small rectangle, and did the Path>Object to Path. Then I copied that rectangle, so it was on my clipboard. I also ungrouped the text, so I could work with individual letters. I then pasted the rectangle moved it where I wanted it, selected the letter and rectangle, and did Path>Difference. That took a little bit out of the letter to create the bridge. I then just kept pasting and doing the Path>Difference every place I wanted a bridge. When I was done, I saved the file as an SVG, then imported it into SCAL and it came in exactly the way I saved it.

I'm more comfortable using Inkscape, so I would prefer to use that to create my text, but it is doable in SCAL. I don't like the way you align things in SCAL, so I would prefer to do my work in Inkscape if things need to be aligned just right, then save and import into SCAL to cut.

If you can give us a little more detail about how you are trying to create the stencil, we may be able to see what step(s) you are missing. And pictures of what you have may help figure out the problem as well.

[cjchasse]

Thank you for the help! What I was doing was creating the text in inkscape and then exporting it to SCAL. Then I was adding the bridges in SCAL but everytime I added one, the letters became more distorted. So I did it like you said and did the bridges in inkscape before importing it to SCAL and it worked!

I like inkscape better also as I can't seem to find a way to wrap text in SCAL so that a whole paragraph can be centered automatically.

Thank you for the help!
Carla

[Angel135612]

Glad you were able to get it to work.