What the Font are we talking about? - Embroidery Machine Text

People ask about lettering all the time.  Minimum sizing, font styles, keyboard vs. digitized, are all valid questions.  Here’s a quick primer on machine embroidered text.

Most embroidery designs with lettering are company logos of some sort, which is mostly what commercial embroiders do.  Lettering is important because it carries the pertinent information the client wants people to see, marketing the company name and other business information.

I only use keyboard lettering if it is an exact match to the design (or in the case of multiple names for personalizations) and even when I do, I always have to edit or “clean” it to ensure that it will sew properly and have correct pull compensation.* The rest of the time, it’s more effective to digitize the lettering by hand. It almost takes more time to edit the “canned”* text and the customer gets lettering that exactly matches their art.

That being said, customers will sometimes tell you what font they want on their designs naming a print font they like.  You should know that some embroidery fonts are named the same as their print counterparts but many are not.  Likewise, different embroidery softwares may have different names for the same font.  Certainly, not all print fonts make good embroidery styles.

You should also know that not all embroidery softwares do a great job on keyboard lettering. Many do not, therefore, you should understand what good lettering looks like and how proper characters are pathed and formed to determine if your software is creating letters correctly.  No software is perfect which is why there will always be things you will and should adjust. This is one place where it becomes apparent that all embroidery softwares are not created equal and the cream rises to the top. (IMHO Wilcom has dedicated more time and years of experience in creating their algorithms for lettering and consequently has some of the best keyboard lettering results on the market;  Melco a close second. ) (and yes, I used the W word and the M word in the same sentence)

You can purchased additional coded fonts to add to your keyboard lettering from the manufacturer of your software. These have a specific extension and are created to work with your software program.  (You can also purchase stylized “fonts” online which are really just separately digitized letters that can be used for monograms or to spell words and names.  Each letter is a separate file and you must paste them together to do so)

When using keyboard fonts, follow the software creator’s parameters for each font including size range and join method.* There is a reason they give you that information; you’ll get much better results. Not all fonts can sew effectively at a minimum size of ¼”

Remember, much about the way lettering sews has to do with the fabric also. Nylons and twills can handle smaller text better than knits and denims, sewing the exact same size and font. Be sure to use the correct densities, underlay and traveling stitches for crisp letters.

In the end, “canned” fonts can save you time if you get familiar with the ones in your software and understand their limitations. Oh, and one last thing. Many softwares have a true type font conversion which sounds great in theory but don’t bother. I haven’t seen one yet that didn't suck.

·         “Canned” fonts – slang for keyboard created, pre-digitized coded text

·         Pull compensation – a setting related to stitching that increases width to compensate for the pull of the fabric which draws inward due to thread tension.

·         Join Method – how the software configures the path of the letters and where the crossover stitch between letters will be.

Donna Lehmann has been in the commercial side of the industry for 22 years.  For more information on NeedleUp’s Digitizing services, email Donna at donna@needleup.com or call 303-287-6633 for info and pricing.  Visit www.needleup.com/gallery  to see some of our most recent work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Embroidery Digitizing - Let’s Talk Lettering – Part II

In Part I of Let’s Talk Lettering, we talked about keyboard lettering, when we use it and some of its limitations. In part II we’re discussing how we charge and talking about text with your customers.

Charging for Lettering Jobs:

Many shops charge per name when doing a list of personalizations such as right chest names or even name drops into stock designs or under company logos.  Some may even charge per letter. The major softwares have a “team name” function built in to make the long lists of names and the application of doing these one at a time, go smoother and faster. This is when you’ll use your keyboard text most.

However you decide to charge for your services, take into consideration the time it takes to hoop each shirt individually for the names in addition to the application of any design on the opposite side, since this is a separate hooping.  Even if you’re using the “team name” function under a logo, you will have to stop the machine once the design is finished to load the individual names. If you have a long list of names, it can be time consuming so make sure you’re charging for your time.

