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Add text

Use the Text tool to put names, monograms and slogans in your design. You type the words, pick a font and a letter height, and get lettering that is already digitized for that size, which you can retype at any time.

  1. Click Text in the tool rail, or press T.
  2. The Add text dialog opens: type on the left, watch a live preview on the right.
  3. Set the options and confirm with Add, or Ctrl/Cmd+Enter. Press Esc to cancel.

The text is placed centered on the hoop. To edit it later, double-click it on the canvas and the dialog reopens as Edit text.

Options​

  • Text: type here. Enter starts a new line.
  • Font: a list of families, each shown set in that font, using the text you're typing so you can see how your own words look. Fonts you've imported appear under Your fonts. See Fonts and lettering.
  • Size: 4 mm to 120 mm, default 20 mm. This is the letter height.
  • Letter spacing: extra gap between letters, from -2 mm to 10 mm.
  • Alignment: Left, Center, or Right, for multi-line text.
  • Shape: Straight, Arc, top, or Arc, bottom, for a single line of text. See Text on an arc.

Reset defaults puts the font, size, spacing, alignment and shape back without clearing what you typed.

Example: a 30 mm name across a tote bag
  1. Press T and type the name.
  2. Pick Montserrat and set Size to 30 mm.
  3. Leave Stitch design alone: at this size the dot sits on Satin.
  4. Click Add, then drag the name into place on the hoop.

Text on an arc​

New in v1.4.0: bend a line of text round a circle, as the words on a round badge or a club crest are. Set Shape in the Add text dialog:

  • Arc, top: the words read left to right over the top of the circle, the letters standing outward.
  • Arc, bottom: the words read left to right under the bottom of the circle, upright for someone reading from below, the tops of the letters toward the center.

Arc radius sets the size of the circle the letters sit on, from 10 mm to 150 mm (default 30 mm). The letters stand on that circle, so with Arc, top they reach outward past it, and with Arc, bottom they hang inward from it. The text is centered on the top (or bottom) of the circle, and the spacing between letters stays what the font and Letter spacing give it.

The preview, the stitches, and every later change bend the same way: edit the text, change its size on the essentials bar, or reopen the dialog, and it stays on its arc.

  • One line only. The Shape control hides as soon as you start a second line, and the text goes back to straight.
  • Too long for its circle? The dialog says "This text is longer than its circle. Make the arc radius larger or the text smaller." and Add does nothing until it fits.
Example: a club name arched over a 90 mm round badge

The badge is a circle with a satin border, about 80 mm across inside the border.

  1. Press T and type RIVERSIDE FC.
  2. Pick Montserrat and set Size to 8 mm.
  3. Set Shape to Arc, top and Arc radius to 30 mm. The letters stand on a 60 mm circle, so their tops stay clear of the border.
  4. Click Add, then drag the arc up so it sits centered over the badge.
  5. For a line under the crest, add a second text, say EST. 1998, with Arc, bottom and Arc radius 38 mm, and drag it under the crest: its letters hang inward from that circle, into the same band of the badge as the name.
Opening it in an older version

A design with arc text still sews its arc in a version of Boldbobbin from before v1.4.0, but if you edit that text there, it is laid out straight again.

The preview​

The preview offers the same three views as the canvas itself:

  • Vector: the geometry, drawn instantly. This is the only view that works before stitches are generated.
  • Stitches: real generated stitches, at your document's fabric density.
  • Realistic: the same stitches, lit. Needs WebGPU; the button explains itself if your browser can't do it.

Stitches and Realistic update a moment after you stop typing, so what you see is what gets added.

Choosing the stitch design​

To control how the letters are stitched rather than leave it to the size, use Stitch design, under the preview. It lets you pick which of the font's size ranges to stitch from: typically Satin or Tatami, and Running or Contour on a face that offers them. A dot marks the one that suits your current size. It only appears when the font has more than one digitization to choose from.

Contour outlines each letter with a single running line (around the letter and around each hole, such as the middle of an "o"), with nothing filling it. It works at any size, so it is always offered but never gets the dot. Pick it for an outlined, lightweight look.

  • Leave it alone and it follows the size: "Following the size recommendation."
  • Pick one deliberately and it stays picked, even if you change the size: "Your choice, kept if you change the size."

You can also change it after placing the text, in the Properties panel's Digitization → Range.

After it's placed​

Select the text and the essentials bar carries what text actually has: size, letter spacing, line spacing, and alignment, plus Edit text to reopen the dialog. The stitch parameters are one click away, under Stitching. A font that stitches each part its own way says so, and the settings reach every part that uses them.

Changing the size re-sets the word at the new size rather than scaling it, so the strokes stay right for the size.

You can edit text in realistic mode.

The Properties panel offers:

  • Digitization → Range: the size range it's stitched from, as above.

  • Digitization → Connections: what the machine does between the strokes of a word. New text is Automatic, which sews gaps under 3 mm, jumps up to 10 mm, and trims beyond. You can force Always sew, Always jump, or Always trim instead. For example, pick Always trim when you want no thread running between letters, at the cost of more machine stops.

    Fewer trims on script faces

    With Automatic, most gaps inside a word are sewn through rather than trimmed, so a script word sews with few machine stops and few tails to clip by hand. Earlier versions trimmed between every stroke.

    A digitized font can also set, for the strokes inside a letter, whether the machine trims, jumps, or sews across. Fixed in v1.4.0: that choice is kept when you save and reopen the design. Before, reopening could lose it, so the text sewed differently from what you saw before saving.

Cutting text​

The Cutter (K) splits text by letter: cutting "Hello World" between the words gives "Hello" and "World", both still real, still-digitized text you can retype. A letter is never cut through the middle.

Taking it apart​

To take the lettering apart and edit it like any other shape, select it and use Convert to… → Geometry in the floating action bar. You get a folder per letter, with satin columns still editable as satin columns. Boldbobbin confirms "Text split into N letters you can edit." This is a one-way trip (apart from an immediate undo): once converted, the text can't be retyped in the dialog.

If some characters are missing​

If your font has no glyph for something you typed, a warning appears right under the text box naming the characters. Those characters stitch as nothing at all, while still taking up their space, so a word can come out shorter than you typed with no other clue. Either change the font or drop the characters.