This could also be a dull cutter or the metal itself. I keep one diamond drag for engraving brass only, a second one for plated gifts and a third for stainless steel.
You can check your font quality by printing out a large copy of it or just zooming in on the screen. (ctrl and O)
A few years ago we had a problem with the metal. At the tops of round edges or the cross strokes, the laquer coating would chip away resulting in what you call spiders. The cross overs might look like they extend to far but might actually be the laquer chipping off past where the cutter stops. We still get it once in awhile on some metals or when the cutters get dull. Sometimes it isn't noticeable until oxidized if it is satin brass, etc.
But we did also have 1 16x25 that had slightly wobbly vertical strokes. We ended up shipping it back to Xenetech for new rails, lead screws etc.
That machine was 8-10 years old with heavy use with hatch fills with a lot of back and forth movement.
Sometimes marginal quality metal can be useable by changing the spring tension or the downward pressure in the send dialog. Sometimes a light film of oil will prevent the metal from chipping. You don't want to have to do that all the time but it would help you troubleshoot the problem. If it cures the problem it is the laquer coating.
Xenetech tech support is good at figuring out problems. They had us send an engraved sample of a layout they provided. It showed the defects and they could tell what it was. Ours is non-viper. The viper may even have diagnostics they can access online to check.
The fonts haven't changed much. Some older ones don't have the accents and tildas we require with a large Hispanic area. We have several versions but not much different in the stroke path itself.
If it is an issue with bad kerning that can be corrected with the auto kerning turned on. You can also edit the ini file for any Xenetech or truetype font through the menu to change the amount of space between any two letter combinations permanently anytime that font is used.
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