Adding fonts to Draftsight

[D_Krause]

So! This little trick with Draftsight took me about 3 hours to figure out.

 

How to add Fonts to Draftsight.

 

Draftsight looks in your windows installed fonts to find any fonts it will consider vaild for use. In order to have a font available for use by draftsight, the font must be in TTF Format and must be installed into your windows system fonts folder.

 

If you have a .otf file, you should use a tool like http://everythingfonts.com/otf-to-ttf to convert the file into .ttf file format. At that point, just open the file and hit "Install" in the top left. Windows will then install the font into it's system and draftsight will consider it valid.

 

Why a system like draftsight, which bills itself as an open platform, cannot use .otf is beyond me. But this is the work around:

 

Convert to .ttf

Install into windows system the "normal" way

Profit.

[ReMark]

Draftsight may be open source (I'm not sure of that) but it does model itself after AutoCAD thus the reason it is referred to as a clone. Given that it is a clone it uses the same types of fonts as AutoCAD does (SHX and TTF). While I admire your ability to find and welcome your propensity to share a workaround for OTF files the problem does not lie with Draftsight.

 

DRAFTSIGHT

 

"DraftSight is a proprietary freeware 2D computer-aided design (CAD) software application developed by Dassault Systèmes. It lets users create, edit and view .dwg and AutoCAD DXF files."

 

Source: Wikipedia

 

Personally I don't see the need for using Open Type fonts in AutoCAD or in Draftsight.

Edited April 8, 2014 by ReMark

[billwolo]

My Draftsight does not allow me to use TTF fonts - is this because I am using the free basic version vs the professional version?

[Khadijah]

I don't know why yours isn't allowing you to use TTF fonts.  I have the free version and I am able to use TTF fonts.

[ReMark]

Khadijah: Perhaps you did not realize you were responding to a post that is 21 months old?  But you are correct re: TTF fonts and the free version of Draftsight.

[RLJK]

I have installed a new TTF font. It works fine in other software. Other TTF fonts also work in Draftsight, but not the newly-installed font.

 

Any help gratefully received.

Edited November 13, 2019 by RLJK

[SLW210]

Can you provide a little more information? Where did the font come from? What font? What steps did you take to install the font?

[ReMark]

TTF fonts have to be installed in the Windows System font folder.  What version of Windows are you running?

[RLJK]

I am using Windows 10.

 

The font is 'Effra' from Dalton Maag: https://www.daltonmaag.com/library/effra

It came as a zip folder with the TTF files in it, which I extracted, right-clicked and installed to the Windows font folder. The font appears in the Windows font folder and appeared straight away in all other applications without restarting.

 

I restarted but it is still not appearing in Draftsight.

 

I have recently installed other new fonts, e.g. from Google Fonts, and these do appear in Draftsight.

 

Many thanks

 

[f700es]

Does Draftsight have a fonts folder like AutoCAD?

[SLW210]

Try to find a similar font and use that would be easiest option or try to find that font from another source.

[ReMark]

Did you pay for the font or did you elect to download a trial?

[RLJK]

It's the trial - they said it wouldn't make a difference, but I suppose I could try the paid version. I was a bit reluctant to spend the money until I knew it would work.

Thanks

[ReMark]

I have Draftsight on my laptop.  Can you send me the zip file?  I can test it as well.  Look at my Profile page for my email address.

[ReMark]

On 11/14/2019 at 7:40 AM, f700es said:

Does Draftsight have a fonts folder like AutoCAD?

Yes, Draftsight does have Fonts folder.

[ReMark]

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate the holiday in the U.S.  (and to any ex-pats reading this wherever you are).  While waiting for the turkey to roast I attempted to install one of the Effra fonts previously mentioned.  As per Draftsight instructions I used the Install procedure to install the font to the Windows 10 Fonts folder.  I next opened up my copy of OpenOffice, selected Text document, and I was able to switch from the default font to Effra Bold.  Following this I opened Draftsight, ran the TextStyle command and tried loading the same font.  Unfortunately it did not appear on the list of available fonts.  I even copied the file into the Draftsight Fonts folder, repeated the procedure and got the same results.  For the moment I am stumped as to why the font will not show up in Draftsight but I will continue to explore the problem.  And, yes, I did execute a RESTART between the installation of the font and testing.

 

Addendum.

I recently installed the 2D version of nanoCAD in anticipation of the free version of Draftsight soon going the way of the dodo.  Amazingly enough the Effra Bold text style appears in the list of available fonts!

Edited November 28, 2019 by ReMark

[Tongue_TIDE]

I'm new to the forum, but your topic caught my eye.  I was using Draftsight 2018 (free version), but once I had to upgrade to the paid 2019 version as of the first of this year, I lost some of the fonts that I was using for several years (started using Draftsight with the 2017 version).  Specifically, the fonts Swis721_Ex_BT and Swis721_Lt_BT - I really like them for their smooth presentation and clean look.  I tried in vain for over a week to find replacement fonts, but even when I installed them in the Windows Font folder (I'm using Win10 Pro) and the Draftsight Fonts folder, I cannot see them in Draftsight.  I can access them in Word with no problems, but that isn't my ultimate goal.

 

Anyway, I wanted to ask ReMark if you had ever found any success with installing new fonts in Draftsight.  This is vexing me out of my mind and I am hoping to find a solution soon.  Any tips or tricks anyone has to offer are most welcome.

[f700es]

You "should" be able to install these for Windows and then add the Windows fonts folder to Draftsights  settings, like one can do in AutoCAD.

[Tongue_TIDE]

f700es,

 

I had hoped it would be straightforward like you mention, but alas, it was not so.  As ReMark mentioned above, apparently Draftsight uses the Windows TTF Fonts but also has its own unique Fonts folder - the only related Draftsight setting I found is for a Font Mapping File (fonts.fmp) which contains mostly .SHX files (with a few .TTF files and a few .PFB files listed, too).

 

Since I installed some free Swis721 TTF fonts that I found on the Web into the Windows Fonts folder (and also copied those fonts into the Draftsight Fonts folder location) but still cannot see them inside Draftsight, I'm now wondering if I need to download a purchased font like RLJK mentioned above.  This question got louder in my mind when I noticed in the Windows Font folder that these newly downloaded fonts show as "Print and preview" or "Restricted license, print and preview" in the Font Embeddability column heading.  The majority of the installed fonts that came in Windows show either "Editable" or "Installable" in that same column.

 

I've scoured Draftsight's forums, but didn't find any relevant topics.  One reason I wanted to join CADTutor was to post a reply here to follow-up with ReMark since this is the only forum topic I've found that discussed the exact issue that I have.  Fingers crossed that perhaps someone will have the key that unlocks this conundrum . . .

[Daivd Verespy]

I had the same issue. Originally installed all the fonts using the windows font viewer in Windows 10 and rebooted. Fonts did not show up in DraftSight. I then copied all the fonts I wanted into the DraftSight Font Folder.  Still didn't work.  I then highlighted the fonts I wanted in the DraftSight Font folder did a right mouse click and selected "Install for all Users", the fonts were reinstalled into windows. Restarted DraftSight and all the fonts I was trying to install are now visible and usable.  Hope this helps.