Fields Of Heather

Quick Tip - How To Slice In Design Space

The slice button will only appear, and work, with exactly two items.

Previously, each letter of text counted as one item, and you had to weld your text before you could slice.

This feature is one that has changed a few times in the 2022 updates. Sometimes you can slice text from a shape without welding, sometimes you need to weld first. Currently a text box counts as one item. But if you have a text box and just one other item selected, and the slice option does not appear, its worth a try to weld or unite the text and then see if you can slice.

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Quick Tip - If your slice button is "grayed out" it is most likely because you do not have two items selected. When slicing text, each letter counts as one item. If you select all of your text and choose weld, it will make the text one item, and then you can slice it from your shape.

No longer as necessary, since text boxes are considered one item - Text no longer needs to be welded before you slice it.

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An Index Of My Quick Tip Cards

Also a slideshow of them, & A printable pdf version

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/01/quick-tip-cards-for-cricut-newbies.html

Quick Tip - SVGS Look Like HTML Files

When you download and unzip a free svg, it often comes with quite a few files. Above is an explanation of what they all are.

Quick Tip - SVGS look like html files. Once you download an svg, and unzip it if needed, the file you want to upload will typically have the icon of your internet browser.

How to see thumbnail views of your svg files -
https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2018/01/how-to-see-thumbnails-of-svg-files.html

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An Index Of My Quick Tip Cards

Also a slideshow of them, & A printable pdf version

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/01/quick-tip-cards-for-cricut-newbies.html

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Facebook Page - For Tips, Tricks, & Free SVGS

https://www.facebook.com/fieldsofheathercrafts/

Facebook Group- For Questions, Support, Sharing Projects,
and LOADS More Free SVGS in themed posts with links in the comments
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1121399284857845
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An Index Of All Of My Cricut Related Blog Posts

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

Quick Tip - Use CNTRL V To Paste In Design Space

If Design Space does not allow you to right click and paste text, try using CNTRL V to paste into the text box.

Need more help for how to find and use the glyphs (extra swirls and pretty extras) in fonts?

This may help:

Quick Tip - How To Search Facebook Group Posts

If you are looking for the answer to a question you know has been talked about before, on a facebook group, it's easy to search the posts.

Well, it's sort of easy. Sometimes the results do not show what you know is there, and that's why I never mind when people ask for something in my facebook group. I'm happy to help.

But you can try to search for things yourself first, if you want. Search "free kitchen svgs" or "how to write with cricut", for example, to find posts about those subjects.

In my cricut fb group, I use themed posts to build the posts you later see on this blog. So if you search "free kitchen svgs", for example, you should see a post with the link to the blog post for free kitchen svgs, and then there will be lots more links in the comments, with more free files that I have not yet added. You will also find threads of free svgs for themes that have not yet made it to the blog. You can join us and see all of those posts, here:

Cricut Tips, Tutorials, & Free SVGS

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1121399284857845

======================

An Index Of My Quick Tip Cards

Also a slideshow of them, & A printable pdf version

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/01/quick-tip-cards-for-cricut-newbies.html

===========================

Facebook Page - For Tips, Tricks, & Free SVGS

An Index Of All Of My Cricut Related Blog Posts

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

Quick Tip - How To Fix Jumbled Text Or Designs In Design Space

If you clicked "Make It" in Design Space, and found your design to be all out of order, go back, select everything that is the same color, and "attach"

Then Design Space will send each part of your design to it's own mat by color, keeping each item spaced exactly where you placed it.

Attach can waste a lot of vinyl. If you have a 11.5 by 11.5 inch design, and just one piece of red at the top and one at the bottom, you do not want to attach those. You can manually place those pieces. But when you have a smaller design, it's often worth it to "waste" a little vinyl to save the hassle of trying to properly place all the pieces separately.

Note - In 2022, the new text box updates keep text from jumbling quite so much

. Previously, if you typed Cat into a text box, it might be sent to the mat as tCa. Now, everything in one text box will stay in order, so Cat will go to the mat as Cat. But if you have several text boxes, and you want them all to stay spaced the way you have placed them, you will still need to select all of your text boxes and attach them together. And items in an svg will still need to be attached if you want them to cut exactly the way they appear on the mat.

