Text can be used in designs to create the outline of characters, which can then be used to create either 2D or 3D shapes.

NOTE: Only the ASCII characters can be used today.

A single character can be converted into an outline, i.e. an array of line segments. The character height as well as the character position can be requested by specifying options. Note: The height is the height of UPPERCASE characters.

Defaults:

• xOffset : 0
• yOffset : 0
• height : 21
• extrudeOffset : 0
• font : 'hershey simplex' (built in)

const { vectorChar } = require('@jscad/modeling').text
 
const outlines = vectorChar('H');
const outlines = vectorChar({ height: 50 }, 'i');

The above examples only create the outlines of the character. In order to convert to something useful, the following can be used to convert the outlines (segments) into paths.

const { path2 } = require('@jscad/modeling').geometries
 
const segmentToPath = (segment) => {
  return path2.fromPoints({close: false}, segment)
}
 
const paths = outlines.segments.map((segment) => segmentToPath(segment))

And of course, the paths can be used to create additional shapes, including 3D shapes of the characters.

In addition to single characters, complete text strings can be converted to a series of outlines, i.e. line segments. Text can be split into multiple lines by including '\n'. And of course, text can be aligned and spaced by specifying options.

Defaults:

• xOffset : 0
• yOffset : 0
• height : 21
• lineSpacing = 1.4
• letterSpacing = 1
• align = 'left'
• extrudeOffset : 0
• font : 'hershey simplex' (built in)

const { vectorText } = require('@jscad/modeling').text
 
const outlines = vectorText('JSCAD');
const outlines = vectorText({ yOffset: -90, height: 10, extrudeOffset: 2, input: 'JSCAD is awesome!' });
const outlines = vectorText({ height: 25, align: 'right', lineSpacing: 2.2, extrudeOffset: 2 }, 'JSCAD\nRocks!!');

Again, you will have to convert the output of `vectorText` into a list of paths before it becomes actually useful:

const { path2 } = require('@jscad/modeling').geometries
 
const segmentToPath = (segment) => {
  return path2.fromPoints({close: false}, segment)
}
 
const paths = outlines.map((segment) => segmentToPath(segment))

The default font (hershey simplex) was provided from the JSCAD Vector Font project. This project includes several 'compiled' fonts that can be used immediately, as well as a utility to convert singe-line fonts.

Once the custom 'compiled' font is availabe, here are the steps to use it.

1. Create a new project
2. Copy the custom 'compiled' font into the project
3. Require the custom font inside the project design
4. Specify the 'font' in the options to vectorChar() or vectorText()

const { path2 } = require('@jscad/modeling').geometries
const { vectorText } = require('@jscad/modeling').text
 
const myfont = require('./fonts/vector/cncVector') // CUSTOM FONT
 
const segmentToPath = (segment) => {
  return path2.fromPoints({close: false}, segment)
}
 
const main = () => {
  const outlines = vectorText({height: 42, align: 'right', font: myfont}, 'JSCAD\nROCKS!!')
  const paths = outlines.map((segment) => segmentToPath(segment))
  return paths
}
 
module.exports = {main}

Special Note: These fonts are 'single-line' fonts, NOT TrueType fonts. There are libraries that create outlines from TrueType (and other) fonts.