What Do the Fonts Look Like?

What Do the Fonts Look Like?
You’ve already seen a few of the fonts available in AutoCAD. Chances are, you’re familiar with the
TrueType fonts available in Windows. You have some additional AutoCAD fonts from which to
choose. You may want to stick with the AutoCAD fonts for all but your presentation drawings,
because other fonts can consume more memory.
Figure 10.9 shows the basic AutoCAD text fonts. The Romans font is perhaps the most widely
used because it offers a reasonable appearance while consuming little memory. Figure 10.10 lists
some of the symbols and Greek fonts.
This section shows you samples of the AutoCAD fonts. You can see samples of all the fonts,
including TrueType fonts, in the preview window of the Text Style dialog box. If you use a word
processor, you’re probably familiar with at least some of the TrueType fonts available in Windows
and AutoCAD.

Importing Text Files
With multiline text objects, AutoCAD enables you to import ASCII text or Rich Text Format (RTF) files.
RTF files can be exported from Microsoft Word and most other word-processing programs and retain
most of their formatting in AutoCAD. Here’s how you import text files:
1. With the Text Formatting toolbar open, right-click in the text panel, and choose Import Text.
2. In the Select File dialog box, locate a valid text file. It must be a file in either a raw text (ASCII) format,
such as a Notepad (.txt) file, or RTF (.rtf). RTF files can store formatting information, such
as boldface and varying point sizes.
3. After you’ve highlighted the file you want, double-click it or click Open. The text appears in the Edit
Mtext window.
4. Click OK, and the text appears in your drawing.
In addition, you can use the Windows Clipboard and the Cut and Paste functions to add text to a drawing.
To do this, follow these steps:
1. Select some text, and then choose Cut or Copy in any Windows program to place text on the Windows
Clipboard.
2. Open AutoCAD. Choose Edit  Paste; the pasted text appears in your drawing. However, it isn’t
editable in AutoCAD.
If the text is from a text editor like Windows Notepad, the text is inserted as AutoCAD text. If the text
contains formatting from a word processor like Microsoft Word, the text is an OLE object.
Because AutoCAD is an OLE client, you can also attach other types of documents to an AutoCAD
drawing file. See Chapter 19 for more on AutoCAD’s OLE support.
The Textfill System Variable
Unlike the standard sticklike AutoCAD fonts, TrueType and PostScript fonts have filled areas. These
filled areas take more time to generate; so if you have a lot of text in these fonts, your redraw and regen
times will increase. To help reduce redraw and regen times, you can set AutoCAD to display and plot
these fonts as outline fonts, even though they’re filled in their true appearance.
To change this setting, type Textfill↵, and then type 0↵. Doing so turns off text fill for PostScript and
TrueType fonts. (This is the same as setting the Textfill system variable to 0.)

Adding Simple Single-Line Text Objects
You might find that you’re entering a lot of single words or simple labels that don’t require all the
bells and whistles of the Multiline Text Editor. AutoCAD offers the single-line text object, which is
simpler to use and can speed text entry if you’re adding only small pieces of text.
Continue the tutorial on the Unit.dwg file by trying the following exercise:
1. Adjust your view so it looks like Figure 10.11.
2. Make sure Notes1 is the current text style; then, click the Single Line Text tool in the Text control
panel.



2. You can also enter Dt↵ or choose Draw  Text  Single Line Text to issue the Dtext command.
3. At the Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]: prompt, pick the starting
point for the text you’re about to enter, just below the kitchen at coordinate 16´-2˝,21´-8˝
(490,664 for metric users). Note that the prompt offers the Justify and Style options.



