Low tech robot numbers aren't that easy

[jvriezen]

When reading the rules, I made the assumption that the blue box under R2 was implying that you could just select the suggested font and size, print in landscape and quickly print your legal team number on any typical laser printer on 8.5x11 paper.

I actually tried this with our team number (4859) and it took me about 5 attempts to meet all the requirements.

For my setup, using MS Word 2013, Landscape setup, I set the font to Impact, size 323, and then had to go to the Advanced tab in Font settings, set Spacing to Condensed, and set the Condensed 'By:' value to 10 pt. (Larger number here scrunches numbers together more) I set margins to 1".

This satisfied nearly everything-- the left margin was slightly < 1" and a small portion of the '5' where the curved part meets the vertical and the small join point on the '9' was < .5".

Oh, and the font color was black and the paper was white 8.5"x11"

I arrived at the font size by printing in the recommended point size which was bigger than needed, and then calculating the percentage overage, and using that to determine the point size that would result in 3.5" numbers exactly (and suprisingly, .5" stroke on the narrowest sustained stroke.) I guess the recommended 362 pt font may meet the .5" stroke.

Of course, if you print on wider paper (e.g. 8.5 x 14) then you can use a larger font, but I have access to lamination at only 8.5 x 11.

[MrForbes]

I think we spent two days, with two or three students working on the problem.

They found a font with a mostly constant stroke width, of just over .5" when printed at 3.5" height, and then did some magic with horizontal spacing and shrinking to fit it on the paper.

Everything is a challenge.

[sanddrag]

Inkscape? Two pieces of paper?

I'm very worried about this year if such a simple task as numbers presents this much of a challenge.

[cmrnpizzo14]

I know that in GIMP (I have never actually downloaded photoshop) you can set a size in inches for an image. Shouldn't this simplify the numbers? Might be a little tedious, but at the very least you could make each individual number as its own image and then print them and paste them next to eachother.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I'm very worried about this year if such a simple task as numbers presents this much of a challenge.

That's easy for you to say, Mr. three-digit-team-number!

[JamesCH95]

Well... I'd think that 1/2in wide black electrical tape would get the job done... But hey, I'm just a mechanical guy, not a graphical designer.

[Abhishek R]

Some software, like Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, and GIMP will let you set the dimensions of your canvas to inches, then you can work off of that. It's like CAD for images, literally.

I believe the last two I listed are free, last time I checked. Inkscape especially is particularly nice, for a free product, though I personally prefer Macromedia Fireworks/Illustrator.

[jvriezen]

My primary point was that the Blue Box seemed to lead you toward a minimal solution using a common word processor font, but going down that path led to far more issues that I would have guessed. Yes, there are lots of ways to make it work that are slightly more involved than opening MSWord and setting font and font size.

Teams that are ignoring the number issue until the last minute and figuring they'll just whip something up in MSWord and print on card stock or laminate something will get frustrated and/or not pass inspection.

[GeeTwo]

I dusted off some decades-old tech and developed a postscript solution meeting the specs and fitting on a US letter page. Most of the strokes are about 5/16", none that I saw under 9/32". The sample below actually has three separate numbers: 3946, 0125, and 7844.
These were chosen based on my team's number, including all ten digits, and the fact that "4" is the widest digit. Just use one of the blocks of code and replace the appropriate four digits with your team number. (1, 2, and 3 digit teams can delete one or more of the first three digit lines):

%!PS-Adobe
20 setlinewidth 0 setgray
/Helvetica findfont 350 scalefont setfont
/showchar {currentpoint 2 index false charpath stroke
           moveto               true  charpath fill} def 

90 rotate 0 -500 translate
0.75 1 scale
27 setlinewidth 1 setlinejoin
130 108 moveto (3) showchar 
330 108 moveto (9) showchar 
540 108 moveto (4) showchar 
750 108 moveto (6) showchar  showpage

90 rotate 0 -500 translate
0.75 1 scale
27 setlinewidth 1 setlinejoin
120 108 moveto (0) showchar 
330 108 moveto (1) showchar  
540 108 moveto (2) showchar 
750 108 moveto (5) showchar showpage

90 rotate 0 -500 translate
0.75 1 scale
27 setlinewidth 1 setlinejoin
120 108 moveto (7) showchar 
330 108 moveto (8) showchar 
540 108 moveto (4) showchar 
750 108 moveto (4) showchar showpage

If you have linux, you can use it pretty directly. If you have windows, you'll have to get ghostscript and ghostview (gs and gsview). I'm attaching PDFs of my sample file so those with windows can preview it.