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Author Topic: Two color outline text-font or style for Windows  (Read 6961 times)

questorfla

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Two color outline text-font or style for Windows
« on: July 15, 2016, 11:08 AM »
Is there such a typeface or font style or even a font itself that would have the ability to be used as a regular typing font with a way to display as each letter outlined in a second color?  I am sure this option is available on high end graphics programs such as Corel but I was looking for a Windows-based font that could be installed and used by any Windows software while typing large sections of text.

MilesAhead

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Re: Two color outline text-font or style for Windows
« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2016, 08:30 AM »
Hmm, all the font sites I checked only had variations on the theme of colored outline with white innards.  Besides, I don't know how you could select more than one color in font settings in an editor or word processor.  Unless they have settings I haven't experienced they all have one doodad to select font color when you select the font and size.

kunkel321

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Re: Two color outline text-font or style for Windows
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2016, 09:46 AM »
I also would love it if this were possible.  I have BGInfo https://technet.micr...nternals/bginfo.aspx scripted to put some stuff on my desktop wallpaper at start up.  When the picture underneath is the same color as the text though, it's unreadable.     

questorfla

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Re: Two color outline text-font or style for Windows
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2016, 11:41 AM »
I found part of the solution (for me anyway)and my daughter got me started on the rest.  In the end, it was a perfect fit for my needs.  Your mileage may vary!

First step:  Download the fonts from HERE or a similar location.  It is important that the font be a sealed outline with no breaks on the border.  Click to install the TTF font into Windows.

Next step open MSPaint (Or your favorite graphics program) MS Paint is easy and is technically what I needed anyway.  Paint.net and a few other Freebies do have the ability to do this natively but the methods are too complicated for my simple needs.

Open a box of the size you need to type your text.  It can be a full page or whatever size you like.   Pick you Inside color for the text.  I was after a gold Outline on Blue  so I filled the whole box in Blue.

Darn :(  I shudda looked harder! I found some hints that it might be possible for real. See HERE )


Set the Font to one of the Outline fonts you chose to download.
Set the #1 color to the outline color you want to use.

Pick the TEXT option, set a text box that fills the page, and type away.
when completed.  change the #1 color to white and Fill the area outside your text with the paint bucket.  Select the area with the text, crop it.

Viola'!

All of  this is done with settings on opaque.
I am 100% sure that there is a less difficult method of doing this.
WORD can do it Native also with WORD ART settings.  But in the end, i needed my text to be converted to a PNG anyway, starting with Paint just made more sense,
2 color works for me.pngTwo color outline text-font or style for Windows

PS: The attachment is low quality and something I typed up in less than a minute including the fills and all.  It is also reduced in size to make the upload faster .  I just wanted to prove that it could be done easily when necessary. 

I still find it hard to believe that it is not possible to manage an outlined two color font but.. Probably can't be  done?
Or Maybe it CAN? See HERE

DARN!  Tons of hints here as well

Still looks like you have to build it yourself if you want a true Windows TTF version.


« Last Edit: July 20, 2016, 12:09 PM by questorfla »

kunkel321

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Re: Two color outline text-font or style for Windows
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2016, 08:55 AM »
Cool stuff!   Thanks for the fonts site.  Sadly the "SVG & colors in OpenType fonts" looks like it only applies to FireFox.  Too bad because that's exactly what I need (except for Windows).     

kunkel321

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Re: Two color outline text-font or style for Windows
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2016, 09:11 AM »
For my purposes, I need an actual font that other Windows applications can recognize.  If all you want is a word banner, then yea, a vector-based photoeditor is probably the way to go. 
Paint.net is an often-used one http://paint.net.amihotornot.com.au/
I use DrawPlus quite a bit.  There is a free version of it: http://www.serif.com...hic-design-software/
(Here are some icons I made with DrawPlus, and an app called RealWorld Icon Editor https://www.xyplorer....php?f=3&t=11635 )

Probably the most powerful freebie is the GIMP http://www.gimp.org/ It's more like Photoshop then a vector editor though....

Other fun things to check out:
TileMage allows you to make individual letters in bulk, then "chop up" the exported picture.  http://www.tilemage.50webs.com/

I use this http://patorjk.com/text-color-fader/ for colorizing my Outlook email signatures.

EDIT:  Also: http://www.picturetopeople.org/ for making banners!!!

questorfla

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Re: Two color outline text-font or style for Windows
« Reply #6 on: July 24, 2016, 10:55 AM »
Thanks and i might give them a try.  The only reason i wanted one to try is for a specific use of creating what would be best called a "Title Bar" for an image.  The end result has to be a png file but as it has to be typewritten to create to start with, if i had a two-color or Outline font it would have saved a step or two to be able to just "Type" in black with gold outline or other two color combination.  The "Add fill color first" method is about the simplest i can find but it isn't perfect.   The oddest thing is i could swear that there used to be font that worked this way and i found a few other people who agreed.  But it was so long ago - maybe Windows 95  :(  that no one is sure it ever existed.
Since the titles are seldom more than 5 words it isn't worth learning a new graphics program to get the effect.  The worst part is that WORD offers all the options in "Word Art" but getting the results exported to a png file are next to impossible.  And worst of all, when you do this following the exact method MS gives, the results when pasted to MS Paint are far from dependable and usually have multiple 'artifacts' that ruin the image.

My final answer to it was to use WORD to do the "title", then use "PickPic" screen-capture in "region" mode to cut out the title created and save it as a PNG file. 
This probably still wont help with BGINFO if you want to be able to select a two color font for the program to use.  Some of the links i posted above seemed to indicate that there is a way to create your own TTF font with a multicolor aspect but i have not tried any of them yet.

In the event that it may be of use, the link to PickPic is above.  I have found it to be a surprisingly versatile utility and it took the place of the updated SNIP from MS in my screen capture toolbox as it seemed to already have every feature i could possible ask for.    Please be sure to post back if you do find something that works for the multicolor fonts though

kunkel321

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Re: Two color outline text-font or style for Windows
« Reply #7 on: July 24, 2016, 12:40 PM »
.. The oddest thing is i could swear that there used to be font that worked this way and i found a few other people who agreed.  But it was so long ago - maybe Windows 95  :(  that no one is sure it ever existed...

Relevant quote I found here: http://answers.micro...-39a97d384b03?auth=1

"Short of owning an Amiga computer (or WinUAE) which supported multi-colored fonts back in the 80's... you'll need to wait for developers to start supporting the new format that was released with Win 8.1."