Text height

[geb]

Just a question I've noticed using Corel, wondered if anyone else has had the same problem. I just measured some truck lettering to get the letter height. My tape said 3", but when i set it up in Corel at 3" and cut, it came out about .15 short. Not the 1st time I've noticed, anyone else?

George

 

[Shovelhead]

No offense...but....

are you compensating for the decending characters????
If I need a 3" line of copy, I'll type in a capital "X" in the appropriate font, scale it out then type in my line of text....

:signs101:

 

[Fred Weiss]

One of the issues of using illustration software in place of signmaking software is how the application will deal with the variations in how font heights are determined. I am assuming that you understand that whatever height you enter will normally reference the cap height of a flat on top and bottom letter. Curved letters like "O" and "C" are normally about 5% to 6% taller.


Every font is different in design as are the techniques used within the font creation software to set up reference heights. This results in noticeably different heights for the same point (or inch) setting when the font is printed, displayed or cut.

Applications like Omega, SignLab and Flexisign will correct for this with the proprietary fonts they include or will provide for the selection of any letter of the font on which to reference its height settings.

I don't think Corel has this ability but am prepared to stand corrected if someone knows of such a function.

 

[geb]

When I measure I always measure the flats, not the curves, and the text I refer to was all caps, helvetica black. Seems when I measure, in this case the letter E, it measured exactly 3", but I think my question was answered as I type the word out, then punch in the letter height, meaning the curved letters were the 3", and the flats were slightly less. Makes sense to me know. Thanks guys.

 

[OldPaint]

Corel takes the tallest letter in a set of text..and sets that as high point. now if you have lower case letters it takes the from the lowest say a g or p to the tallest say a cap S, and that would be you total letter height. most sign programs will compensate "baseline", meaning the line where most of the letters will all line up to the top of the tallest letter, and the drop downs are not considered.
when i cut lower case letters, i will sometimes break apart the word, slide the drop down letter up, just for cutting, then when i install i will put the drop down where it belongs.....

 

[supchaka]

I use Illustrator and I just scale the word/s after creating outlines, works for me. You just have to make sure you ask a customer if they want 3" letters, or 3 inch type. Of course you'll have to explain the difference to them afterwards

 

[geb]

Thanks everyone, I understand what's going on. After using signlab at home, Corel at the day job, I found inconsistencies in the measurements from a tape measure in the corel program. If I measure caps in signlab, I will refer to the flat letters, in Corel all caps, I'll measure the round letters to get the correct measurement. At least now I won't be cutting things two times anymore at the day job to get them right.

George