Gcode-text

Copyright © 2023 Keith Packard

Gcode-text renders text to gcode. The user defines a set of rectangular regions, either on the command line or as a JSON template file. Each rectangle is then filled with text, either read from files or provided as command line arguments.

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Usage

usage: gcode-text [--help] [-V] [-i] [-m] [-r] [-O] [--tesselate] [--sheer SHEER] [-f FLATNESS]
		  [--font FONT] [-s SPEED] [-t TEMPLATE] [-d DEVICE] [-S SETTINGS] [-o OUTPUT]
		  [-b BORDER] [-x START_X] [-y START_Y] [-w WIDTH] [-h HEIGHT] [-X DELTA_X]
		  [-Y DELTA_Y] [-c COLUMNS] [-v VALUE] [-n NUMBER] [-T TEXT]
		  [-a {left,right,center}] [--font-height] [-C CONFIG_DIR]
		  [file ...]

positional arguments:
  file                  Text source files

options:
  --help                Print usage and exit
  -V, --version         Print version and exit
  -i, --inch            Use inch units
  -m, --mm              Use millimeter units
  -r, --rect            Draw bounding rectangles
  -O, --oblique         Draw the glyphs using a sheer transform
  --tesselate           Force tesselation of splines
  --sheer SHEER         Oblique sheer amount
  -f FLATNESS, --flatness FLATNESS
			Spline decomposition tolerance
  --font FONT           SVG font file name
  -s SPEED, --speed SPEED
			Feed rate
  -t TEMPLATE, --template TEMPLATE
			Template file name
  -d DEVICE, --device DEVICE
			Device config file
  -S SETTINGS, --settings SETTINGS
			Device-specific settings values
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
			Output file name
  -b BORDER, --border BORDER
			Border width
  -x START_X, --start-x START_X
			Starting X for boxes
  -y START_Y, --start-y START_Y
			Starting Y for boxes
  -w WIDTH, --width WIDTH
			Box width
  -h HEIGHT, --height HEIGHT
			Box height
  -X DELTA_X, --delta-x DELTA_X
			X offset between boxes
  -Y DELTA_Y, --delta-y DELTA_Y
			Y offset between boxes
  -c COLUMNS, --columns COLUMNS
			Number of columns of boxes
  -v VALUE, --value VALUE
			Initial text numeric value
  -n NUMBER, --number NUMBER
			Number of numeric values
  -T TEXT, --text TEXT  Text string
  -a {left,right,center}, --align {left,right,center}
  --font-metrics        Use font metrics for strings instead of glyph metrics
  -C CONFIG_DIR, --config-dir CONFIG_DIR
			Directory containing device configuration files

Examples

Draw "hello world" into a 4"x1" box at 1"x1"

$ gcode-text -o output.gcode -T "hello world" -w 4 -h 1 -x 1 -y 1

Draw numbers starting at 1 using the sample template

$ gcode-text -o output.gcode -v 1 -t sample-template.json

Draw 10 numbers from 10232 to 10241 in a 2x5 grid of 0.25"x0.1" boxes spaced 4"x1.5" apart and offset by 1.5"x1" from the origin with a border of 0.01" around the text:

$ gcode-text -o output.gcode -v 10232 -n 10 -c 2 -x 1.5 -y 1 -w .25 -h .1 -X 4 -Y 1.5 -b 0.01

Draw the sample below

$ gcode-text -o gcode-text.gcode -T "Gcode-text" -x 0 -y 0 -w 6 -h 1 -r -b 0.1

Draw the SVG sample below

$ gcode-text -o gcode-text.svg -d svg.json -T "Gcode-text (SVG)" -x 0 -y 0 -w 640 -h 100 -b 10 -S "640,100,5"

Draw all of the characters available:

$ gcode-text -d svg.json -x 50 -y 0 -w 1600 -h 100 -X 0 -Y 100 -o charset.svg --settings 1600,2800,6 charset --font-metrics --align=left

Draw some sample text:

$ gcode-text -d svg.json -x 5 -y 0 -w 790 -h 24 -X 0 -Y 28 --border 0 --settings 800,352,2 lorum --font-metrics --align=left -o lorum-roman.svg

$ gcode-text -d svg.json -x 5 -y 0 -w 790 -h 24 -X 0 -Y 28 --border 0 --settings 800,352,2 lorum --font-metrics --align=left --oblique -o lorum-oblique.svg

$ gcode-text -d svg.json -x 5 -y 0 -w 790 -h 24 -X 0 -Y 28 --border 0 --settings 800,352,3 lorum --font-metrics --align=left -o lorum-bold.svg

$ gcode-text -d svg.json -x 5 -y 0 -w 790 -h 24 -X 0 -Y 28 --border 0 --settings 800,352,3 lorum --font-metrics --align=left --oblique -o lorum-bold-oblique.svg

Draw the same text using the Twin Script font:

$  gcode-text -d svg.json -x 20 -y 0 -w 760 -h 36 -X 0 -Y 40 --border 0 --settings 800,440,1.5 lorum --font-metrics --align=left -o lorum-script.svg --font TwinScript.svg

Draw the characters in the Twin Script font

$ gcode-text -d svg.json -x 20 -y 0 -w 760 -h 75 -X 0 -Y 80 --border 0 --settings 800,600,1.5 --font-metrics --align=left -o charset-script.svg --font TwinScript.svg ascii