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Lettering

Typed text is shaped with HarfBuzz (kerning, ligatures, script joins), turned into letter outlines, and digitized by the same engine as artwork, with extra rules for letters.

#Basics

• Click Text, type (Return starts a new line), pick a font, and set the height of the capital letters (an H) in inches.
• Also there: line alignment (left, centre, right), line spacing and letter spacing.
• New text starts in Arimo Bold, an included font. If Arimo is missing it takes Montserrat, then any included font, then Helvetica. The last font used is remembered.
• Characters the font doesn't have are left out, and the report says which.

#Fonts

• Each name is shown in its own font. Show my text shows your text in every font.
• Licences: each font's own licence fields are read. Fonts marked personal use, trial or non-commercial get a warning in the app and the report: buy a commercial licence before selling items made with them. Open licence fonts (OFL, Apache) are marked free for customer work.

#The included fonts

31 families under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 or Apache 2.0, from github.com/google/fonts. Both licences allow shipping them inside a sold program and put no condition on what is lettered with them. Groups: varsity and slab block, heavy sans, script, serif, blackletter, western, plain text.

Alfa Slab One, Anton, Archivo Black, Arimo, Arvo, Bebas Neue, Bevan, Black Ops One, Bungee, Cinzel, Dancing Script, Graduate, Kaushan Script, League Gothic, Libre Baskerville, Lobster, Montserrat, Mr Dafoe, Oleo Script, Oswald, Pacifico, Pirata One, Playball, Roboto Slab, Russo One, Rye, Squada One, Staatliches, Stardos Stencil, UnifrakturCook, Yellowtail.

#Stitch: Auto, Satin, Fill or Run

Notes:

• A sharp join (an N's diagonal meeting its stem) makes a letter wider than its strokes. That doesn't count toward Fill, since the join is split into columns anyway.
• Small lettering: under 0.25 in (6 mm), thin letters sew as a run; bold ones stay satin with the small-lettering rules (lighter density, little or no underlay: one short centre run under 5 mm, none under 4 mm).
• Run text: every crossbar, stem end and point is reached. Side branches go out as a bean and come back as a single run in the same holes. Nothing can hide travel between such thin letters, so it trims about once per letter. 60 wt thread gives the crispest result.

#Script fonts

• Script letters join; keep letter spacing at 0 so the joins stay closed.
• Each word sews as one path where it can.
• Under about 0.25 in, script sews rough as a run. 0.3 in or more is better.
• Thin strokes (under 1 mm) use a centre-line satin that turns with the pen path, splitting only at cusps.

#Block and varsity fonts

• Slab serifs are sewn as their own satin feet first, with the stroke finishing 0.4 mm on top of them.
• Letters are built from bars: an E's and F's arms, an L's foot, a T's crossbar, an H's stems come off as straight satins.
• Corners of a block O, G, S or Q are mitred: each column's stitches stay square and get shorter against the mitre line.
• Heavy cornered letters (a varsity E or S) may be cut into pieces each sewn at one fixed angle, when that is clearly cleaner.
• Each letter is built several ways and the cleanest is kept; the letters of a word are built alike.

#Arched text

• Shape: Arch up sets the line over the top of a circle; Arch down along its bottom (letters upright).
• Radius is the circle the letters' baseline sits on. The first arc spans about 80 degrees.
• Block letters stand square to the curve, each kept as the font draws it. Joined script is bent along the curve so its joins stay closed.
• Several lines sit on circles inside each other.
• An arched line keeps its circle while you edit: the middle of the circle stays put when the words, size or radius change.

#Badges

With a line arched, Add the other half of a badge adds a second line arched the other way, in the same font and size, on the same circle. The top line stands outside the circle; the bottom line (upright) hangs inside one a letter height larger, so both sit in one ring with room for a logo in the middle. Type over its placeholder text.

• Dragged a line off? Put it back on the other line's circle returns it.
• Changing one line's radius doesn't change the other's.

#Outlines

Under Thread, Satin outline round the letters sews a border in a second colour, last, as its own stop.

How it behaves:

• With no gap, it runs 0.4 mm in over the letters' edges so no fabric shows.
• It follows the counters (inside an O or A) when they are large enough.
• Letters close together share the outline between them.
• Travel between letters hides under it, so an outlined word often needs fewer trims.
• An outline wider than half the thinner letters' strokes is narrowed (not with a gap).
• Letters too thin to carry one (regular-weight fonts under about 0.7 in, small script, run text) are left without, with a note.
• Pick its thread under Threads like any other.

#Trim between letters

Letters that stand close together are joined by a short connecting stitch across the gap: fewer trims and a faster run, as most lettering is digitized. Switch on Trim between letters (under Stitch) to cut the thread there instead, so nothing shows between the letters, for about one more trim per letter.

• Shows most on condensed fonts at 0.5 in (Anton, Bebas Neue, League Gothic, Oswald).
• Script letters touch and sew on into each other either way.