MAX fonts (funtime) in SCAL??

[pigtailpat]

Is it possible to grab a MAX font and use it in SCAL (a direct use of the font), instead of creating the thing inside funtime and importing via .wpc?

I purchased a beautiful font for funtime - a wonderful single stroke font called gracie if I remember right, and I really would like to have access back to that (it's perfect for much of my quilt work - especially labels). Except, I changed computers and I never reinstalled funtime to the new computer. The font was a separate purchase on a disk I have somewhere. It can be very complicated at this point to reinstall funtime, as it has been through so many upgrades from the version I had. I suppose I might be able to do it, but I wanted to see if I can use it directly in SCAL first before going through the awful work of reinstalling funtime. I have the dongle etc. It will take me so much effort to reinstall funtime, as I had 2 versions, one for the gaz, and one for the silhoutte.

Here's hoping........

Pat

[MeFlick]

Pat, I am not familiar with the Max fonts (even though I have been in the cutter world for 10 years now but never had Funtime or a Gax or Pazzle) but just did some basic research on them and trying to locate them. There is little information that I can find, and I couldn't find any to download. That said, what I did find indicates that they could be used in WinPCSign, Pazzles, Funtime. What I also found was that they were deemed "journaling" fonts which were defined as "single stroke fonts" to use with pen tool for journaling. I also found a note that indicated that there were two parts to the "Max" Fonts and that you had to install them both to have them work properly in the software.

So, that said - there are different "journaling" or "single stroke" fonts being created for use with the various programs that can be used with SCAL and MTC directly so you might explore those to see if you can find one similar or not. Other option is if you can find some of the MAX fonts that you have, you might send them to Brandon at SCAL and ask him if there is a way to add the feature to SCAL to use them without first having to do a conversion from Funtime. Short of that, it appears from my initial "googling" that you may only have the option you discussed which is trying to reinstall one of your Funtime versions, create what you need there, and then export out. I will keep looking around and checking and see if I can find out anything else meanwhile.

[pigtailpat]

Melanie - thanks. I am very reluctant to invest the time needed to get back up to speed to reinstall funtime on the computer I am currently using. It won't be easy. The problem is that my version of funtime (ver. 3) had a couple of updates which is tied to the dongle, and in order to reinstall, I have to start from the disk that came with the gaz, and whether that will communicate with the dongle is something unknown to me. I am sure Terri will help as I would do probably the version related to gazelle. It would be nice if I can get back access to that special Gracie font, but whether it is worth the time and aggravation to get funtime working again - I am not quite sure. When I have time, I will look to see if I can find that disk I have that I purchased of the font to begin with, I'm sure I do, just a matter of looking. It was actually a pazzles purchase, but was useable in the gazelle funtime version. There are other ways of getting journal fonts as you noted, but when I had access to the gracie font, none really looked as nice as that did.

Pat

EDIT: I couldn't find the disk I purchased in a quick review of my desk (I know I will find it sooner or later), but I do have a backup of my old computer. From there I have the fonts in the appropriate signmax folder. Craftedge support is already helping me to see what is possible inside SCAL. If I must reinstall funtime - I guess I will try to do it when I can and when Terri is available to help me over the rough bumps. I want to see what craftedge has to say about if this is possible to load MAX fonts. And the font is called grace, not gracie........

Second edit and update: Well......it turned out that installing gaz funtime was easy, apparently BK had the lastest version on its forum, and it worked so easy with the dongle, and I got the access back to the special font I wanted.......BUT.......

importing the resulting .wpc file into SCAL crashes SCAL (likely because it cannot support that font), and inside .mtc, the file imports but a totally different font shows up. This font looks like it is an exclusive font to funtime, unless font information embedded in a .wpc file can also transfer to either SCAL or .mtc. So while I have access back, still not ready to use it as I have largely forgotten how to work inside funtime, and I would rather not re-visit getting up to speed again on it, when I have SCAL (and to a lesser degree .mtc - I actually prefer SCAL these days).

Update: There is a backdoor, if I export from funtime as .ai - it will import into SCAL, but heavy editing is required. Sigh. Nothing is easy.

