It’s been asked a few times over the years. Can we get a vertical text functionality (meaning the text is vertical but letters are horizontal)?
This can of course be achieved by pressing Enter after each character - the problem is that this renders Variable Text useless (bad format). Another solution would be to allow Variable Text to ignore new lines.
This is the only reason we still have to use Illustrator before importing to lightburn, when making a lot of vertical serial numbers.
I agree 
Just a thought. Perhaps there’s an available font where the characters are already rotated 90 degrees. If not, maybe someone could create one?
There appears to be a vertical text feature suggestion out there already, so best to vote it up to help get noticed for inclusion in a future release.
I think this is the closest post on Fider to what you’re wanting.
Please upvote and comment here:
Is the serial number coming from a spreadsheet?
Have you considered using a spreadsheet to automatically split a serial number into individual characters?
As an example, here in Google Sheets the serial number in column A, has been split out to B,C,D using the formula in B1 shown here:
You can then set out your number in LightBurn vertically, with each character as a separate text object - which you can then map to a column position using the % sign followed by the column number which starts at 0 (see in red below):
In this example, here is the saved .csv file from the spreadsheet above:
You can see here I have %0 for the horizonal number but I have also used %1, %2 and %3 for a vertical number:
@NicholasL Thank you, neat solution. However if I’m going to go to such lenghts to do this then I can also use my current workflow: paste the numbers to my illustrator template that turns them vertical and basically ready to cut while at it. Save as curves → import to lightburn.
It’d be just somewhat more convenient to be able to do this ad hoc without needing to jump around various software.and “Somewhat” here can amount to quite a lot over time. It just feels like a limitation that shouldn’t be there when otherwise the variable text and arrays work so well.
No problem, I must also mention that a huge advantage of using Variable Text in LightBurn is the ‘Auto Advance’ feature, when enabled, each time you click ‘Send’ all the serial numbers in the job will automatically be updated.
So, although not your sought-after solution, I’m sure this would still save you a heap of time compared to preparing and importing batches of curves from Illustrator.
I’ll add that if you have a list of numbers, you could use a program like Notepad++ that would very easily be able to comma separate all of the numbers in it in a few seconds. It has a very feature rich macro capability that allows you to do some amazing text manipulation very quickly and easily. So, might not be as daunting a task as you think it is to change your text file.
Yes, however we can generate the numbers no problem - also any spreadsheet is v good for that. But say I generated 1000 numbers in Notepad ++, how do I paste them into lightburn so that they fit into the 1000 text objects I have arranged on the canvas, so that every text is written vertically?
Maybe this would be possible with some crazy hoop jumping with the CSV data source, or the solution @NicholasL proposed, but then again. 10x easier if serial text could just work vertically.
I was trying to offer some advice on how to comma separate your numbers so you could use Variable Text to create your vertical serial numbers. It would be very quick to set up, and much easier than typing everything in. I’m not suggesting that there is no need for vertical text, I’m simply trying to provide some assistance to get your projects finished in the most automated way possible given the current set of tools available in LightBurn. With Variable Text and the Array function, it could be easily accomplished with the tools I have suggested. There is no crazy hoop jumping involved, could be set up in a couple of minutes and would give perfect alignment. Take it for what it’s worth and have a good day.
I didn’t mean to dismiss; sorry if it came across like that. Just trying to drive the point home in this thread that no matter what you do it would be significantly faster & easier with the functionality in question build in. Have a good day sir! Notepad++ is, for the record, a great piece of software. Have been using it on occasion since the early 2000s
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
