Handling Fonts in Vectorworks

Although it’s now easier to handle than ever before, one issue that seems to never completely disappear is how to manage fonts and font conversions. This issue might come up, for example, when you receive a file from someone else and find upon opening it that fonts have changed or text blocks are not aligned as they were in the original. Here are a few basic yet practical points related to this topic. Let’s begin with font types.

The most commonly seen formats are:

TrueType (.ttf file extension);
OpenType (.otf),
SHX fonts (.shx)
and PostScript (Mac: usually no extension; Windows: .PFB and .PFM).

Of the above font types though, only OpenType can be used on both Macintosh and Windows platforms without any conversion. SHX fonts are specific to AutoCAD. As Vectorworks users, we’ll see them only when importing DWG files and are asked to find font substitutions for them. To use other types of fonts on another operating system, a conversion program such as Transtype or CrossFont are required. There are also various other free and commercial software utilities that do this task.

Installing fonts is generally an easy task. If you’re unclear on how this is done, below are links to a couple of articles that will guide you through the process for Windows and Macintosh. Note that the Apple article describes how fonts can be installed for a single user on a computer, all users, or even on a network, for use by all computers in the office.

In setting up your own standard office fonts, consider compatibility with others. If you have both Macs and PCs in the office this will be especially important. OpenType fonts will probably save you lots of headaches in the long run. If you can’t find the correct OpenType fonts, look for identical fonts for Macintosh and Windows. Be aware that there are sometimes nearly identical versions of fonts that will still have slight differences in spacing, and therefore cause lines of text to break differently when printed from one computer to another; a frustrating problem to encounter. If two fonts have similar but not identical names, don’t assume they’ll display blocks of text precisely the same. Test for compatibility before deadline time.

Even if you don’t have a cross-platform office, you’ll want to consider whether the consultants you work with will need your fonts. This allows drawings to be printed exactly the same on their computers as on yours. Our customers adopt various strategies to deal with this. Some simply say all notes on drawings will be done in a font that is universally available, such as Arial. Others will share their fonts with a consultant (or have them purchase the fonts) before beginning a project together, ensuring compatibility.

Some offices don’t worry about compatibility of fonts for general annotations, and only concern themselves with getting a proper rendition of the project title block, and particularly their own company logo. If that logo is partly text, you’ll want to make sure it doesn’t get improperly printed by someone else. You can make sure your logo comes through properly either by using the TrueType to Polyline command in Vectorworks, which will convert TrueType text to a series of polyline objects, or by using the Import Image File command to bring in a bitmap graphic of the original artwork of your logo. In either case, you’ll need to make an adjustment when exporting a DWG file containing the title block.

If you end up with your logo as polylines, giving the letters a black fill will typically result in the exported DWG logo being an outline only, and not a solid colour. Vectorworks can export fills to the DWG file, but you may not want to export all fills in the drawing just so that you get a proper rendition of a logo. Consider filling the polylines with a linear hatch that is so closely spaced that it prints as solid black. This is an old-school AutoCAD approach to making a solid fill and is truly outdated and painful, but it always works!

On the other hand, if you have an image file for your logo, ensure that the checkbox for Export Images and Image Files is selected when you create the DWG file, or else your logo won’t be exported with the file.

When opening a file that contains fonts not present on your computer, Vectorworks will present you with a list of any unavailable fonts and give you the option to assign a replacement. The Font Mapping dialog box is shown below:

If all that you need from the drawing you’re opening is the drawing geometry and the intended font and positioning of text doesn’t matter, then you may be fine to simply click OK and continue on, but in most cases you’ll be better off to select a font type with a similar name (see above), as this usually gets you a fairly similar style of font. Alternately, you might map an unavailable font to your own standard office font.

This font mapping process is simple enough, but many people forget that this list of substitutions is maintained in your Vectorworks preferences (Vectorworks Preferences > Display > Edit Font Mappings), meaning that if you’ve chosen a font substitution once, that same substitution will be made in the future without Vectorworks asking you. Keep an eye on this list and periodically clear out font mappings you no longer need, or else you may be getting font substitutions you don’t want, and without any warning that it’s happened.

For those of you who are Windows users – have you updated your Vectorworks 2009 to Service Pack 2? This update includes a fix on handling “@” fonts. For Mac users - keeping your Vectorworks updated is always a good idea.