The Preview, the Hoop and Moving Lettering

The stitch preview

The preview on the kiosk is the real stitch-out: the tablet builds the stitches with ThreadReady's embroidery engine and draws them as thread. It is drawn again after every change (text, font, size, thread, layout or a moved letter).

• What they see is what you sew. When the order is placed, the server builds the design again from what the customer approved and keeps its own copy of the preview. The order page, the receipt and the proof page all show that copy, and the machine file is made from the same stitches.
• Left- and right-aligned fields. The preview (on the kiosk and in the design editor) draws the lettering against the left or right edge of its box when the field is aligned that way, exactly where it is sewn. Lettering bigger than its box is drawn shrunk to fit, as it is sewn.
• Circle text. Letters follow the arc on a common baseline. A long or tall line is laid on a flatter arc so its end letters aren't turned on their sides, so a long line in a large font may show Too long for this design.
• No preview, no approval. If the preview can't be drawn (for example a design with no font), the kiosk says Stitch preview unavailable and asks the customer to see a member of staff. They can't approve a flat-text mock-up.

The hoop and the embroidery area

The preview shows the hoop and the area the machine can stitch, labelled Embroidery area with its size in inches. When the customer picked one of your products, the area is no bigger than the product allows (see Products & Pricing).

The lettering has to fit inside that area. In an oval or round area the stitches themselves have to fit inside the curve, not just their outline box.

Moving a field

A field the customer can move has a move handle at the top-right corner of its box on the preview. Dragging it moves the whole field. The field can't leave the design's area.

Fields you locked (Customers can't move or resize this in the design editor) have no move handle and always sew where you placed them.

Moving one letter

On a text or monogram field, the customer can press any letter on the preview and drag it, for example to drop one letter a little or nudge an initial. The letter is highlighted, its outline follows their finger, and the preview is stitched again with the letter in its new place. The other letters stay put. Reset letters, under the text box, puts every letter back.

The limits:

• A letter can move about one letter height from its place.
• It has to stay inside its field's area and the area the machine can stitch.
• It may overlap its neighbours a little, but can't cover another letter.

If a drop goes too far, the letter stops at the edge and the kiosk says why, for example "J" can move about one letter height, so it stopped there. A drop onto another letter is refused.

• A moved letter stays on its letter when the customer edits the text. Typing in front of it doesn't move it onto another letter, and deleting the letter drops its move.
• With a keyboard, the arrow keys nudge a selected letter by 0.5 mm (2 mm with Shift).
• Every text and monogram field allows it, except a field you locked, which has no letter drag.

The review step shows the moved letters (Moved by hand), and the receipt, the proof page, the proof email and the order page name them too. The machine file sews each letter where the customer put it. With a joined script font, the thread into and out of a moved letter may be sewn as a short straight stitch rather than trimmed, so check the stitch-out when a letter was moved far.