Centerline Carving of Illustrator files

[Frederick_P]

I am not sure if anyone has tried this but there is a program called Fontographer that will convert Adobe Illustrator files (and maybe others) into a font. Perhaps this would be a way to create vector patterns easily as AI files are as common as dirt and the tools are easier in AI than the crude ones that come with Designer.

Maybe someone knows of other software cheaper than Fontographer to do this? To be honest, I haven't bought Centerline yet as sign making is not really an interest of mine, but it would be nice to be able to cut complex patterns without having to rely on the raster mode.

[dbfletcher]

There is already a program to convert .ai files to mpc's. Search for ai2mpc. I use it all the time. And it is free!!!

Doug Fletcher

[Frederick_P]

Looks interesting but I couldn't find a MAC version. Maybe someone else has a solution?

[dbfletcher]

whoops... i always forget that there are some that use macs... ya.. it is pc only.. unless u run a emulator/virtualizer on your side.

It does work pretty well thou.

Doug

[Dhaffner]

You should look in the "Tips and Tricks" section of CarveWright's site...
I'm pretty sure there's a tutorial on doing exactly what you describe here. There are certainly some low cost and/or free tools to create fonts.
The guy who did the tutorial is some kind of "comic" nut or something..the whole tutorial looks like a comic. It addresses both Mac and PC.
You have to read around some of his bad jokes...but it will describe the ups and downs of bringing in illustrator files and/or fixing dingbat fonts that don't work as is with Designer.