Fonts

Overview

ThreadReady sews lettering from Embrilliance BX font files. You upload each size of a font as its own file (for example Script 1 inch and Script 2 inch), and ThreadReady groups the sizes into one font family, so customers pick "Script" and the right size is chosen for them. Fonts live under Designs → Fonts.

Only owners and admins can upload or change fonts. Members and viewers see the list read-only.

Uploading fonts

1. Go to Designs → Fonts and click Upload BX file.
2. Choose one or more .bx files. Each is added to a list where you can change its Name and Variant label (its size, such as 2 inch) before uploading.
3. Tick Publish now to offer the fonts on the kiosk straight away, or leave it to upload them as drafts (see Draft, Published and Archived).
4. Click Upload (it says how many, for example Upload 3 fonts). The Fonts page says how many files were added and whether they are drafts.

A file that isn't a BX font (empty, unreadable, or with no letters or sizes in it) is listed with the reason and isn't uploaded. A file can be up to 10 MB.

Font families

Each upload is filed into a font family by name, so Sans 1 inch and Sans 2 inch both land in the Sans family and the family is ready to pick in the editor. The size in the name (inch, in, mm, cm, fractions) and the word "BX" are left out of the family name. If the family of that name is archived, the upload starts a new family of the same name instead (restore the archived one if you want it back).

To group fonts yourself, select two or more on the Fonts page and click Group (for example Group 2 fonts).

Each family card shows a sample of the font and the heights it sews. A font that keeps its outlines (an Embrilliance Digitizer font, such as ThreadReady Sans and Script) is re-sewn at any height, so its card shows a range, for example Any height, 0.31–3.94 in: from the smallest height it sews cleanly (measured after upload; until then smallest still being measured) up to 100 mm, the largest letter height a field can set, and never bigger than the field's box. You don't need a file for every size. A font made of stored stitches can only be shrunk a little, so its card lists its files' sizes, for example 5 sizes, 1–3 in, or 1 size, 2 in, shrinks to fit. A family card shows Draft when its sizes are drafts, or 2 draft when some are already published.

The family page

Open a family to change it:

• Font files — Each file in the family, with a sample and the heights it sews; only drafts and archived files carry a badge. To add a size, choose Add font files and search: files that aren't in any family are listed first. Remove a file with the × on its row.
• Default size — The size used when nothing else picks one. Automatic (middle size), the default, is the middle size by the files' own digitized heights (a 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 and 3 inch family defaults to 2 inch), and moves along when you upload more sizes. Pick a file instead to keep it fixed; uploads then leave it alone.
• Size rules — Sew a different size for shorter or longer text. Add rule, choose a Size, and set Min chars and Max chars: for example 3 inch for 1–3 letters and 2 inch for 8–12. The longest line counts, and the first rule that matches wins.
• Let people pick the size — Customers and staff can choose one of the family's sizes instead of the automatic one. On the kiosk they appear as size chips.

Press Save Changes to keep your changes. Stats shows how many font files and size rules the family has, and how many fields use it.

Which size is sewn

The size is chosen in this order: the customer's own pick (when the family allows it), a size you pinned on the field (see Text field options), the first matching size rule, then the default size. If the text is too wide for its box, the kiosk shrinks it, to 75% of a size before it tries the next smaller file, and the smallest file to 60%. It never enlarges a size. A field with a Letter height is sewn at that height instead (see Small lettering).

Previewing a font

Open a font file (from its family, or the Fonts page) to try it before customers see it:

• Text preview — Type any text to see it sewn in that file.
• Can be re-sewn or Fixed size — A Digitizer font (outlines, like ThreadReady Sans and Script) can be re-sewn at any letter height: the page says the size it was digitized at and the smallest it can sew. A stitch-type font stores finished stitches, so it can only be scaled: the page says the size it sews at and how far it can be scaled down. ThreadReady measures the smallest size after you upload or save the font, so the page can say it isn't measured yet; reload it in a few minutes.
• The file's Status, Name, Variant label, Char spacing and Notes, and Replace BX file to swap the file.

You can also try a draft font in the design editor: its preview and fit check use it, while the kiosk doesn't offer it.

Draft, Published and Archived

• Draft — New uploads start as Draft. Try a draft in the design editor (its preview and fit check use it) before customers see it; the kiosk never offers a draft. Tick Publish now in the upload dialog to skip this and offer the fonts straight away. ThreadReady still measures a draft's smallest size after upload, so it is ready when you publish.
• Published — Offered on the kiosk. To publish a draft, open the font file's page, set Status to Published and save. To publish every draft size of a family at once, open the family and click Publish all drafts (owners and admins). The family page shows each size's status, and its Publishing history shows who published which sizes and when. Setting a published font back to Draft warns you when published designs use it: the kiosk stops offering that size, and those fields use the family's other published sizes. A design can't be published while a field's font families have no published size: publish a size first.
• Archived — Delete removes a font only when nothing uses it. A font family that any design, saved design or order uses, or a font file that a family, a design (pinned size), a saved design or an order uses, is archived instead: it disappears from the kiosk and from new choices in the editor, and the saved designs and orders that use it keep sewing with it. A customer who resumes a saved design keeps the archived font they chose; a new design can't pick it. The editor shows an archived family on a field that already uses it, marked (archived), so you can switch the field to another font. Archiving a published font, by Delete or the family's Archive button, warns you with the published designs that use it. Bring a family back with Restore on its page, or set an archived font file's Status back to Published.

For names smaller than your fonts can sew, see Small fonts you buy.