Fields Of Heather: Fonts

Showing posts with label Fonts. Show all posts

Comparing Font Managers To Organize My Fonts

A look at 3 different font managers, to see if one of them could help me organize my collection of fonts. I'd like something with a character map built in, and I'd like to sort my fonts into groups - easy glyphs, lots of glyphs, no glyphs, cursive & print... etc.

Tried and True Cutting Fonts

This is an older list, abut a few years ago, I did a "test cut" of a bunch of fonts. You can see the results below. Not all fonts cut really well with cricut, but these all do.

Nearly all of them are still free - for those that are not free, I suggest free alternatives.

Quick Links:

All tested - they cut well and weed without too much difficulty, at one inch tall.

Tip - Creating a weeing box around your text really helps!

The Skinny (Most popular, easier to weed if you make it bold)
Lemon Yellow (My Favorite, easier to weed!)
Hello Goodbye
Moonlight (Easiest to weed! Least similar to Rae Dunn)
Coffee And Milk (a little different)
Cami Rae (Probably the closest?)

NEW - A FREE One From Font Bundles -

Commercial Use License Included

Courtside

Seek Out
FREE & it also includes a commercial use license

NOT Free (currently $8), but comes with a commercial use license:

https://fontbundles.net/on-the-spot-studio/18990-desmond/rel=mno4va

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Cheat Sheets for Easy Glyph - No Character Map Needed - Fonts

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/09/fonts-with-tails.html

Free Alternatives To The Samantha Font

Fonts you will want a character map to use

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2018/08/free-alternatives-to-samantha-font.html

My favorite fonts & How to Use Them In Design Space

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/12/my-favorite-fonts-cheat-sheet.html

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How To Find & Use The Glyphs In Fonts

How to Find & Use Font Glyphs In Design Space

Or: How Do I Add Those Tails?

Writing Samples By Pen/Marker Size:

Super Fine Tip Writing Samples
Fine Tip Writing Samples
Medium Tip Writing Samples (You are Here)
"Writing" fonts with commercial use licenses
Drawing With Cricut - Fun fonts for posters

More Links:

About Writing Fonts & Cricut (Tips, Tricks, and my Favorite Fonts for Writing)
Comparisons of Alternative Markers For Cricut

More Writing Samples & Videos - a facebook photo album that includes fonts that did not work, and fonts that are free for a limited time only

Fonts That Will Write With Md

Cricut Markers, Thick Tip Of The Leisure Arts, Thick Tip Of The Target Dollar Spot Markers Or Crayola Markers

The crayola markers fall somewhere between the fine line markers and the medium markers, so I have used them for both samples. My cricut markers are not consistent - some of the medium markers write much thicker than others. The thick end of the Target Dollar Spot Markers are REALLY thick, and it's often hard to read the text when using them. Normally I love the thick end of the Leisure Arts Markers, but this last batch I bought are not writing well at all. The thin end works great, but the thick end runs out of ink half way through a sample. That was never a problem before, so I am not sure what is up with this batch of markers. Storing them thick end down might help?

These are written with the thick end of the Target Dollar Spot Markers, which seem to be the thickest option of all the markers. I think it's hard to read the text for fonts like Simple Monologue and Saturday Champagne... but I like it for Skinny chick, Sharon Handwriting, Organic Fridays, and more.

Here are the same fonts, in the Cricut Md Tip Markers.

This is an example of what I mentioned earlier, this batch of Leisure Arts markers are just not doing well for me. These used to be my favorite markers, and the thin tip end are still great - but the thick tip end of this batch of markers is running out of ink REALLY fast. Way too fast.

The same samples with the cricut md tip markers -

The bottom text - which for some reason skipped the h - is in the montepetrum font, my go to favorite for text.

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https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/12/writing-with-fun-fonts-in-cricut.html

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/12/alternative-markers-for-cricut.html

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/02/an-index-of-cricut-resources-how-tos.html

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Free Fonts For Writing With Cricut - With Super Fine Tip Pens

Free Writing Fonts For Cricut

The Cricut machine, when writing, will follow the same path it would if it was cutting. So most text will appear "hollow", or as a "bubble" You can avoid this by using a writing font in Cricut Design Space (Most cost around $5) OR, by choosing a free font thin enough that the lines "collapse on themselves" (Those are the fonts listed here). Although these are not truly free writing fonts, they are free fonts that will write without bubbling.

The Names under each sample are linked to the sites to download the font. Simply click on the font name under the sample, to download.

Samples are written with a plain old Bic Round Stic Pen. at .5 inches tall

(To write in 1 inch height, try a thicker pen - the samples for the thicker pens are all 1 inch tall)

Samples are at half an inch tall, with the Precise V5 Pen. If you look at the S in Stymie hairline, and shopping script, you will see they are missing a bit of the s - this is because I was pushing the limits of the margins. I have found that if my text is right up along the edge of the paper, it does better if I weld the text, but I did not do that here. It's really best to not put your text right up against the edge of the page - leave a little margin.