For more about using text in design space:

The basics of text in design space - How to add tails, curve, space & weld, and use writing fonts without them being "bubbles" -

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/12/using-text-in-design-space.html

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When to Attach, Weld, & Flatten

Another Tip -

Often you can use Attach instead of slice!

======================

An Index Of My Quick Tip Cards

Also a slideshow of them, & A printable pdf version

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/01/quick-tip-cards-for-cricut-newbies.html

===========================

Facebook Page - For Tips, Tricks, & Free SVGS

An Index Of All Of My Cricut Related Blog Posts

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

How To Use Font Glyphs On Android (& IPad too)

Quick Links:

Creative Fabrica Online Fontcloud (It's Free)
Free Watershed Font (what I used for this test)
How To Install Fonts On Android ( Varies by phone & It's a waste of time, don't bother. But if you REALLY want to, try one of these apps - iFont, FontFix, HiFont, or Fontster.) Then Download a Unicode App to view the glyphs on fonts you have installed. (I'm still comparing apps to find the "best" unicode app)
How To Install Fonts On Ipad - Download the Anyfont App for $1.99 (But you won't need to do that, if you use fontcloud) Then download the Unicode App, for fonts you install on your device.

How to add fonts to an android phone varies by phone, and even by model - and is really not a great idea anyway. You don't want your android operating system to use those fonts - you just want to put them together to use in Design Space.

FontCloud by Creative Fabrica, while not perfect, is a pretty good quick work around - AND it allows you to use the font glyphs too! Instead of installing the fonts, you upload them to fontcloud, then screenshot your text, and clean it up in Design Space. It's an extra step, as there is no way to just save it as an svg - but it does work! And unlike Design Space, fontcloud reads font kerning, so your text will be spaced perfectly, just as if you had used fontlab pad.

As an added benefit, this free service now has all of your favorite fonts backed up. So if you lose your device, or it crashes, you still have all of your fonts, from any device you login from!

Once uploaded, you can see your text in every font you have uploaded, choose the one you like, add any glyphs, then turn your screen sideways, enlarge so the text fills the screen, and screenshot it. Upload the screenshot to design space, erased the white background, and voila!

Step By Step:

Optional - Download the free watershed font

Any font will work, but I wanted to start with one that was not from Creative Fabrica, so you can see that it works with any font. And I wanted to use one with glyphs, so you can see that glyphs work with this. And of course, I wanted it to be free. :-)

When you download this in android, it will go to the downloads folder, in a zip file.

To locate it, find the "My Files" app on our phone. (Use the search option at the top of your apps screen, if you need help finding it.)

There are two photos above. On the left, in the My Files App, choose Downloads.

Locate the zip file and tap on it.

It should open, and you will see a screen similar to the photo on the right.

You can uncheck the macosx file - it serves no purpose, even if you are using an apple device. Then at the bottom of the screen, tap extract.

Now go to fontcloud:

https://bit.ly/45JfS04

And all the way at the bottom, on the right, choose upload

This part will vary by phone, but on mine, it will take me to a screen with my "recent" items, and the font will not appear here. Click on the 3 lines to the left of recent

A menu drops down, and I can choose "Downloads" from there.

There are three files here. I want the one at the top - the folder

The two underneath are zip files - they can be deleted, since I have already unzipped those fonts. In that folder you will see a few files - and in this view, you will not be able to tell which is the otf. If you want to know for sure, you can go back to the My Files app, and search for "watershed". There you can see the file size for the OTF file. Go back to fontcloud, and upload the file that is the correct size. If I were doing a bunch of files at once, I would create a folder on my phone and move all of the otf files to that folder, then upload them all from there.

When you type sample text in fontcloud, you will see it in every font you have uploaded there. Similar to using WordMarkIt for viewing your installed fonts on a computer.

Click on the font you want to use, which today, is watershed. I changed my sample text to "glyphs"

Scroll down and choose your glyph, just tap on it to copy, then scroll back up and press to paste. At the very top, see the boxes with the x? That's where I pasted a glpyh. Right under that is the preview, showing the tail glyphs.

Tip - if your glyph is not pasting, make sure you are pressing in the sample text box, not in the white preview box.