Why do Some fonts cut bad

[steve b]

I'm new to this vinyl cutting process and I find it incredibly frustrating! Luckily it's just a hobby I bought a bunch of TTF fonts and when I send them to the plotter and cut they come out terrible. It's mostly jagged edges that spoils the cut and wastes my vinyl. What the heck am I doing wrong?

Great site BTW!
Steve

 

[Chad.]

a) some fonts are meant to look rough
b) the creator was lazy
3) they are bootlegs of originals

 

[Pro Signs & Graphix]

Aaah - The infamous deals on CD's loaded with fonts! Zoom in as close as possible and you will find that many that are meant to be smooth (either straight or curved) are just jagged as hell. Some are meant to be this way, most are not.

Being that you are new new to cutting vinyl, this is understandable. Bottom line. Good professional fonts cost money for a reason, and you are beginning to see why. Anybody that tells you otherwise is an idiot.

Avoid those font CD's.

 

[Fred Weiss]

All stated is true.

My recommendation of to purchase a licensed copy of CorelDRAW. X3 will run you a little over $400 but an older version with all its CD's often can be found for under $100.

What you will get in that package is not only an excellent design program but about 1,000 high quality fonts that make the best core library on the planet for the money.

 

[steve b]

Thanks for the feedback! These fonts do look bad when I zoom in on them. Dang Ebayer

steve

 

[Geary]

Yep, cheap fonts are bad enough....TrueTypes can be among the worst! I even got a bad one from Linotype that I paid $30 for. ONE font!!

Difference being....they bought me my choice of two others.

~Gear

 

[Creative_Lance]

One more thing can cause that is your offset setting on your Plotter. Make sure you got it set on the default.
I still agree with the pros above on the poor quality of the fonts you bought. I f you ever go big on this business then i would recommend the following:
Letterhead
Signfonts
Signs DNA
BEST OF LUCK

 

[javila]

Could be something like you have your plotter set to low quality cuts. What kind of "jagged" edges are you seeing, can you get a picture?

 

[steve b]

I will try and post a picture. The jaggedness would remind me of the letter (Z) tied together throughout the font, if that makes any sense. I think all of my fonts are TTF Some work just fine though.

I'm not sure what the default offset was, I just merely followed the manufactures recommended starting point. I honestly don't even know what the offset does, but I set it to +2...I think that's what was recommended.

I appreciate all the help and suggestions

steveb

 

[Creative_Lance]

call the Tech, they should be able to give you that number over the phone then you can test cut.