F-Engrave Linux Tutorial

Installation Steps

Download the latest src zip file
Extract the files
Move the files to the directory you created
Simplfy the name
Make it executable
Replace DOS line endings with Unix line endings
Test run
TTF2CXF_STREAM Setup
Potrace Setup
Fonts

Download

Download the latest F-Engrave-n.nn_src.zip from Scorchworks F-Engrave Download page to a fresh directory, I’ll use fengrave as the example.

Extract the files

In most modern Linux distributions you can left click on directory and select Open in Terminal. This will open a terminal window in that directory. Otherwise open a terminal window from the menu and cd to the directory.

Note: for terminal commands you only type in what’s after the $.

john@mint ~ $ cd fengrave
john@mint ~/fengrave $

Right click on the zip file and select Extract Here.

If you don’t have that option in the terminal you can unzip it.

john@mint ~/fengrave $ unzip F-Engrave-1.65_src.zip
Archive:  F-Engrave-1.65_src.zip
  inflating: F-Engrave-1.65_src/build.bat
  inflating: F-Engrave-1.65_src/fengrave.ico
  inflating: F-Engrave-1.65_src/f-engrave-165.py
  inflating: F-Engrave-1.65_src/gpl-3.0.txt
  inflating: F-Engrave-1.65_src/INSTALL.txt
  inflating: F-Engrave-1.65_src/py2exe_setup.py
   creating: F-Engrave-1.65_src/TTF2CXF_STREAM/
  inflating: F-Engrave-1.65_src/TTF2CXF_STREAM/gpl-2.0.txt
  inflating: F-Engrave-1.65_src/TTF2CXF_STREAM/INSTALL.txt
  inflating: F-Engrave-1.65_src/TTF2CXF_STREAM/Makefile
  inflating: F-Engrave-1.65_src/TTF2CXF_STREAM/ttf2cxf_stream.cpp

Move the Files

You need to next copy all the files to the fengrave directory. Do this in the file browser or in a terminal do the following.

john@cave-mint ~/fengrave $ mv -v ~/fengrave/F-Engrave-1.65_src/* ~/fengrave
‘/home/john/fengrave/F-Engrave-1.65_src/build.bat’ -> ‘/home/john/fengrave/build.bat’
‘/home/john/fengrave/F-Engrave-1.65_src/f-engrave-165.py’ -> ‘/home/john/fengrave/f-engrave-165.py’
‘/home/john/fengrave/F-Engrave-1.65_src/fengrave.ico’ -> ‘/home/john/fengrave/fengrave.ico’
‘/home/john/fengrave/F-Engrave-1.65_src/gpl-3.0.txt’ -> ‘/home/john/fengrave/gpl-3.0.txt’
‘/home/john/fengrave/F-Engrave-1.65_src/INSTALL.txt’ -> ‘/home/john/fengrave/INSTALL.txt’
‘/home/john/fengrave/F-Engrave-1.65_src/py2exe_setup.py’ -> ‘/home/john/fengrave/py2exe_setup.py’
‘/home/john/fengrave/F-Engrave-1.65_src/TTF2CXF_STREAM’ -> ‘/home/john/fengrave/TTF2CXF_STREAM’

Change the Name

Change the name to drop the number part and the extension which is not needed. In your file browser right click on the file name and select rename.

The terminal way:

john@mint ~/fengrave $ mv f-engrave-165.py fengrave

Make it Executable

Next you need to make the file executable. Right click and selectProperties. In the Permissions tab select Allow executing file as program.

The terminal way:

john@mint ~/fengrave $ sudo chmod +x fengrave

Change Line Endings

The last thing before trying to run fengrave on linux is to change the line endings from DOS to Unix. Most file editors you can save as and select Unix line endings.

The terminal way:

john@mint ~/fengrave $ sed -i.bak 's/\r$//' fengrave

Test Run

Now test run by click (or double click) on fengrave and it should run.

Or in the terminal:

john@mint ~/fengrave $ ./fengrave

TTF2CXF_STREAM Setup

In the terminal:

Change to the TTF2CXF_STREAM directory

john@cave-mint ~/fengrave $ cd TTF2CXF_STREAM

Install libfreetype6-dev

john@cave-mint ~/fengrave/TTF2CXF_STREAM $ sudo apt-get install libfreetype6-dev
[sudo] password for john:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
libfreetype6-dev is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded.

Install TTF2CXF_STREAM

john@cave-mint ~/fengrave/TTF2CXF_STREAM $ sudo make install
g++ -o ttf2cxf_stream ttf2cxf_stream.cpp -lm -I/usr/include/freetype2 -lfreetype
Installing... ttf2cxf_stream
/usr/bin/install -m 755 -t /usr/local/bin ttf2cxf_stream
Done Installing...

Test TTF2CXF_STREAM

john@mint ~/fengrave/TTF2CXF_STREAM $ ttf2cxf_stream
Usage: ttf2cxf <options> <ttf file> <cxf file>
  ttf file: An existing True Type Font file
  cxf file: The CXF font file to create
options are:
  -s seg_arc_limit               Arc angle approximation limit (double)
  -a author                      Author of the font. Preferably full name and e-mail address
  -l letter spacing              Letter spacing (float)
  -w word spacing                Word spacing (float)
  -f line spacing factor         Default is 1.0 (float)
  -e enable extended characters

Potrace

Potrace transforms bitmaps into vector graphics

Debian and Ubuntu in a terminal

john@cave-mint ~ $ sudo apt-get install potrace

Other distros see the Potrace web page.

Test the install

john@mint ~ $ potrace -v
potrace 1.11. Copyright (C) 2001-2013 Peter Selinger.
Library version: potracelib 1.11
Default unit: inches
Default page size: letter

Fonts

Most TTF fonts will work. First you want to create a font directory in the fengrave directory to keep your fonts in.

john@mint ~/fengrave $ mkdir fonts

Download some fonts and put them in the font directory

Run fengrave and in Settings > General Settings pick the font directory then click on save.

Requirements

I’m doing this tutorial in Linux Mint 18, most recent versions of linux should work fine.