How to Download and Install a Pathhaus Font as OTF
Every font you create with the SLF Tracer or Handwriting Capture can be downloaded as an installable OTF file. Once installed on your computer, the font appears in LightBurn, Inkscape, Affinity Designer, CorelDRAW, and any other application that uses system fonts. Marketplace fonts with download rights can also be downloaded as OTF. This guide covers where to find the download, how to install it on Windows and macOS, and how to use it in the most common laser and plotter applications.
Where to download your font as OTF
For fonts you have created: go to the SLF Tracer (pathhaus.com/create/tracer) after reviewing your glyphs, and click the Download OTF button in the Publish panel. The OTF file downloads immediately — no account action required. For marketplace fonts you have purchased with download rights: go to the marketplace detail page for the font, scroll to the "Your downloads" section, and click Download OTF. This section only appears after purchasing a download-enabled license.
Installing on macOS
Double-click the downloaded .otf file. Font Book opens and shows a preview of the font. Click Install Font. The font is now installed system-wide and will appear in every application on your Mac. To confirm the installation, open Inkscape or Affinity Designer and look for the font name in the font picker. If the application was already open, you may need to restart it for the new font to appear.
Installing on Windows
Right-click the downloaded .otf file and select Install (installs for your user account only) or Install for all users (requires administrator). The font installs immediately and appears in all applications. If an application was already open, restart it to pick up the new font. In some versions of Windows, you can also install by opening the Fonts control panel, dragging the .otf file into the panel window.
Using the installed font in LightBurn
In LightBurn, create a text object and open the font picker. Search for the font by name. Select it — the text renders as single strokes immediately, with no conversion required. LightBurn reads the zero-width contour encoding in the OTF file and treats each letterform as a single path. Adjust font size, character spacing, and line spacing as you would with any LightBurn text object, then send to your laser. No SVG export from Pathhaus is needed when you use the installed OTF directly in LightBurn.
Using the installed font in Inkscape
In Inkscape, use the Text tool and select the font by name from the toolbar font picker. Type your text. The font renders as hairline strokes in Inkscape preview. Before sending to a plotter or laser: select the text, go to Path → Object to Path to convert the text to bezier paths. This ensures the letterforms are treated as paths rather than text objects by the AxiDraw plugin or your export process. Then use Extensions → AxiDraw or your preferred workflow to send to the machine.
What the OTF file contains
The downloaded OTF file contains all glyphs in the font, encoded using the zero-width closed contour technique standard across the single-line font industry. It includes pair kerning if you added kerning pairs via Font Tools. The font installs and behaves exactly like any other font on your system. The OTF format uses cubic bezier curves — the same curves Pathhaus uses internally — so there is no quality loss in the download. If you later update the font in Pathhaus (fix glyphs, add kerning), you will need to download and reinstall the OTF to get the updated version.
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