Text, Monograms, Fonts and Thread Colours

Overview

Each field on a design is one step on the kiosk. On a text field the customer types their text; on a monogram field they type their initials. Where you allow it, they also pick the font, the size and the thread. The rules for each field come from the design (see Creating Designs), and the server checks them all again when the order is placed, so a tablet can't order something the rules don't allow. (Saving a design to finish later is more lenient: it can be unfinished, for example with a required field still blank.)

Text

• Length. Each field has a maximum number of characters (18 unless you change it). The box stops accepting letters at that length.
• More than one line. A multi-line field gives a larger box with up to the number of lines you set (2 to 5). Enter starts a new line until the last one, then moves to the next step.
• Letter case. A field can be set to UPPERCASE, lowercase or Title Case. The customer sees it as they type, and it is applied when they move on.
• Allowed characters. A field can take letters only, letters and numbers, or numbers only. Spaces are always allowed. A character the field doesn't take is named under the box, and the step won't move on until it is removed.
• Spaces. Extra spaces are tidied when the design is saved: each line is trimmed, double spaces become one, and empty lines are dropped.
• Optional fields. A field marked Optional can be left blank. A blank field sews nothing, and its thread isn't charged. A Required field left blank says, for example, "Name is required." when the customer tries to move on.

Monograms

• A monogram field takes the letters A to Z only. They are capitalised, and spaces are removed.
• It takes up to 3 initials unless the design allows 4 (on the straight style only). More than that is refused with a message giving the limit.
• Stitched as shows the initials in the order and sizes they will be sewn. In the classic style, three initials are sewn first, LAST, middle, with the last-name initial larger in the centre.
• When the font has other forms of a letter, Letter style lets the customer pick one for each initial, if the design allows it.

Fonts and sizes

• Font. When a field offers more than one font, the customer picks one from the Font chips. With one font there is nothing to choose.
• Size, chosen for them. The kiosk picks the font size that suits the length of the text (the longest line, on a multi-line field) and shrinks the lettering a little if it needs to. It never enlarges lettering.
• Size, chosen by the customer. Where the font lets customers choose, the Size chips offer the sizes that can fit the field. A size the customer picks is kept, and can shrink only a little.
• Letter size. A field you set a letter height on sews at that height. If you also offer customers a list of heights for it, they pick from Letter size chips in inches and millimetres. A size the chosen font can't sew that small is marked too small and can't be picked.

When the text still doesn't fit, the kiosk says why and what to try (a smaller size, another font that fits, or shorter text). See Why the kiosk won't let a customer continue.

Thread colours

The colours come from your thread inventory, limited to the threads the design allows (see Thread Inventory). Each field does one of three things:

• Any of your threads: swatches for the threads on your machine, and More colors (+) for the rest. If your kiosk shows on-machine threads only, the others are left out.
• A few threads you chose: only those swatches.
• Set by the shop: no choice. The field shows its thread with "set by the shop".

When the design includes library art, the picker is headed Lettering thread: the colour is for the lettering, and the art keeps its own colours. It also says whether the art is sewn in the colours shown or, for stitch files that store no colours (such as DST), that the colours shown for it are illustrative.

A colour for each letter. Where the design allows it, Color for each letter lets the customer tap a letter, then pick its colour. Letters left on Same are sewn in the field's thread. A monogram can do the same for each initial, or start from initial colours you set. Extra colours are priced by your thread pricing like any other thread (see Products & Pricing). When every letter has its own colour, the field's own thread isn't sewn or charged.

If a colour stops being offered before the customer orders (for example you removed the thread), the kiosk refuses the order and says the colour isn't available.