Digital Art Zone

IS it possible to load new fonts for the 3d Text tool in Hexagon?  If so, how?

In photoshop, of course, you just ionstall a new font on the computer and PS recgnizes it.  But I have purchased, downloaded, and installed a new TTF font, and Hexagon doesn’t see it.

. . . I goota say, I love Daz software . . . but I often wonder if I am really saving any money with the amount of time I spend scouring the internet for answers to some of the most basic questions . . . 8-(

Hex uses fonts the same way….those installed in the OS

If font does not show after a new font install, restart Hex.  Rarely need to restart OS if font installed via OS process (proper install of font)

There are a few fonts that some programs will not see/use and varies program by program even tho they should. Or may work in some programs but not others. High quality fonts should work everywhere.

DougS - 15 February 2013 08:41 PM

Hex uses fonts the same way….those installed in the OS

If font does not show after a new font install, restart Hex.  Rarely need to restart OS if font installed via OS process (proper install of font)

There are a few fonts that some programs will not see/use and varies program by program even tho they should. Or may work in some programs but not others. High quality fonts should work everywhere.

DougS is correct in that regard. I have a number of fonts in my Font Library that won’t work in Adobe Illustrator, but will in Photoshop or InDesign, Others that will work in Illustrator, but not one of the others, and some fonts where only certain characters work while others don’t. It varies from font to font and from application to application.

Fontforge, a free program MAY help. I say may because I have not had time to look at it myself. It is a font creator/modifier, but if it will load a font, it may be possible to save it in a format that will work in Hexagon or other apps. There are others that may work but are paid for programs, though there may be free trials available.

http://fontforge.org/
http://www.high-logic.com/font-editor/fontcreator.html
http://www.fontlab.com/

I worked with font conversion tools like Fontographer in the past, and if you could open the Postscript version of the font and convert it to TrueType (TTF) that would generally work in most applications.

First concern is that fonts can be either outline or bitmap. Hex will only use outline fonts.

Second concern is that there are several outline font formats, but the basic ones are Postscript and TrueType which have been around for decades. TrueType has been the most compatible format across multiple platforms.

Many “new” font formats simply take the Postscript or TrueType and put it in a “wrapper” so that it is compatible with modern operating systems.

Hope this helps,

ghostdog,

What you described should work, especially since you have a TTF and the OS sees the font.

If the new font has the same name as a font that is already installed, you may have to uninstall the other font so there is is no conflict.

Fonts have internal names in addition to their files name, and this can occassionally cause problems when the internal names match even if the filename does not.

There are ways to sort out these issues, but it is time consuming, whether you are on Windows or Macintosh. A font management program can help speed up the process to some extent.

Due to licensing issues, you can’t post the font here, but could you tell me the name of the font and where you purchased it?

I finally got it to work.  I had to reboot the machine for Hexagon to see the added Font in the font library.  Odd.

Anyway, thank you for your replies.

-GD645