This plug-in converts a file of custom paths into a set of custom font characters by stroking the paths with the currently selected brush.

This update fixes an issue and adds a brush stroke at the very end of each stroke. There is a new tab in the plug-in dialog for colour options.



When extracted the zipped Resources folder contains:

The plug-in: Custom_Font_Paths_to_Layers_v011_Tabbed (place this in your user plug-ins folder).
A custom path xcf file containing nine characters - for testing purposes (save this to a convenient location).
A folder with brushes for you to play with (copy the brush files and place them in your user brushes folder).

A pdf of this guide if you prefer to use that format.



Start up Gimp, select a brush from the brushes tool dock and open the file containing the custom paths.

Call up the plug-in dialog:

Filters>>Custom Fonts>>Constructing Tools>>Custom Fonts Paths to Layers v.0.11 Tabbed



This tab remains almost unchanged; the highlighted values show the changes to the defaults used in previous versions.

Although the filter is primally intended for use with a brush it can also use the line tool to stroke the paths (first option on this tab). This can be useful if you want to create a version of a custom font in a different weight; this can be used as a base for decorating with other custom font tools.

See the next post for examples...

Atlanta Custom font whitebase characters:



Use the filter setting the 'Stroke path with' option to line and a 'Primary stroke size' of 20. Press 'Ok'.

This creates a set of characters in a thinner style which can be used with other custom font filters.



To produce characters in a heavier weighting use a larger stroke size; here I used a value of 90:

The line join and end caps also have different options which can be set to modify the style.

Using square end caps and bevel for the line joins (although small manual adjustments to some characters may need to be made) to modify the whitebase style.



And below using the mitre line join style with square end caps:



You can use an italic shaped brush to create an italic whitebase version of a custom font: The spacing will need to be set really low (at one or two) to produce a smooth set of characters.



To try this out open the test custom paths file in Gimp and choose an italic brush from the brush dock.

Open the filter:
Set the 'Stroke path with' option to 'brush' and change the 'Brush spacing' value on Tab 2 to 1.

Tab 2 Brush Options:



The Brush spacing option used to live on the first tab and the ‘Emulate brush dynamics’ option has a new default option of ‘Yes’.

Choose a greyscale brush (they usually look black or grey in the brushes dialog) to apply colour and texture to custom paths. The example below uses a cell style brush with the default settings. Select your foreground colour in Gimp.

Open the custom font paths file.

Call up the plug-in and make sure that you are going to stroke the path with the brush tool. Set the 'primary stroke size' to 70 on the 1st tab and reduce the 'brush spacing' to about 10 on this tab. Hit 'Ok'.

My results:



Stay with image with the new characters.
Select a new colour, open the filter and change the 'stroke size' to 50.
Hit 'Ok'.

My results produced characters like this:

You can use an animated/pipe brush to paint objects along a custom path character with the appropriate spacing. The breakfast dish example below uses the random rotation option to add an element of variety to the characters. You will need to set the 'Brush spacing' to a larger value.

My fried egg brush:



You can add other objects by changing the brush (I used my tomatoes brush). Use Normal mode from the mode options on the Colour options tab.



More soon...

The 'Track direction' option works well - with appropriate spacing - for certain brushes.



This option can also produce some interesting results with abstract/shaped brushes. Gold is a current theme!




Tab 3 Colour Options:



This tab has three new options (and two existing options re-located here), highlighted in red, that affect how colour can be applied to the strokes.

The example below repeats the same brush with the default colour settings (i.e. colour not applied). Use this with a suitable mode such as Grainmerge or Overlay.



In the next example 'Apply colour' has been used; the 'Brush colour option' has been left as 'Use foreground colour' and a shade of red has been used with Grainmerge mode. A reduced opacity value has also been used to add a subtle change of tone.



'Apply colour' also allows you to apply a coloured gradient (linear) to existing characters: E-W used here with a Green-Red FG to BG RGB gradient. Choose a gradient from the gradients dock in Gimp.

Tab 4 Drop Shadow & Paths:

The new options are again highlighted in red.



Some examples using the options from this tab.

A black shadow option has been used below with an offset of 4 for both x and y positions.





You can create a glow effect if you use zero for the x and y offsets with a suitable colour:

You can also use a ‘Layer copy’ for the ‘Drop shadow’ option to add a more subtle version of a glow: The ‘Shadow strength’ option has been increased to heighten the effect below.



And finally a quick review of the remaining options on the last tab:

You can remove the custom paths (used to create the characters from the file) if required; just make sure that you do this as part of the last use of the plug-in with the custom paths.

You can also use the preview option to see the effects of the plug-in on a single character (creates a new image to do this).

The ‘Remember initial stroke width’ option can be used if you want to use the filter to centre a number of strokes with different widths on each character. The example below (from version 0.06) illustrates a character without and with this option in line stroking mode.



Here is a link to the Custom Path resources here on GimpChat.

Custom Font Paths

Have fun!