How To Use The Samantha Font In Cricut Design Space

The Samantha Font has more glyphs than any other font I know of

Here's how to find, and use them - Step By Step

Quick Notes:

• The free Samantha font on Dafont is not the same as the Samantha Font by Laura Worthington,   The Samantha Font is NEVER free.  It used to be much cheaper, but now that Creative Fabrica carries it, it has remained $17 - I haven't seen a good sale for less since they first obtained it.
• Just download the Samantha Upright version, it's the only one you will need.  UPDATE - there is a new Craft version of Samantha that is made thicker to work better in cutting machines .
• You will need a character map for this font.  The Maintype Logic (free version) is my favorite - much easier to read than the Windows Character map.
• NEW! Download a word document that you can copy and paste from, instead of using the character map.  (this will only work if you have the Samantha Upright font installed on your device, otherwise it will just be gibberish)
• Open the character map (or word document) find the pretty version of the letter than you want to use, paste it where you want to use it (you can paste into design space, or fontlab pad, or into a word document, etc)
• Free Alternatives to the Samantha Font

There are free versions of a font named Samantha on Dafont, and other font sites.  They are NOT this Samantha.  There is not a free version of this Samantha.  The Laura Worthington Samantha costs $75.  Seventy Five Dollars! For years it was on other sites, including Creative Fabrica for awhile - most of us who own it paid less than $15.  As to where to find it now - in spring of 2024, I do not currently have any recommendations.  Please let me know if you find it at a decent price.

Once you have the font, you will also want a program like Babel Map, or my choice,  Maintype Logic.   Windows has a built in character map, but it's small and just more difficult to use.  The free version of Maintype Logic is all you need.  

Open Design Space, Add a text box. 

Then on the top left, choose "font", and a large screen will drop down:

Choose "System" .  This will show you all the fonts you have installed on your device.

Now type Samantha.  I have both the Samantha Upright, and Samantha Craft fonts installed on my laptop.

With the font changed to Samantha Craft

This is the "base" font - no glyphs added.

Now I go to the character map [I use Maintype Logic, the free version], and find the pretty swirly versions I want to add.  

Right click on it, choose copy to clipboard, and then paste it in the text box  - which is that small box above the preview on the bottom right.  See the narrow area beside the font size? That's where you paste the glyph.

Repeat, until you have all the glyphs you want added to your text.  The hardest part is always deciding which glyphs, and how many of them, to add.  The Samantha font has FAR more options than any other font I have ever used.  

In the character map for the Samantha font, you will also find full words, and extra lines you can add to your text.

Once you have made your selections, Select all the text in the box where you pasted the glyphs, copy

Then go back to Design Space

Make certain your text box is set to the exact same font you used in the character map

Paste  [CNTRL V] the text you copies from your character map.

Don't forget to weld this font once it is in design space - so that it will cut as one smooth word, rather than cutting each letter individually.  

A Word Document Cheat Sheet For Samantha Upright
You can download a word document here, with all of the characters and glyphs in the Samantha Upright font.  If you do not have the Samantha Upright (or Samantha Craft, with his identical, only thicker) font installed on your device, this will be gibberish.  But if you own the font, you can use this document to cut and paste from, instead of the character map.

If you view the document online, it will look like gibberish.

If you download the document, and do not have the Samantha Upright font installed, it will still look like gibberish.

If you download the document to a device that has the Samantha Upright font installed, it will display like this and from there you can copy and paste the same as you copy and paste from the character map.  The advantage is that the document is in letter order.  For some reason, in a character map, you may find the lower case e in two or 3 different places, not always all together.

That's the basics of how to use it - the hard part is deciding WHICH S to use, and how many letters you want to make extra swirly in one word.  :-)

The new Samantha Font Craft version

It's the same Samantha font, but thicker, optimized for cutting machines like cricut.

It also comes with the bonus "Samantha Frames".