If I am adding lettering or a tagline to a customer’s existing logo, usually I will just charge an edit fee, even if I’m digitizing the letters manually. If I can use keyboard lettering and it matches what the customer is asking for, I will use that and “clean” up the letters, adjusting them for fabric pull and usually tweaking the corners and joints.  Once you get into more than just a tagline or the whole logo is basically lettering or a design or icon is included, then I’m charging for a full logo by stitch count and almost always digitizing the lettering by hand.

As you get better at digitizing your lettering, you’ll find you use the keyboard text less because it’s easier and more time efficient to digitize the letters correctly from the start rather than edit keyboard text more.

For the customer’s benefit:

Convenience and organization dictates that you have a printed list of sample text in the fonts you offer customers in your shop.  Be familiar with your regular fonts and insure that they are the ones that sew well in every day practice.  There will be many fonts in your software and not all of them will be winners. Also be aware that the more fonts you offer, the longer it will take the customer to make a decision, so handing them a 3” thick binder of fonts, may not be what you want to do.  Displaying a list including 4-5 scripts, 4-5 blocks and 4-5 serifed font styles should be your basics. When a customer asks about other styles, you have a chance to talk to them and provide a more custom experience and more fonts to look at.

Be sure to also know approximately how many characters per inch you can sew in each font. The customer will appreciate your expertise and you’ll be able to quickly help them find a lettering style that will work for their job. An easy way to display your basic fonts is to sew them and frame them for the wall or counter. This way the customer can actually see the letters in thread.

For full logos, the lettering is usually a part of a customer’s company design and the lettering should look exactly like their logo. They’re paying for a custom job so if the keyboard font doesn’t look exactly like their art, and many times it won’t, don’t use it.

I get jobs sometimes that have very tiny lettering under them for a tagline (way under minimum standard) and the customer wants me to recreate the design at the same size. They’ll tell me they want the same lettering but make it look better. This is when educating the customer comes into play. You have to discuss the design with the customer and tell them why the lettering looks bad on their original. If the text is too small to sew well on their fabric, give them options like enlarging and stacking or moving the text to a better location.

Lettering is probably one of the biggest challenges to master that embroiderers’ face. There’s no match for practice and experience. Keep notes of what works, sizes and settings. It’s never a waste of time. Almost all company logos have lettering, unless you’re the owner of the “swish” or “the little man playing polo on a horse”. J

 

NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned and operated by Donna Lehmann, a 20yr veteran of the embroidery/digitizing industry. She can be reached at NeedleUp, donna@needleup.com or  303-287-6633 for digitizing, consultation and classes M-F

Embroidery Digitizing - Let's Talk Lettering - Part I

Let’s talk lettering – Part I

Every embroidery software, from the simplest home software to the most expensive commercial software, has a lettering function of some kind.  In the past, the quality of the keyboard embroidered letters has varied amongst these as has the functionality of the softwares to manipulate and edit them. These days, the user friendliness has gotten much better even in the lower cost softwares and the differences from brand to brand are blurring more and more.

But I don’t want to talk about specific brands of embroidery software or their keyboard fonts. I mention this to say that there is a time and a place for using keyboard lettering and a time when custom lettering should be used.   A good digitizer knows which is called for on each job.

Since I am a custom digitizer working in the commercial industry, I use the keyboard lettering maybe $30% to 40% of the time. The rest of the time, my lettering is custom digitized by hand, specifically for the customer’s logo. Even when using keyboard lettering, the individual letters still needed to be edited for the fabric and for pull compensation. Never do I use keyboard lettering straight “out of the can” and my software creates great lettering, however, no keyboard font can automatically adjust for every fabric or design situation.  

If you’re new to digitizing, you may tend to crutch on the font lettering but avoid doing this too much.  Watch designs with lettering that sews well to see how the letters join and corner for a better understanding of how lettering should look and path. What you learn you will apply to your hand digitized lettering.

