Is it possible to trace the outline of a font to then save as a dxf file for use with a laser cutter?

Hi Emma,

you can convert the text to path directly. Fonts are already (usually) in vector format, you only need to tell Inkscape to convert it from an editable text into a path.

So:
Write your text.
Select it.
Do Path -> Object to Path.

Then you can ungroup the converted text. Some fonts do have faults, so be sure to check the generated paths for undesired holes / unclosed paths manually.

Kind regards,
 Maren

Hi Maren,

Thank you for your reply. I have tried this an cannot get an outline. I have done object to path, and then tried to ungroup but this hasn't released an outline. I'm sorry I am very new to Inkscape! Am I doing something wrong?

Many Thanks,

Emma

Hi Emma,

if you followed the steps above, you will now have each letter as a separate object. If you select one letter, it will be a single path (look into the status line at the bottom).

Probably, it will be filled with a color and have no stroke.
I think that maybe what you mean is that you cannot see the stroke, but only the fill.

Change this by opening the Fill&Stroke dialog (Ctrl+Shift+F), and then click on the x in the first tab to remove the fill, and on the in the second tab (the one for the stroke), click on the second button, to set a flat color for the stroke.

You can also select all letters at once to change them all at once.

I'm not sure if this change to the style of the letter will change anything about how it will be treated by a cutter/plotter/... - I think it already fulfilled the requirements before this change to the objects appearance.

But this way, you can better imagine how the output will look like.

Kind regards,
 Maren