Forcing Accurate Text Size in Silhouette Studio

Did you ever type out text in Silhouette Studio and the sizing dimensions shows are clearly way off?

Silhouette School contributor, EllyMae from Silhouette Secrets+, is here to share tips on how to get an accurate size on text in Silhouette Studio. 

Here are a few of the questions I see pop up, especially lately with all the new Silhouette machine owners:

- "Why is my text not the right size?" 

- "Why is my box so large but my text so small?" 

- "Why are my fonts different sizes?" 

The answer is each font is different and has different characters. 

The selection box around your text is accounting for the space of every character or special character that is included in that font file. So not only do you have your g, j, p, q, y letters that hang down below your base text line, but you also have all the capital letters and any special characters included with that font. 

So for instance if you have seen the Samantha font, you know that there are lots of extra glyphs that can be higher or lower than the average g or j letters. For today's example I am using 4 different font styles - the ever popular Samantha Font and 3 fonts from the newly launched SoFontsy site: So Fontsy signature font, Buddy Mac and Mystical Woods Smooth Script. 

First, choose the Text Tool on the left tool bar. Click on your Design mat and type out your text. Click off the font onto your Design mat to deselect it and then click back on it to select it again. By clicking off the font, you are changing it from the text edit tool and then when you click on it once to select it, now you can change the properties of the text. 

 

 

 I always fill my design or font with a color after I've placed it on my cutting mat. For me, this makes it easier to visually see it, select it and make sure I remember to weld any overlapped text lines before I send to cut. 

Now we are ready to start changing the text. As you can see above, even with just the Arial default text there is extra space around the edges of my letters. Next, let's change the font style. With your text selected, as shown above, click on the Test Style Panel on the right side. 

Then choose a font style name. Once you click on a font style, you will see it change on your screen. The first font we will look at is the Samantha font. As you can see below, when I select the Samantha font, my Font point size is still the same 72 pt as in my previous Arial font, but my text selection box is now 5.882" in height. This is accounting for all of the letters and special characters that are included in the Samantha font. 

 

Now, I'll add some of those special characters in, so you can see why the space allowance is there. I am using the Glyphs tab found in the Text Style Panel, directly in the Silhouette Software to access these special characters. This is a Designer Edition upgrade feature and is available if you are using version 4.1.197 of the software or higher. Check out Silhouette School's post on accessing Glyphs in v4 HERE. 

 

I always make a copy of my text and move it off my design mat before making changes to the font such as welding or converting it to a path. Once you alter the text, it is now treated as a vector image and is no longer editable text. Each font style is going to vary in the size they show on your screen and the size of the extra space allowance that each has. 

Let's look at the So Fontsy, Buddy Mac and Mystical Woods Smooth Script fonts from the New SoFontsy site and you can see the differences. 

 

As you can see, there are size variations for each font. All of these are typed in at 72 pt font, however the space allowance on each is very different to account for the letters and characters in that font file. One way to get a better idea of the true size of your text is to 'Reveal your mat' under the Page Settings panel. This will reveal the grid area of your mat and what you see on the screen is the same as the grid area on your Silhouette cutting mat. So as you can see below, the 'Love' in Samantha font is about 0.75" tall and the 'Love' in Mystical Woods is just under 1" tall.  

For your project, this may be more than enough information for you to be able to resize your text to the size you want it. However, you also may want a more exact measurement of your text size and to do that we are going to modify our text. 

First, I suggest making a copy of the text and moving it off the design mat, so you have a text version to go back to if you need to change it. If you have a font that needs to be welded before cutting, now is the time to do that. Welding your design connects any overlapping pieces together into one solid piece, so it will cut in one smooth line. Select your design and right click, then choose weld. You will notice that any areas of the design that overlapped are now connected as one piece and any pieces that were not overlapping are now their own separate object. 

Then select all the pieces of my word & group them together so they will all function as one object again. Check out this tutorial by Silhouette School on Connecting Text for more information on welding. 

 

Now the Buddy Mac font we will modify in a different way. As you can see, there are no overlapping letters, so welding is not needed. You will right click on the text and choose the 'Convert to Path' option. 

Just like when we welded the previous fonts, this now eliminates the excess space around the text. As you can see above, all of my text boxes are a much more accurate representation of the true size. 

Once you modify the text, it now takes into account only the letters or special characters that are in your design. I have also included an example of the fonts with glyphs and other variations that are included in the font file so you can see how that changes the text size as well. Now you know the reason behind font files showing up in different sizes and you have the tools to account for those differences. 

 

Check out the new SoFontsy site for all your Commercial Use (CU) design and font needs! Grab some fonts and get to designing!

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through my links, I receive a small commission. That's what helps fund Silhouette School so I can keep buying new Silhouette-related products to show you how to get the most out of your machine!

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