Pat

[terri]

Pat, there's an easier way...
get the text on your funtime page as desired...
select only the text and go to Text > Convert text to path...
then save the file as a wpc file.
then in SCAL, File > Import.... and select the wpc file.
scal will import the file just like it was in funtime.
note... after converting text to path in funtime, you might see some strange lines/circles appear... they are just showing you where the open paths are. to get rid of those indicators go to Shape > see opened paths... if see opened paths has a checkmark, click it to remove the checkmark and the wierd lines/circles (the open path indicators) will disappear. if you don't do anything, that's ok too... they won't show in scal.

[pigtailpat]

Thanks Terri. Last night, Julie Flagnan also reminded me about converting text to path. Once I did that, it came into SCAL easy. Craftedge confirmed for me they cannot work with MAX fonts in SCAL, as it is proprietary to funtime only. Thank you for making the reinstall of funtime so painless, I was fearful of nothing (I was lucky to have upgraded before the computer crash - you were right - the version recognized the dongle immediately). I have some thinking to do, as I did come across the lettering delights single stroke script package, which would allow me to work just in SCAL, but, I keep looking at the really beautiful Grace font on the funtime side. In my opinion, nothing ever matched that font, which I fell in love with years ago. I may try the lettering delights package. I also want to test pen from SCAL the funtime import, which I won't have time to do until much later today. I think I am really lucky that SCAL (and .mtc) was able to add the .wpc import. Without that, I would have to re-learn funtime in order to work with the font.

[MeFlick]

Glad there was at least a "work around" for you to use your favorite font. Yes, both MTC and SCAL import .wpc files and have for a while now so that is good for lots of users of older systems and programs. Besides the Lettering Delights File, there are other "single line" type fonts available from other sources. I will try to track down some of that information and provide it to you hear. Perhaps you can find one similar to the Grace Max font that you like so well.

[MeFlick]

Some other "journaling fonts" I am aware of:

This list was put together by Klo from Pazzles and put on the Pazzles forum back in 2014.

[pigtailpat]

You are so sweet and wonderful to dig that out for me. It was very helpful. I hope Klo is in good health. The last I heard she was ill (which was some time ago - and I am not really sure of my facts - I might be mixing her up with someone else). The reason why I am so back into the penning, is last weekend (not this past immediate weekend, but the weekend before), I saw a good, good friend I haven't seen for 20-25 years. We cried and hugged like forever. So I would like to do something for my friend, as soon as my schedule permits. A pen work on fabric is in my head.

Pat

XXOO

[MeFlick]

A Quick search on dafont.com for free handwritten and script fonts show a large number of possibilities depending upon the look one wants for the "journaling". I have downloaded a few to check out. Maybe I will make this a "winter project" to find a long list of free fonts one can easily use in our cutters (I know there are other lists out there no doubt as shown by the one I posted above.) I haven't really used my cutter for much "writing" though so I'm thinking it might be time for me to try that feature out more and find fonts I like for that purpose.

Pat, if you can at some point upload a small "Sample" of what the "grace" font from the Max fonts looks like, I can keep my eyes open to see if I can find anything similar while I am looking/playing but at this point it will probably mostly be after the holidays have come and gone this month!

[pigtailpat]

I remembered I had a gift certificate from 2011 for LD, so I went ahead and got a LD font single stroke script font (teacher). I penned both the LD font, and the MAX grace font, and attach result. My pen slipped (I was using a simple ball point point with a slippery case), and that's why I had a bad result for middle line.

My honest feeling here, is the LD font isn't magic either. When I import into SCAL via the loading the font, the space between the "T" and the "h" was big. I found it difficult to shorten that space and it took some work to get it to look right. It may be I still am not too up to speed on SCAL, but it seemed like work too. With text, it seems as if there is work involved, no matter what. I am not sure what I was doing wrong to get the "T" and "h" to cooperate inside SCAL. It was easier inside .mtc, but I find that ultimate smoothness in penning or cutting is inside SCAL instead of .mtc.

The attached was penned with the gaz, simply as it is easier to stick a pen in the gaz, rather than grab the pen tool first to pen in the cat. I do use the cat for penning if the media used is going to be really big. All pen work done in SCAL.

I'm still so much on the fence. The LD teacher font is probably easier to follow under a needle in the sewing machine, but if for a quilt label (when it just would be penned), to me, grace looks beautiful and fancy.

Pat

(who should have been sewing instead of playing around in SCAL)

pen-test.jpg