Text Outline Manual

Text Outline turns the text you type into small straight lines that Beginner CAD can use, and places them on the canvas. The placed figures stay visible when you switch to Beginner CAD, Data Convert, or the Digitizer.

Open it from "AP" at the top right. New, Open, and Save in the File menu use the same drawing file (.mkb) as CAD. Outlines are made in the browser, so localhost and this site match.

1. Place horizontal text

Use Text > Font and Text > Horizontal Font, or the toolbar button "🔤 Horizontal". The window is named "Text and Font". Horizontal and vertical entry share the last text, the height, and the curve tolerance. Editing one updates the other. The choices are saved on this PC and restored the next time you open Text Outline. A font file you open is saved in this browser as well. Web fonts are saved by name and loaded again.

1. Check the text height (mm) and the curve tolerance (mm).
2. Type the text. Fonts that fit appear in the green box. The sample uses the first 8 characters.
3. Click a sample to choose the font.
4. Press "Confirm and Place", then click the canvas.

The click is the baseline at the left of the first character. It snaps to existing endpoints. A line break continues on the next line, 1.4 times the text height lower.

2. Place vertical text

Choose Text > Font and Text > Vertical Font, or the toolbar button "🔤 Vertical". Choosing Vertical opens "Vertical Text and Font" immediately. The entry field and the sample run from top to bottom.

1. Type the text.
2. Click a sample to choose the font.
3. Press "Confirm and Place", then click the canvas.

Characters run from top to bottom. A new line continues in the column to the left. The click is the baseline of the first character. Half-width Latin characters are centered on the Japanese column. Small kana sit at the vertical center, toward the right.

3. One character is one figure

Each character on the canvas is one figure. A character with a hole keeps its outlines in that same figure. A space does not become a figure.

• Delete Figure: removes the whole outline of the character you click.
• Delete Element: removes one line.

After you click, the placed lines turn yellow and the status bar says "Placed". Move the mouse and the preview for the next copy follows. Click again to place the same text. Esc finishes placement. "Place on Canvas" places the last text again.

The line type and line color at the bottom apply to the next text you place.

4. Choosing a font

• Japanese: A readable gothic font is shown first. Noto Sans JP is "Start here", M PLUS 1 has softer shapes, and Noto Serif JP is mincho.
• Latin letters and digits only: Roboto is suggested.
• Japanese mixed with Latin: The web fonts here are split into Japanese and Latin. To draw both with one font, choose an installed gothic font such as Yu Gothic or Meiryo.

Both windows can list fonts installed on this PC with "Load list". Opening a TTF, OTF, or WOFF file directly is on the horizontal window. A font loaded there can also be used for vertical placement.

A character the font does not contain is shown as □ in the sample. That character is also □ on the canvas. Installed fonts are checked after the list appears. A vertical sample that shows □ is □ on the canvas too. A font marked "Places as □" cannot draw this text.

5. Fonts that are not listed

Outlines are extracted in the browser, not on the server. The same font fails in the same browser on localhost and on the live site. These formats are left out of the installed-font list:

• WOFF2
• Font collections (.ttc). Many Japanese fonts that come with Windows, including Yu Gothic and Meiryo, are collections.

A file whose header is TTF, OTF, or WOFF is still removed from the list if its contents cannot be outlined. If you open such a file directly, the app asks you to choose a TTF, OTF, or WOFF file. Open a usable file from "Font file on this PC" at the bottom of the window.

6. Keys

• Wheel zoom
• Middle button or Space and drag to pan
• Esc finish placement
• Z return to Beginner CAD