Text¶

One of the unique features of PCBmodE is that any font – as long as it is in SVG form – can be used for any text on the board.

Fonts¶

SVG fonts have an SVG path for every glyph, and other useful information about how to place the font so the glyphs align. PCBmodE uses that information to place text on the board’s layers.

The folder in which PCBmodE looks for a font is defined in the the configuration file pcbmode_config.json.

{
  "locations":
  {
    "boards": "boards/",
    "components": "components/",
    "fonts": "fonts/",
    "build": "build/",
    "styles": "styles/"
  }
}

When looking for a font file, PCBmodE will first look at the local project folder and then where pcbmode.py is.

Tip

When you find a font that you’d like to use, search for an SVG version of it. Many fonts at http://www.fontsquirrel.com have an SVG version for download.

Defining text¶

A text definition looks like the following

{
  "type": "text",
  "layers": ["bottom"],
  "font-family": "Overlock-Regular-OTF-webfont",
  "font-size": "1.5mm",
  "letter-spacing": "0mm",
  "line-height": "1.5mm",
  "location": [
    -32.39372,
    -33.739699
  ],
  "rotate": 0,
  "style": "fill",
  "value": "Your text\nhere!"
}

type: text: place a text element
layers (optional; default ["top"]): list: layers to place the shape on (even if placing on a single layer, the definition needs to be in a form of a list)
font-family: text: The name of the font file, without the .svg
font-size: float: font size in mm (the mm must be present)
value: text: the text to display; use \n for newline
letter-spacing (optional; default 0mm): float: positive/negative value increases/decreases the spacing. 0mm maintains the natural spacing defined by the font
line-height (optional; defaults to font-size): float: the distance between lines; a negative value is allowed
location (optional; default [0, 0]): list: x and y to place the center of the text object
rotate (optional; default 0): float: rotation, clock-wise degrees
style (optional; default depends on sheet): stroke or fill: style of the shape
stroke-width (optional; default depends on sheet; ignored unless style is stroke): float: stroke width