These are in the sample above, but did not work with this pen. They work with the fine line pens

Autumn Chant
Moon Flower
Print Clearly
Penelope Anne

More on How To Use System Fonts In Design Space

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/12/all-about-fonts-text-in-cricut-design.html

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/02/free-fonts-for-writing-with-cricut-with.html

Commercial Use Fonts That Will Work As Writing Fonts

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2018/10/3-temporarily-free-commercial-use.html

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https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2018/11/where-to-find-free-cut-files-for-cricut.html

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Free Alternatives To The Samantha Font (Free Fonts With Glyphs)

Free Fonts With Lots Of Glyphs (Tails & Swirls)

Tips:

How to Find & Use Font Glyphs
Fonts With Easy Glyphs - No character map needed
Using FontLab Pad To Properly Space Fonts (It's FREE!)
Often the free fonts at Dafont do not come with all of the extra glyphs - even if the tails are shown in the font title
Always choose the OTF version of a font when it is an option, they sometimes have more glyphs than the ttf version.

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https://www.new.fontlab.com/fontlab-pad/

(you just need the free download)

In 2022, Design Space added what they call "kerned fonts". This does not mean that the app reads font kerning - but it means that spacing issues with system fonts are fixed, for the most part. Occasionally you'll still have a font that does not display the way the designer intended.

And if a font has ligatures, Design Space will not be able to read them.

The markers in cricut will do more than just write, with many fonts, they can actually draw! The pen will still follow the path of the blade, and that will leave you with an outline on many things, such as the cow - but on many of the decorative fonts, the outer lines will all collapse and leave you with just a decorative font great for posters! Surprisingly, these fonts seem to draw much faster than the writing fonts that I use for writing simple text.

I rarely use Cricut Brand Markers. They are almost always the most expensive option, unless there's a really good sale - and the off brands are just as good, if not better. In addition to off brands made to look and write exactly like the Cricut Brand, a variety of other pens can be used in the machine, no adaptor needed. For instance, a bic round stic pen works great. As does the set of jot markers that are 20 for $1.25 at the Dollar Tree. Here's a look at some of the various pens I've used over the years, in my machine:

Quick Tips Before We Get To The Long Details:

Always attach your text (everything in your design that is the same color) to keep it together - and not jumbled - when you click make it.
Cursive text needs to be welded. If you do not weld it, it will cut each individual letter separately, you want cursive writing to cut each word as one image - weld will make each word one image.
https://wordmark.it/ Word mark it is a website that shows you your text in every font installed on your device. This makes it much faster to choose a font for your project.
How to find, download, unzip, install and back up your fonts: http://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/12/all-about-fonts-text-in-cricut-design.html
Where To Find LOADS of Free Fonts - https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2020/05/where-to-find-loads-of-free-fonts.html

You can use any font in design space! Unlike svgs, you do not upload fonts to DS, rather, you install them on your device, then find them under the "System" tab when choosing a font in Design Space.

A Few Of My Favorite Fonts

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Where To Find Free Fonts For Monograms

A very long list of where to find FREE fonts that will work as writing fonts in Design Space, with examples sorted by which pens they work with, at what sizes, and all with the links for downloading them.

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

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

Cheat Sheets for "Easy Glyph" Fonts with Tails. No Character map needed, for these fonts you simply type characters like [ ] or ( ) to add the extra tails or swirls.

Links to download each font are found under the photos

Quick Tips:

These are "easy glyph" fonts, but many fonts with extra glyphs will require a character map. you can read more about how to use those here
Sometimes a font preview on dafont will show pretty tails, but you will not see them when you download the font. Dafont Fonts are frequently Free Demo Versions of commercial use fonts. The Demo versions usually do not include all of the extra glyphs.
Some fonts, like All The Roll, have ligatures—special effects that occur when you type certain letter combinations. You will never see these features in Design Space—use a free program like fontlab pad to display and space your system fonts properly and save as an svg.

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Fonts With Simple Tails

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Wagged Shorelines Script Aesteh Broken Heart

Kl Cupid Millennial Solstice Flowers2

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Cassandra Sunset Beach
Zebra Advert Sweet Hipster Afrinuma

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Fonts With Fancy Tails

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Awesome Birds Earth Quest Belived

Kindly Jasmine Rhinos Land Play Day

Shink LillyBelle Vacations In Paradise
High On Fire White Festive
Old Photograph Old Story

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Fonts With Heart Tails
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Bunch Blossoms Countryside Kelya
Hello Lovely Crazy Love Nirvana Yessy

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Fonts With "Splashes"
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All The Roll Anggrelli Avocado Creamy

Beauty And The Beast Bubblegum Ink

Hello Sunshine Honey Cute

Linglelenglang

Plastic Beauty Sky Blue Splatch

Spongecake Sweet Purple Yellow Rabbit

Plastic Beauty comes in two versions. You want the LIGHT version if you are using a cutting machine such as cricut or silhouette. The regular version will probably work too - but it has so many extra cuts (distressing) in it that it will take a long time to cut, and will be miserable to weed.