In article <c44kc09bmc7nmpi55ei8k9lbogo1p9lrru@4ax.com>, abx### [at] abxartpl 
says...
> On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 13:02:53 -0700, Patrick Elliott <sha### [at] hotmailcom>
> wrote:
> > Has anyone considered designing a special font function that could 
> > extract the vector information from TTF type fonts, then employ splines 
> > to either warp them along a path or even wrap them around objects?
> 
> Do you mean text along spline or spline of curves used to create letter ?
> Both have their pretty accurate workarounds (thought second with external
> tool).
> 
> ABX
> 

No, I mean taking the vector data straight out of the TTF, so you could 
literally place the font onto a spline or object path of some sort. 
Optimal would be if you could do:


text {
    ttf "timron.ttf" "This is fun" 1, 0
    pigment { Red }
    path {
      sphere {<0,0,0>, 5}
    }
  }

So it would actually recompute the points the define the font to 'fit' 
the sphere.

However, this may not be practical. For example, how do you manage that 
if the 'path' is a bicubic batch? A set of splines, say one for each 
edge, could be used instead, so it bends the fonts along the 3D path of 
the splines. A single letter (or a line of text) could then be bent along 
the path, so it ends up rippled, twisted or even folded around to touch 
itself. Yes, there are ways to fake it, but none of them can do this so 
it is actually right.

I think it has definite benefits over the currently difficult and 
complicated placement of every letter, one at a time, especially since 
you can't actually 'warp' the letters to fit an object, unless you then 
CSG them to cut away the parts that don't fit. Even then, they still are 
only 'close' in most case, not actually right. Doing it with existing 
methods is a lot of extra work for something that isn't really what you 
intended in the first place.

I mean it just seemed to me that since the information in TTF was vector 
based anyway, it might be easy to adapt such data to produce this effect. 
Would be interesting to see it done by someone. I could care less about 
current workarounds. At least at this moment anyway, since I am not 
actually working on anything that needs one.

-- 
void main () {

    call functional_code()
  else
    call crash_windows();
}

Post a reply to this message