As for keyboard lettering itself, familiarize yourself with what your lettering can do and recommended sizes for each font, understanding that some lettering styles do better at smaller sizes than others. If you are extensively editing the keyboard font you’re using, you are better off digitizing the letters by hand. There’s a “gray area” once you get down to ¼” letters and below.  There are some fonts that will do fine at a slightly smaller size (Usually these are block type fonts with no serifs) but fabric strongly comes into play at that point as to whether they will sew cleanly. There’s no way to insure the design will do well as the customer sews the design on multiple fabrics, but staying above the ¼” standard font size for basic lettering will help. With wildly different fabrics, like fleece and terry, you will need an alternate version of your design to accommodate those incorporating more underlay and density.

Certain fabrics or designs will allow block lettering as small as .16” tall to sew fairly descent, especially nylons and twill.  Fabrics such as knits and some piques are rather unforgiving even with ¼” lettering and will “sawtooth” much more. Generally, the smaller the letters, the lower the density but you have to hit the “sweet spot”. Dense enough for coverage and smooth edges but not so much as to cause crowded spacing, knots and bunching at the joints and bulging of the letters themselves. This is the reason that it’s preferable to know the fabric the design is intended for right up front.

I want to take a moment here to mention True Type font conversions. Keyboard embroidered lettering created from TT fonts on your software.  A few of these do, just, OK.  Most suck. None of them compare to digitizing lettering by hand. I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and I just don’t go there, nuf said.

Understanding the dynamics of embroidered lettering, densities, underlays, column widths and pull compensation and how each of these relate to different fabric biases and types will take you farther down the road than just always using keyboard fonts.

In Part II, we’ll cover the customer side and charging for your time with lettering.

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NeedleUp Digitizing LLC is owned and operated by Donna Lehmann, a 20yr veteran of the embroidery/digitizing industry. She can be reached at NeedleUp, donna@needleup.com or  303-287-6633 for digitizing, consultation and classes M-F.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Auto-digitizing....Not what it's cracked up to be

You've heard the hype. There are lots of auto-digitizing programs out there....some are integrated as part of the higher end embroidery softwares on the market. Some are connected and work through graphics programs like Corel. None are everything they claim to be.

I guess they have their place in some niches of the embroidery market but let me tell you, in the competitive world of commercial corporate digitizing, they simply don't do the job if you want to play in the "big ball park".

First, in order to even understand and run the software you have to have a decent and basic knowledge of digitizing so that you can make selections to tell the software what to do. If you don't know what the software is asking you, you cannot even set the parameters for it to complete a design. Beyond that the software can only create design files from very crisp vector art with definition and specific areas of color. In today's market, most designs have complicated gradient blends, fades and multiple areas that come together in a way that only a human can digitize using a creative mix of artistic ability and technical knowledge. The software can't think or reason and certainly isn't artistic. They cannot determine a 3D effect of one element passing behind another but over the next, such as a Celtic knot for one example.

Auto-digitizing softwares are only good for very simple designs of basic elements that are 2 dimensional, with no color blends or crossovers, with few outlining capabilities and no text. That leaves out most, if not all, corporate logos.

That leaves us with the text question. If you're expecting to have it digitize the text, forget it. You could use keyboard fonts but half the time, corporate logos have their own text style that needs to be digitized by hand. Most of the time, even if the text is a basic style, a digitizer can make the text sew better digitizing by hand than using keyboard fonts. And true type font converters are pretty bad also....they cannot do the professional job of a good digitizer.

So, if you're thinking of venturing into the digitizing aspect of our industry, understand there are no shortcuts to professional digitizing. There is a large learning curve and the only way to get there is one step at a time, really learn the business, time under your belt and realize it's a full time job all by itself. If you own an embroidery business, and you run the business hands on every day then the digitizing is best left to a commercial digitizer you trust that works well with you and understands production. Build a business relationship with this person, get to know them and they, you. Your time is best utilized running your embroidery business and bringing in the profits.