Convert font to its vector representation...

[C.M. Rouleau]

Hello,

I'm very close to finishing a dxf to g-code converter, and was wondering if it might be possible to include text in the conversion as well. I suppose one could do the conversion in the cad app itself, but it seems much more elegant to have my app do it. I suppose the key is to get at the vector representation of a particular font, but I'm sure this is no easy feat. I've taken a look at the FreeType library, but boy, it's seems there's huge mountain to climb there in terms of what functions are really required to do what I want. Anyone have any advise on FreeType or another way of attacking the problem?

-CMR

[Brad D Byrne]

CM,

I looked into fonts fairly intently 3 yrs ago, I wanted to see if I could use the technology to create a custom scalable font for displaying antialiased drawings for the web, I quickly realized how much work had already been done with the truetype formats, I suggest "why reinvent the wheel"?, I doubt anyone could improve on the algo's much reguardless of how many hours were thrown at it

B

[C.M. Rouleau]

Brad,

Perhaps I posed my question incorrectly, but I'm certainly not suggesting I want to reinvent the wheel. Instead, given a truetype font, for instance, what I'm asking is how might one get at its outline - i.e., the lines and curves that make of the font perimeter in the first place.

-CMR

[Brad D Byrne]

ok, there are some good web pages out there, I'll try to find, and the best book I've found for details is,

Windows Graphics Programming: Win32 GDI and DirectDraw

http://www.fengyuan.com/

[Brad D Byrne]

http://developer.apple.com/textfonts...Man/index.html

http://www.truetype-typography.com/ttoutln.htm

http://www.truetype-typography.com/

[Dominic Mitchell]

I remember using GetGlyphOutline many years ago to do what you are after.

[C.M. Rouleau]

Hmmm...GetGlyphOutline...right there under my nose in the windows API. Now I suppose it's just a matter of learning to select a TrueType font into a specified device context, and then I *might* be of and running. Is selecting a font into a device context similar to selecting a bitmap into a device context?

-CMR

[Dominic Mitchell]

The short answer is yes.

hFontOld = SelectObject(hDC, hFont)

' Do stuff here

SelectObject hDC, hFontOld

' hDC = screen|memory|printer device context