Type to 'Dot to Dot'... 1

[admac]

Newby to this forum hope someone can help,

Designing a 'Dot to Dot' book, have some text i would like to make into dot to dot, i want to use the font that I am using andf not another font that looks like what i want.

So basically I want some sort of technique/style to change the text I have so children can connect the lines to make the letters/words.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Adam

 

[itchybug]

Adam:

I'm not clear on what exactly you're trying to do, can you be a skeauche more elaborate?

Bert

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[dmacster]

I'm assuming you want to change the type to outlines and then apply a defined pattern for dots - yes?

 

[admac]

okay sorry mind was a little astray when I posted ::'/*

dmacster is correct.

The book is a learning book for kids to learn to write. The letters will be printed so the child will be able to follow the dots to complete the letter, hopefully doing this numerous times will imprint the movement in the childs memory.

So any ideas peops? Thanks already. I am using CS1 and have access to other apps so crazy. Thanks again.

Adam (UK)

 

[jconingham]

Use a pattern brush composed of dots and you should get the desired effect.

I believe CS's help file covers brush creation.

 

[itchybug]

jconingham, I think that OP is after a single path representing each stroke of a letter, not an outline.

The best 'solution' I have come up with so far would involve a pattern swatch to fill letters with, that has evenly spaced circles with fills, and the circles would be about the width of the thinnest of the strokes of the letters. I'll mess around with it a little tomorrow...

Feel free to play with it yourself.

Look into creative uses of the pathfinder tools, too.

HTH

Bert

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[admac]

Hi peops,

okay, the only reason it says (TechnicalUser) after my handle is 'cause I didn't know what an MIS was or what the other abbreviations stood for!!

I am conversant with Illustrator upto a point, so if the advice could be a little more descriptive; 1. do this 2. do that... then I would be very much appreciative.

Thnaks again.
Adam

 

[itchybug]

Adam:

This isn't looking too hopeful, I haven't found a way to make the dots line up halfway reliably and evenly spaced beginning with a sans-serif font (which should be easiest), so I'm thinking you may be better off creating an alphabet yourself by hand, then using that to lay out the text with.

I'll keep trying to find a way, but like I said it's going to be hard to do. If it was to be a dotted outline of the font it would be a breeze, as jconingham pointed out you could use a pattern brush, but I suspect for your application that won't work...

HTH

Bert

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[jconingham]

This can't be impossible to do...
Is there a sample of the font you want to use? Can be just a jpeg with a few characters.

I'm thinking about a expanded pattern brush (which solves the spacing problem) and removing the extra lines/dots later, but I'm not very sure how this would affect the real look of the font.

A combination of pattern brush and fill would be the perfect solution - that is, a fill that follows the shape like the brush. Are we missing something?

Btw, Adam, don't worry if you don't understand exactly what we are saying here. Once you start working in Illustrator it will start to make sense, plus it helps more advanced users to find a better/easier solution for you

 

[admac]

Thanks JC, I can't find an atttach image button anywhere!!

 

[itchybug]

You'll have to upload the image and then point to it with an img tag from here. Go to a place like pixentral.com to learn how and post images for free.

Bert Philippus -

http://www.itchybug.com

 

[Eggles]

There are a number of fonts available that are already in 'dot-to-dot' format. Scroll abput 1/3 down this page for a list of free learn to write fonts (for PC)

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/weblinks/handwriting.htm

also from here:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,4566,00.asp

National Dotted First Font

This high-quality True Type font can be used to design worksheets for children to trace over letters as they learn to write. The font is also suitable for headlines and body text.

 

[admac]

Thanks to everyone, here is an image of the lettering I would like to make into a 'dot to dot' type.

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1xyIyQ3xWOV49zlnQLNC3nu2mLFr2

Thanks to itchybug for the link!

Adam

 

[admac]

I dont think the above link worked!!

<a href="

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1PlyR5xECyAc4ji4liP88hymrBfGv"/><img

src="

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1PlyR5xECyAc4ji4liP88hymrBfGv_thumb.gif"

border="0"/></a>

Try this too...

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?pic=1PlyR5xECyAc4ji4liP88hymrBfGv

Adam

 

[Eggles]

Is it supposed to look like some sort of arabic writing?