Machine Embroidery software tip
We own Designer’s Gallery Creator 3, which is a fairly new software we use to digitize what we want to embroider on our machine. We have a Baby Lock embroidery machine, but this software can save files in a range of formats, suitable for a wide audience of machines.
I have used graphics design programs for a very long time, and my first really good one that we purchased was Photoshop 2.5 (yep, it was current when we purchased it, so it’s been a long time). In many ways the new Creator software felt comfortable very quickly, as it almost seemed I was using some features from graphics design.
Ok, so I just wanted to lay a little background, but I’ll get on with the specifics. Recently, I was asked to create a couple of designs, and besides the graphical nature, also had some text that followed a curve. Creator has some built-in fonts (not including the True Type fonts that are also used by the rest of the computer), with a number of features to help the designer make some cool products, including text on a curve.
The fonts in this section of the program stitch out beautifully, but each has size restraints. Some may not work below 25mm, while another may go down to 7mm or even 5mm, as it’s smallest. Unfortunately, the font I chose, based on the size of my design, wouldn’t follow as tight of a curve as I needed.
To combat this, I ended up creating and rotating each letter, so it looked as if the text was just following the curve in my design. This is not a hard thing to accomplish, but can be a bit tedious. I’ve had more than a couple times where I got close to the end of the text, only to find the text going beyond the cutoff point. Then all of the letters must be shifted and adjusted, to again follow the curve of the design.
**Tip: During the above work, I got through about 8 – 10 letters and noticed each new letter had a more rough outline, compared to the original refined look when I started. I started digging in the setting to see if there was something I’d accidentally done to cause this issue. After going back and forth a couple times, I noticed one setting, Satin Density, was different on the beginning smooth letters compared to the most recent.
I decided to change the Satin Density setting from 9 to 4 on one of the rough letters, and sure enough, the letter was again the beautiful looking font. I went back through all of the text, and I noticed the first couple of letters had the Satin Density set at 4, where the next few were set at 5, and so on until it reached 9. As far as I know, I didn’t change any settings that would cause the non-static value in this field.
When I first noticed the difference in what I was seeing on the computer screen, I thought it might just be the software displaying a lower resolution version to save resources. After I found the changing values for the Satin Density, I was glad I hadn’t spent the time to stitch out the design, only to see a range of differing letter refinement.
If you have Creator, and use the built-in fonts (or add-ins that you’ve purchased), keep an eye on the basic look of the chosen font, just in case this isn’t an isolated issue. It took a little extra time to go back into each letter and adjust this setting, but I’d much rather do that rather than spin my wheels generating a design I can’t use, wasting thread and whatever fabric/item on which you are embroidering.
I hope this article is helpful and might save you some time. Thanks for stopping by, and please let me know if you have any question or comments.
Lee Laird
Twitter – @LeeLairdWW
InstaGram – @LeeLairdWoodworking
Recent Comments