How to Avoid Common Lettering Mistakes

April 1, 2009

By Steven Batts, Contributing Writer

Sometimes the tasks that seem so simple on the surface end up being the most difficult to execute. Take keyboard lettering, for instance. Virtually every embroidery software program comes with some sort of built-in lettering package. Everyone who uses computers for everyday office tasks is accustomed to typing letters into the computer and getting exactly what is on the screen printed out on paper.

Why then is it so difficult to get letters to look the way we want them to look when they are embroidered? Lettering can look great on the screen, but when sewn out, the letters can be different heights and all wobbly. Why is that?

The answer is simple. Embroidery is not like WYSIWYG printing (“What you see is what you get”). Digitizing and sewing is not like working with ink and paper. We work with fabric, threads and needles. Therefore, the results can be less consistent. Consequently, there are a few common mistakes people make when they are creating lettering designs. If you can avoid these pitfalls, you will see a dramatic improvement in the quality of your lettering designs.

Avoid True Type Conversions
Many digitizing systems have a feature that allows the digitizer to choose any True Type font on the computer and convert it to an embroidery font. This is a great concept, but has a few drawbacks.

As I just mentioned, embroidery is not WYSIWYG. There are subtleties and nuances required to make a letter look right when sewn out, and the automatic conversion doesn’t always get it right. The thing to remember is that the fonts that come with your system were hand-digitized by someone specifically for use with that software in that system. The quality of those fonts will be far greater than letters automatically converted from random True Type fonts.

The dirty little secret is that letters are some of the most challenging things to digitize. They are among the most common elements in the designs we sew, but challenging nonetheless. That is one reason you can purchase special lettering packages from software companies — to make this common task easier. It’s ludicrous to expect a desktop computer to reason out these nuances perfectly every time.

This is not to say True Type conversion is all bad. Generally, the challenge with lettering is with smaller letters. I find that True Type conversions can work fairly well with larger letters (1 inch or taller). You also need to learn how the different parameter settings work for these systems to get optimal results from the end product.

Select the Right Font
This is the most common mistake I see people make when doing lettering. Just as when you have a design digitized, each letter style is digitized for a certain size range. Usually there are multiple fonts for popular letter styles such as Block or Times Roman. For instance, you may see on your system a Block Small font and a Block Large font.

The smaller an embroidery object gets, the more exaggeration is necessary to make it look right when sewn. Because of this, small letters (less than 0.5 inches) look a little weird on the screen. Rounded letters such as “O” and “C” look larger than other letters, and so on. So what is the common mistake make when people see this distortion on the screen? They change to a large font that is normally designed to stitch letters 1 inch tall and taller. It looks good on screen, but it’s a bad choice.

The result when it is sewn is distortion. The distortion is exactly opposite of what you see on screen with the small letter font. The rounded letters look too small when sewn, and squared-off letters are too tall. There are other differences in the way large and small fonts are made, but you get the idea. Always stay within the suggested size range of the font.

Don’t Squeeze the Charmin
One of the challenges facing embroiderers is trying to fit a lengthy tag line into a small left chest or cap placement. This is why we tend to work with smaller letters more often. Many times when we type letters in, the line of text is longer than the space available for it. The first tendency is to squeeze in the side of the lettering frame to make the text fit. This should be your last resort.

Look at all other options before squeezing the letters. Squishing letters doesn’t always look good on printed paper forms, much less embroidery. The problem is the vertical parts of the letters get narrower but the horizontal parts stay the same — making the letters look distorted.
So what options do you have to make a lot of letters fit in a narrow space? If the text is extremely long, you might consider breaking it into two lines or talk with your customer about eliminating it or choosing a different placement (i.e., sleeve or cap back).

If you must condense text, first try reducing the space between letters and between words. You will be amazed how much space that can save. Next, try slightly reducing the letter height. I would rather deal with the overall letter being smaller than just the width being narrow — it just plain looks better.

After all other options are exhausted, you can try moving the sides in slightly. At least this way, the amount of distortion is minimal.

Just remember that digitizing and embroidery is not like typing and printing. And it is certainly not WYSIWYG.  Creating a design is a process of dealing with potential problems and giving your design the best opportunity to sew correctly every time.

Next time we will look at some of the guidelines digitizers use to create not just lettering, but any embroidered design.

Steven Batts, a 14-year veteran of the embroidery industry, is a regular speaker at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows. He owns Righteous Threads Embroidery, Greensboro, N.C., which offers digitizing, embroidery, machine maintenance and repair, and consulting. Call him at (336) 379-9380 or e-mail righteousthreads@gmail.com.

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