Vintage Circuit-Diagram Lettering!

[paulsherwin]

Put the file(s) in a zip archive and upload that.

[JohnBG8JMB]

How to cheat...hopefully the font is attached as a .txt file. 'stcil - copy.txt' Change the .txt to .ttf [ stcil - copy.ttf ] then you can install it

Sadly, upper case only and best if the .bmp file is black and white.

JohnB

[julie_m]

The easiest way probably is just to change the extension to something else, and post a note saying what it should be changed back to.

It should work on a Mac or Linux, even with the wrong extension, though .....

[mole42uk]

Works on Macintosh (10.12 Sierra)

[Chris55000]

Hi!

My apologies for bringing this one up again everyone!

I'm afraid, even using NOS "Uno" pen nibs and the maker's pen handle, I can't get neat and tidy stencilled letters like those in Radio Constructor et. ai. – they all come out furry with huge bulbous ends or ink just blobs everywhere!

(Incidentally, you sometimes see this in 1950s/1960s Newnes books or diagrams in "RTVS" diagrams where Newnes redrew a very poor maker's diagram if you look very closely)

I have a few almost empty bottles of the original Uno Ink but it's hopeless, even following the directions in the original booklets – there are lettering samples in the booklets but only a few letters & figures are given, so scanning the samples given is no good unless you'll only want ABCDE and 01234!

However, I did see a packet of "Uniball" Technical Lettering Pens in the window of my local Rymans last weekend – has anyone tried using these pens with 1950s/1960s era stencils?

If the modern pens aren't suitable, can anyone recommend a modern brand of ink?

Chris Williams

I promise there'll be TTF files uploaded for everyone to use when I finally succeed at this lettering project!

[emeritus]

Could it be the paper? Some modern photocopy paper is rather porous and doesn't like water-based inks. The old drawings could have been made on tracing cloth or tracing paper that doesn't wick the ink.

I use fountain pen and find copier type paper does this, my "Red and Black" lab books don't have this problem.

[dseymo1]

Perhaps the best substrate for this is drafting film.
As always, the correct materials make the job much easier.

[David G4EBT]

During my apprenticeship back in the late 1950s, I spent three months in a drawing office using UNO stencils pens (the type with an ink reservoir and a pin down the fine tubular nib), drawing tracings of large scale OS plans onto tracing paper (known outside the UK as 'vegetal' paper). It was an acquired skill, but the Indian ink wasn't absorbed into the tracing paper, so once dried, and errors could be flicked off the tracing paper with a razor blade and corrected. (The tracing were used as masks in a UV box onto light sensitive duplicating paper).

When Uno pens were used on 'cartridge paper' they didn't make a very neat job as the fibres tended to behave like blotting paper, though that said, ink-jet printers seem to cope well enough on unglazed copier paper.

Every success in your efforts.

[Chris55000]

Hi!

I've ordered a cheap pack of A4 Draughting Film, and I'll see how I get on with this, both using the "Uno" pens and I'll try with the "Uni-Ball" pens as well.

I do remember my College Lecturer, Mr. Wrathall from W.R. Tuson College once brought some Op-Amp Circuits drawn on draughting-film, large size, to pin up on the blackboard so he could explain the principles to us, one thing I immediately noticed was the lettering he'd written, which was upright "Radio Constructor" style, see picture 1, post no 12 in this thread!

I also have two College-Level Technical Drawing theory books, these were written using the "Wireless World" Condensed-style Upright Lettering, picture 4 in post no. 12 - the introductory chapter of the first book in the two-volume series stated that, (a principle I have always followed to this day) "Technical Drawing Lettering should always have the simplest possible forms", which is why the fancy efforts of Pitman, etc., that insist on ancient "seriffed-style" lettering going back to pre-war days in their books has always irked me!

Chris Williams

[suebutcher]

Tech pens and cartridge paper don't mix. I use Bainbridge Mechanical Ruling 2000 Illustration Board, which is designed for technical pens with pigment ink, and erasure with single-edge razor blades. It also costs a fortune. Good quality draughting film is cheaper and should work.

[Chris55000]

Hi !

I've now gathered together all the necessary stencils and a font creator package to encode the character glyphs into a true TTF file that any drawing, cad, circuit or word–processor tool can use – the first reproduction font will be the sloping P.W. one!

Believe me, it's a lot harder and longer task than first appears, you need a good scanner or camera and a vector drawing tool capable of bezier manipulation, then there's "kerning" to get right – obviously kerning was second nature to a skilled draughtsman.

Don't forget, a lot of British circuit symbols were themselves stencilled – the BBC books on Television & Video engineering used Uno "BB4" and "BB5" stencils in their production.

Anyway the lettering is coming and the files will be on here as soon as I complete them satisfactorily!

Chris Williams