Saturday, July 13, 2013

How to Fill Double Line Fonts

So you want to write with your cameo, but you don't want there to be double lines or the outline of the words, you want them filled in. And you'll be writing something bigger than 18pt (where most thin fonts look single lined. Check out this post.) This process can be time consuming but it is so worth it! So here we go...


Okay, so you're going to start with something like this. If you sketch just like this, it will look just like this. Even if you fill it with color. It will still sketch just like this. So what you want to do is use the internal offset.


This is what the Offset menu looks like.


Click on your words you want to fill. Use the offset menu and select internal offset, .005, apply. Do not click off of your wording. Keep it selected. You'll do this over and over again.


At first it might not look like it's doing anything, but it is. It is repeating the line font over and over again very closely to the previous line so that it creates a fill. Your pen is going to do the same thing, so make sure you have plenty of ink.


Here is what it looks like all filled in. It looks like I just used the fill tool, but I didn't.


When I zoom in, you can see that it is composed of a lots of little lines. This is how it's going to sketch too. This works great with gel pens. If you're using Sharpie Ultra Fine or BIC Markers, I would not do quite the inset. Maybe keep it to .010 or .015. You'll have to play with the settings depending on the medium you're using to write. Doing this will slow the program down quite a bit, but even if it freezes, it will come back shortly. Don't worry.


These are my business cards I just did with the cameo and my pen holder. I used the above method to fill the branch, bird and The Sensory Emporium at top. (I apologize for the blurriness, this is a cell phone picture with shaky hands).

To order my pen holder please visit, www.etsy.com/shop/thesensoryemporium

If you have any questions on this tutorial, please comment below.