4. At the Specify rotation angle of text <0>: prompt, press ↵ to accept the default, 0.
You can specify any angle other than horizontal (for example, if you want your text aligned
with a rotated object). You see a text I-beam cursor at the point you picked in step 3.
5. Type Kitchenette. As you type, the word appears directly in the drawing.
TIP If you make a typing error, use the Right and Left arrow keys to move the text cursor in the
drawing area to the error; then, use the Backspace key to correct the error. You can also paste text
from the Clipboard into the cursor location by using the Ctrl+V keyboard shortcut or by rightclicking
in the drawing area to access the shortcut menu.
6. Press ↵ to move the cursor down to start a new line.
7. This time, you want to label the bathroom. Pick a point to the right of the door swing at coordinate
19´-11˝,26´-5˝ (610,805 for metric users). The text cursor moves to that point.
8. Type Bathroom↵. Figure 10.11 shows how your drawing should look now.
9. Press ↵ again to exit the Dtext command.
TIP If for some reason you need to stop entering single-line text objects to do something else in
AutoCAD, you can continue the text where you left off by pressing ↵ at the Specify start
point of text or [Justify/Style]: prompt of the Dtext command. The text continues
immediately below the last line of text entered.
Here you were able to add two single lines of text in different parts of your drawing fairly
quickly. Dtext uses the current default text style settings.
To edit single-line text, you can double-click the text. The text is highlighted, and you can begin
typing to replace the entire text, or you can click a location in the text to make single word or character changes.

NOTE This is the end of the tutorial section of this chapter. The rest of this chapter offers additional
information about text.

Justifying Single-Line Text Objects
Justifying single-line text objects works in a slightly different way from justifying multiline text. For
example, if you change the justification setting to Center, the text moves so the center of the text is
placed at the text-insertion point. In other words, the insertion point stays in place while the text
location adjusts to the new justification setting. Figure 10.12 shows the relationship between singleline
text and the insertion point based on different justification settings.



To set the justification of text as you enter it, you must enter J↵ at the Specify start point of
text or [Justify/Style]: prompt after issuing the Dtext command.
TIP You can also change the current default style by entering S↵ and then the name of the style at
the Specify start point of text or [Justify/Style]: prompt.
After you’ve issued Dtext’s Justify option, you get the following prompt:
Enter an option
[Align/Fit/Center/Middle/Right/TL/TC/TR/ML/MC/MR/BL/BC/BR]:
Here are descriptions of each of these options (I’ve left Fit and Align until last, because these
options require more explanation):
Center Centers the text on the start point, with the baseline on the start point.
Middle Centers the text on the start point, with the baseline slightly below the start point.
Right Justifies the text to the right of the start point, with the baseline on the start point.
TL, TC, and TR TL, TC, and TR stand for Top Left, Top Center, and Top Right. Text using
these justification styles appears entirely below the start point, justified left, center, or right,
depending on which option you choose.

ML, MC, and MR ML, MC, and MR stand for Middle Left, Middle Center, and Middle Right.
These styles are similar to TL, TC, and TR, except that the start point determines a location midwaybetween the baseline and the top of the lowercase letters of the text.
BL, BC, and BR BL, BC, and BR stand for Bottom Left, Bottom Center, and Bottom Right. These
styles, too, are similar to TL, TC, and TR, but here the start point determines the bottommost locationof the letters of the text (the bottom of letters that have descenders, such as p, q, and g).
Align and Fit With the Align and Fit justification options, you must specify a dimension in
which the text is to fit. For example, suppose you want the word Refrigerator to fit in the 26˝-widebox representing the refrigerator. You can use either the Fit or the Align option to accomplish this.
With Fit, AutoCAD prompts you to select start and end points and then stretches or compresses
the letters to fit within the two points you specify. You use this option when the text must be a consistentheight throughout the drawing and you don’t care about distorting the font. Align workslike Fit, but instead of maintaining the current text style height, the Align option adjusts the textheight to keep it proportional to the text width without distorting the font. Use this option whenit’s important to maintain the font’s shape and proportion. Figure 10.13 demonstrates how Fit andAlign work.


You can change the justification of single-line text by using the Properties palette, but the text
moves from its original location while maintaining its insertion point. If you want to change the justificationof text without moving the text, you can use the Justifytext command. Choose Modify Object  Text  Justify, or type Justifytext at the Command prompt; then, select the text you wantto change. Justifytext works on both multiline and single-line text.
Keeping Text from Mirroring
At times, you’ll want to mirror a group of objects that contain some text. This operation causes the mirrored
text to appear backward. You can change a setting in AutoCAD to make the text read normally,
even when it’s mirrored:
1. At the Command prompt, enter Mirrtext↵.
2. At the Enter new value for MIRRTEXT <1>: prompt, enter 0↵.