Terrific Text with Embird Font Engine and Alphabets – Part 2

Part 1 of this article focused on fonts and font management. Once you have downloaded all sorts of fonts you are now ready to digitize with Font Engine. What I will be focusing on in this article is not the actual digitizing process, but some tips and hints to make the digitizing process easier and also more productive.

When working with Font Engine the first screen you will see is the Insert Text screen. Have you ever wondered what the difference is between the types of stitches in either Font Engine or using the Embird alphabets and which one you should use?

Running stitch (nearest point)

There will be running stitches between each letter, joined at the nearest point. Each individual letter will not have tie-offs, so stitches should not be cut between letters. This setting should be used with very small lettering where the stitches between letters will not be cut.

Floating stitches solid

The letters of each word in the phrase will be joined together. There will be tie-offs at the end of each word. Stitches can be cut between words, but should not be cut between stitches. This type of setting is good for script lettering.

Floating stitches

There will be a tie-off at the end of each letter. Stitches can be cut between letters without worrying about the stitches unraveling. This setting also gives you more choices if you want to adjust colours or change positions of each individual letter once they are sent to Editor.

Auto trimming

This setting is for commercial embroidery machines and should be left checked for those with commercial machines, but should be unchecked if you have a home embroidery machine.

Properties Screen – changing settings

The next screen will be the properties screen where you will be able to make further adjustments to your lettering. One of the changes you can make is the underlay settings.

Underlay creates the base for the lettering. Do not remove all of the underlay from your text, even if it is very small. For most text, the zigzag and outline underlay are what I would recommend as the outline clearly defines where the lettering will follow and the zigzag underlay gives the base for the actual letter. The centre walk can also be added for very large text, but is not necessary for smaller text.

When using Font Engine, if you find that your lettering is thinner than you like, did you know that bolding the text will actually thicken the letters? So, if you want thicker text, select bold in the insert text screen. This option, however, is not available with the Embird alphabets.

Layout Screen – saving lettering files

How many times have you digitized a phrase, word or a dingbat design using any of the Embird alphabets or the Font Engine plug-in, sent it to Editor and then saved the design in your embroidery format, closed the program and then decided that you really want to make changes to the phrase or design? But you will have to recreate it if you didn’t save your .ltg file. It’s very quick and easy to do but quite often we forget to save these files. When you are in either the text dialogue part of the program or Font Engine, look down in the lower right corner and you will see a folder (save) and a floppy disk (open). Click on the folder to save your .ltg file and, of course, on the floppy disk to open a .ltg file. These files do not take up a large amount of space and if you find a day, week or month down the road that you need to change the original lettering or perhaps use the lettering as a base for a new project, if you have your .ltg file, you are home free! I cannot stress enough how important it is to save these .ltg files as you don’t want to find out how difficult it is to recreate your lettering using the exact font and settings a week or six months later because you didn’t save the .ltg file.

Also, note that these .ltg files cannot be double clicked to open them, you must open them from the program itself, either the text plug-in or the Font Engine plug-in.

Problems with Font Engine working properly?

99.9% of the time Font Engine will work wonderfully well, except for that one time when it just won’t open or you have an application failure and don’t know why. There is a folder in the Embird 32 folder called “Corrupt”. This folder will store any true type or open-type font that is corrupt. When you have problems with Font Engine not working properly the first thing you want to check is whether or not you have any fonts saved in that folder.

Open Windows Explorer/Program Files/Embird 32. The corrupt folder is where fonts are stored that will not work with Font Engine, or basically a blacklist of fonts that are not compatible with Font Engine. Empty this folder and hopefully the problems you were having with Font Engine will disappear. However, before emptying the folder, check to see which font or fonts are in that folder as it is helpful to know which fonts you have used that ended up in the “corrupt” folder. If there is no corrupt folder within the Embird 32 folder, that simply means that you have never had a corrupt font – yet!

Enjoy working with Embird alphabets and Font Engine, they are a lot of fun and very user friendly programs.

(See Part 1 of this article for more information on digitizing with Font Engine and Embird alphabets)