Defining Text Styles
A text style is a named group of settings that controls the appearance of text in a drawing. If you define several text styles, you can quickly select the text style you need for a particular text object, thereby automatically assigning such properties as font type and text height. By creating and using text styles, you can easily control the way your text looks.
The default text style (the only defined style) in the templates ACAD.DWT and ACADISO.DWT is named STANDARD. You can, however, define as many text styles as you want in a drawing (each of the other template files provided with AutoCAD has several predefined styles). Text styles are defined and modified with the STYLE command, which you issue by choosing Text Style from the Format menu. Figure 15.7 shows the Text Style dialog box. The various settings within the Text Style dialog box are explained in more detail in the following sections.
Figure 15.7. The Text Style dialog box.
To create a new style, you begin by making a copy of the current style. If the current style is not the style you want to begin with, select the desired style from the list of existing styles (thereby making it the current style).
Click the New button. Specify a name for the new style, and a duplicate style is created from the selected style. To rename an existing style, select the style from the list of existing styles, click the Rename button, and enter a new name. To delete an existing style, highlight the name from the list of existing styles and click the Delete button. The Standard text style cannot be renamed or deleted.
Note
When a text object is created, the style with which it is created is recorded with the object. A text style can be deleted only if no existing text objects reference the style.
Text styles are stored in the drawing in which they are defined. If you want multiple styles to be available in a new drawing immediately, define the styles in your template drawings. If you want to import a style from another drawing, use AutoCAD’s DesignCenter. For more information on importing object tables into the current drawing, refer to Chapter 12, “Applications for AutoCAD DesignCenter.”
When defining a new style or modifying an existing style, you must choose a font file, the special effects you want enabled, a text height, a width factor, and an oblique angle. Choosing these settings and previewing the results of these settings are covered in the following sections.
Previewing the Text Style Settings
The character Preview area enables you to view a sample of the selected style and the results of changing the various settings. To view your own sample text, type your sample text in the text edit box and click the Preview button.
Choosing a Font and Style
The font file is the file that contains the information that determines the shape of each character. Table 15.4 lists the various types of font files supplied with AutoCAD.
| Filename Extension | Font Type |
|---|---|
| SHX | AutoCAD’s native fonts, known as an SHX font file |
| TTF | TrueType font file |
In addition to the TrueType font files supplied with AutoCAD, the TrueType fonts supplied with Windows and other Windows applications can also be used.
You can use PostScript files in AutoCAD. To do so, you must first use the COMPILE command to compile the PostScript (.pfb) font file into a shape file.
AutoCAD supports TrueType font families, which means that for some TrueType fonts, you can choose a font style such as regular, italic, bold, or bold italic. Note that not all TrueType fonts have more than the regular style defined.
Two system variables affect the plotting of text drawn with TrueType fonts: TEXTFILL and TEXTQLTY. When TEXTFILL is disabled, the characters are plotted in outline form only. If TEXTFILL is enabled, the characters are filled in. The value of TEXTQLTY affects the smoothness of the characters at plot time. The value of TEXTQLTY can be set from 0 to 100, with the default value set to 50. The higher the value, the better the resolution of the characters, but it will take longer to process the drawing for plotting. Both system variables can be typed at the Command: prompt and then set to the desired value.
Tip
Using the simplest shaped characters will minimize the drawing size and speed up opening and working with the drawing file. Simpler shaped characters are those that use very few elements, or line segments, to define a character’s shape. The characters in the Simplex and Romans font files are quite simple in appearance and are similar to the simplex characters used in board drafting. Some shape files contain the alphabet of foreign languages, such as GREEKS.SHX, or even symbols, such as SYMUSIC.SHX.
After you change the font file associated with an existing style, when you apply the change, all text that has already been drawn with the modified style is updated to reflect the change. If you want to draw text with more than one font file, you must create one style per font file and switch between the styles as you draw the text.
Setting a Height
Also found in the Font area of the Text Style dialog box is the text Height setting. The default height of 0 dictates that the user is allowed to set the text height at the time the text is created. A height other than 0 sets the text height for that particular style to that height. The style is then referred to as a fixed height style, and the text height prompt for the DTEXT command is suppressed.
Changing the text height setting of an existing style does not affect the appearance of existing text objects.
Specifying Special Effects
The Effects section of the Text Style dialog box contains the Upside Down, Backwards, Vertical, Width Factor, and Oblique Angle settings. These settings are covered in detail in the following sections.
Upside Down, Backwards, and Vertical Text
In the Effects area, you can enable the Upside Down, Backwards, and Vertical settings. See Figure 15.8 for an example of how these settings affect the appearance of text.
Figure 15.8. The effects of Upside Down, Backwards, and Vertical text settings.
Although the Upside Down and Backwards options work with all font files, the Vertical setting works with SHX files only.
Unlike the font file setting, the Upside Down and Backwards settings for an existing style can be changed without affecting text that has already been typed in that style; the text will not be automatically updated to reflect setting changes. Changing the Vertical setting, however, does affect existing text objects, so you may want to create a new style before changing the Vertical setting.
Tip
If you want to draw text upside down, you don’t have to enable the Upside Down option. Instead, you can specify a text rotation angle of 180 degrees.
The Backwards option is useful if you want to plot text on the backside of a transparent plot sheet so that the text is readable when viewed from the front.
The Vertical option is useful when you need to draw text down the side of a vertical surface, such as a building.
Setting a Width Factor
The Width Factor determines the width-to-height ratio of the drawn characters. A factor of 1 results in the characters being drawn with the width-to-height ratio defined in the font file used. A factor greater than 1 results in fatter characters; a factor less than 1 results in skinnier characters. Figure 15.9 illustrates the effects of using different width factors. All three lines were drawn with the same text height.
Figure 15.9. The effects of the Width Factor setting on a line of text.
Tip
Drawing text with a width factor that is less than 1 may make it easier to squeeze text into an already crowded drawing, while still keeping the text readable.
Setting an Oblique Angle
The Oblique Angle setting affects the slant of the characters. It is often used to draw italic text when the characters in the font file being used are not naturally italic. Unlike the text rotation angle, the oblique angle of 0 refers to a vertical direction (see Figure 15.10). A positive angle value makes the letters lean to the right, and a negative value makes the letters lean to the left.
Figure 15.10. The effects of the Oblique Angle setting on a line of text.
In the following exercise, you use the STYLE command to modify an existing style and to create a new style.
Exercise 15.3 Modifying and Creating Text Styles
1. |
Open the drawing 15dwg03.dwg from the accompanying CD. |
2. |
Issue the STYLE command by choosing Text Style from the Format menu. In the Text Style dialog box, make sure STANDARD is the current style. |
3. |
Select the ROMANS.SHX font file. Click the Apply button and close the dialog box. In Figure 15.11, notice that the “ACME Engineering” text is revised to reflect the font file change. Figure 15.11. Changing the text style’s font modifies the appearance of text.
|
4. |
Repeat the STYLE command. Click the New button, name the new style NOTES
, and click OK. Initially, NOTES is a duplicate of STANDARD, the style that was current at the time you clicked the New button. |
5. |
Choose the TrueType font Courier New, which is a font file that offers several font styles. If Courier New does not appear in your list of available fonts, choose an alternative font. Choose Bold as the Font Style. Click the Apply button and close the dialog box. The text style NOTES is now the current text style. |
6. |
You can close the drawing without saving your changes. |
