Jillbeans
New Member
Here's a job I did today that I thought I might use to demonstrate something near and dear to me.
I am by no means perfect, and I'm sure I unintentionally step on people's feelings with my from-the-hip critiquing.
But I only want us all to better ourselves and our layouts.
Something that really bugs me is when someone can afford to by a custom font, then they just type it in and puke it out of their plotter...especially scripts.
Most scripts are supposed to be connected. Some even have little arms that can be added or need to be removed, like at the start of an "a". How often have we seen someone leaving their a with an arm outstretched with nothing to grab onto? I use that as a rule of thumb. If there is nothing that should be connected to that a (or o), cut off its poor little arm.
If you have an editing device in your program to manipulate the nodes, feel free to mess with them. Move things. Weld things together. I have actually seen lettering on vehicles where some novice just typed it out and stuck it on unwelded, cutlines included.
Take the alphabet used in this example, Mike Steven's Magic. He offers us an alternate "r" and "s" if we care to find it using our char map. Hold down your ALT key and type in 0137...you get an "s" that is highly connect-able. Because I can paint a script better than weed one, I like my scripts to look traditional. I could have just typed this in, thinly outlined it, deleted the original (my way of welding in GA), and cut it. But I didn't.
I am not the world's greatest sign gal, but I thought that maybe some of you never realized the options available at your fingertips by just using ALT characters, ungrouping, node editing, and welding your scripts.
Another thing I learned many years ago is this...if a decorative or script alphabet comes with capitals and lower case letters, you are better off using them together rather than going for the all-caps look.
Love....Jill
I am by no means perfect, and I'm sure I unintentionally step on people's feelings with my from-the-hip critiquing.
But I only want us all to better ourselves and our layouts.
Something that really bugs me is when someone can afford to by a custom font, then they just type it in and puke it out of their plotter...especially scripts.
Most scripts are supposed to be connected. Some even have little arms that can be added or need to be removed, like at the start of an "a". How often have we seen someone leaving their a with an arm outstretched with nothing to grab onto? I use that as a rule of thumb. If there is nothing that should be connected to that a (or o), cut off its poor little arm.
If you have an editing device in your program to manipulate the nodes, feel free to mess with them. Move things. Weld things together. I have actually seen lettering on vehicles where some novice just typed it out and stuck it on unwelded, cutlines included.
Take the alphabet used in this example, Mike Steven's Magic. He offers us an alternate "r" and "s" if we care to find it using our char map. Hold down your ALT key and type in 0137...you get an "s" that is highly connect-able. Because I can paint a script better than weed one, I like my scripts to look traditional. I could have just typed this in, thinly outlined it, deleted the original (my way of welding in GA), and cut it. But I didn't.
I am not the world's greatest sign gal, but I thought that maybe some of you never realized the options available at your fingertips by just using ALT characters, ungrouping, node editing, and welding your scripts.
Another thing I learned many years ago is this...if a decorative or script alphabet comes with capitals and lower case letters, you are better off using them together rather than going for the all-caps look.
Love....Jill
