Text & fonts

Lettering is the heart of sign making, and ChantoCNC treats text as a first-class object: a text shape lives in a layer next to your other geometry, stays editable, and regenerates its outlines whenever you change the words, font, or size.

Two kinds of fonts

• Outline fonts — ordinary TTF/OTF files. Glyphs become closed outlines you can V-carve, pocket, or profile. Import any font you have the rights to use.
• Single-line (stroke) fonts — bundled Hershey-style fonts whose glyphs are open centerlines. They cut in a single pass with the engrave operation — the fastest way to put crisp text on a board.

Fill-type operations (pocket, V-carve) need closed outlines, so they work with outline fonts; single-line text steers you to engrave instead of failing silently.

Free text and path text

Text can sit on a straight baseline you place anywhere (move and rotate it like any object), or flow along a drawn path — click a polyline when placing text and the letters follow it. The baseline shape stays editable; the text re-flows.

Projects travel with their fonts

When you use a font — bundled or imported — ChantoCNC copies it into the project folder. A project opens identically on any machine, with no missing-font surprises, regardless of what’s installed there.