Text Tools

Write words on the OSC-1 beam in any Google Font, Hershey single-stroke face or Handwriting, and animate them.

To write text on an oscilloscope with OSC-1, switch to CREATOR mode, open TEXT TOOLS in the left SOURCES panel, and type in WORDS. The beam draws the words at once. Pick a typeface in FONT LIBRARY or HERSHEY (SINGLE STROKE), choose a LETTER STYLE, and press WRITE or TRACER under ANIMATION to animate them.

TEXT TOOLS offers the same fonts, letter styles and text animations as Text to Laser, so a word looks the same on the scope as on a laser. It sits in SOURCES directly below SHAPE TOOLS, in CREATOR and PERFORMANCE mode.

How do I put text on the scope?

Switch to CREATOR in the OSC-1 header, then open TEXT TOOLS in the SOURCES panel. The TEXT card is open.

Type in WORDS ("Type what the beam should draw"). The words replace whatever the scope was playing, and the dot on the TEXT card lights green.

Move the words with SIZE, X and Y, and set how fast the beam redraws them with TRACE SPEED.

To keep the words as a shape for the Step Sequencer or Shape Sampler, press SAVE TO LIBRARY. It reads SAVED for a moment.

With LASER OUTPUT connected, the words go to the laser like any other OSC-1 source. Starting another source (a track, a generator, an SVG) takes the scope over; change anything in TEXT TOOLS to bring the words back. RESET TEXT clears the words and stops them.

OSC-1 Creator with TEXT TOOLS open and BEAM drawn in green on the scope — Type in WORDS to draw text on the scope.

TEXT card controls

The TEXT card with WORDS, LETTER STYLE, SIZE, position and TRACE SPEED controls

WORDS — the text to draw. Clearing it leaves the scope on the last words until another source starts or you press RESET TEXT.
FONT — which typeface is drawing: the Google Font from FONT LIBRARY, the Hershey face from HERSHEY (SINGLE STROKE), or BeamTracer Single Stroke for the HANDWRITING letter style.
LETTER STYLE — how words become strokes (see below). Hidden while a Hershey face is chosen, because Hershey faces are already single strokes.
SIZE — letter height, 20 to 500 (default 300). At large sizes a long word can run past the edge of the scope.
X and Y — where the middle of the words sits, 0 to 100 (default 50, the center). X 0 is the left edge; Y 0 is the top edge.
TRACE SPEED — how long the beam takes to draw the words once: ULTRA, FAST (the default), NORMAL or SMOOTH. Faster keeps long words steady; slower draws smoother lines and, with an animation, shows fewer of its frames. MIDI-learnable.
The readout under the sliders shows the words and how many line segments they use, or how many frames the animation has.
RESET TEXT and SAVE TO LIBRARY.

Which letter style should I use?

FONT OUTLINE — traces around each letter of the chosen Google Font. Best for bold faces.
CENTER TRACE — draws each stroke of the chosen font once, along its center. Best for thin and handwriting fonts, whose outlines otherwise draw every stroke twice as two nearly touching lines.
HANDWRITING — BeamTracer's single-stroke plotter alphabet: up to 18 letters, numbers, spaces and + − - . ! ? / : °. Longer text shows "Handwriting supports up to 18 characters. Shorten the text or choose Font Outline." Other characters show a message instead of being dropped.

Single-stroke letters use far fewer points than outlines, so they draw brighter and steadier on a scope.

BEAM traced around the edges of bold letters — FONT OUTLINE — the edges of each letter.

BEAM drawn along the center of each letter stroke — CENTER TRACE — one path through each stroke.

BEAM in the single-stroke Handwriting alphabet — HANDWRITING — single-stroke lettering.

FONT LIBRARY

Open FONT LIBRARY to browse more than 1,500 Google Fonts. Search by name in Search fonts..., narrow the list with the All, Serif, Sans Serif, Display, Handwriting and Monospace tabs, and press Load More for the next 20. Each card previews your words in that font; the chosen one reads Selected. Choosing a font also hands the words back from a Hershey face. The FONT LIBRARY dot lights while a Google Font is drawing.

HERSHEY (SINGLE STROKE)

Open HERSHEY (SINGLE STROKE) for the 32 Hershey faces, grouped as ROMAN & SANS, SCRIPT, GOTHIC, GREEK, CYRILLIC and SYMBOLS. Each card previews your words in the face's own strokes. The top line of the section names the chosen face. Search by name in Search single-stroke faces.... A Hershey face overrides LETTER STYLE; choose a font in FONT LIBRARY to go back.

HERSHEY library with Roman Simplex selected and BEAM drawn on the scope — Roman Simplex draws the words with single strokes.

How do I animate the text?

Open ANIMATION and choose a QUICK STARTS button:

WRITE — writes the words stroke by stroke, then holds them and starts again.
TRACER — runs two bright comets around the letters.
GLITCH — breaks and offsets small pieces of the letters.

Each choice adds an editable card with the same settings as in Text to Laser: Trace Reveal for WRITE (its Duration sets how long the writing takes, 16 seconds by default), Beam Runners for TRACER (Runners, Speed, Tail) and Glitch for GLITCH. The card's play button starts the animation from the beginning, its reset button restores the defaults, and X removes it. CLEAR removes the animation and draws the words still again. Choosing another quick start replaces the one in use.

Every frame of an animation waits for the one on the scope to finish, so each frame is drawn whole on the scope, on a laser and in the output preview.

BEAM text animated with WRITE — WRITE — stroke-by-stroke lettering, with Duration set to 4 seconds and Hold to 1 second. Hover to watch.

BEAM text animated with TRACER — TRACER — two bright comets follow the letters. Hover to watch.

BEAM text animated with GLITCH — GLITCH — pieces of the letters shift and break apart. Hover to watch.

Where did Handwriting in Shape Morph go?

Writing text moved from SHAPE TOOLS → SHAPE MORPH to TEXT TOOLS. Choose HANDWRITING under LETTER STYLE and press WRITE under ANIMATION for the same left-to-right writing, now with every font and Hershey face as well.

BEAM drawn with the HANDWRITING letter style — Choose HANDWRITING in TEXT TOOLS to use the single-stroke alphabet.