HP 7475a plotter questions

[Harryarmst]

I have purchased a HP 7475a plotter to try and experiment with making vinyl decals. I have the plotter hooked up to a windows 98 machine and it seems to print fine. I have a couple of questions though:

1) When I create some text with a fancy font in powerpoint, it converts the fancy font to some other simple, single line font when it plots.
2) I am assuming there is a difference between printing from an application and plotting?
3) What type of application is compatible with this plotter that will plot (cut) the outline of a fancy type font?
4) Is there a simple app that someone can recommend that will just print text? I am just looking to make decals of text.

Thanks,
Harry in Orlando, FL

[gregsnovas]

try a free 2d cad program

http://www.freebyte.com/cad/cad.htm

in adobe illustrator or corel draw convert text to paths

that hp stores fonts to memory so if you use a cad drawing or a path form adobe illustrator it will plot fine