If you have downloaded a v4.3 software version or higher, then you may see a few changes that have been made to a couple screens. A few icons, a few new options, etc.
We discussed the new Page Setup Panel look in this post a few weeks back – Let’s Explore v4.3 – Page Setup Panel and today let’s look at another change.
While this is not a big, big change. You may notice in some tutorials that the when referencing the glyphs panel, the icon has changed. That’s it – just the icon.
If you are using a version of Silhouette that has the fancy A as the icon, check out this post – Let’s Explore v4 – Glyphs and Spellcheck.
Glyphs with Updated Icon
Tutorial written using Silhouette Studio v4.3.356
Affiliate links may be present in the following blog post.
Glyphs are any special characters that are an addition to a font file. These can include swirls, fancy letters, or shapes.
The Glyphs Panel is a Designer Edition upgrade feature. With the Designer Edition upgrade active on the Silhouette software you should see it as the 2nd tab at the top of the Text Style Panel.
The glyphs icon is the only thing that has changed in this panel at the moment. As we all know, changes happen. It’s better to know they are there than to be surprised someday in the future.
1 – Text Search bar – Just like on Tab 1, the name of the font that is selected will appear in this box or you can highlight it and type a name in the box and it will select that font.
2 – Glyphs – This area is where you will see the glyphs of the font that you are using show up.
Note: sometimes not all the glyphs will show up here and you will need to access those through Character Map (PC) or Fontbook (Mac).
It just depends on how the font was created.
3 – Recently Used Glyphs – This handy feature shows the ones you have recently accessed.
4 – Icon size – Those little icons can be hard to see. Change the size of how the Icons appear in the glyphs panel. And when you hover over a glyph it magnifies it as well.
How do you use glyphs?
There are 2 ways I use glyphs.
1 – Type out the word you are using. Highlight the letter you want to replace and then click on the glyph icon one time to replace that letter with the new glyph.
2 – Double click on the glyph icon and it will add it to the top left corner of the design mat as an individual “letter”. You can continue to click on the glyph icons to add more or just click off of it to keep the design as a separate text box.
I use this second way most often when I am using Dingbat fonts that are a bunch of designs all in one font file or if I want to add a swirl onto the end of a letter.
Glyphs can be so fun to play with and add a little extra creative flair to your designs. Each font file will vary in the glyphs it may have. Some have just a few and others have lots.
I used the font called Bohemian Script by Typia Nesia – Design #296014 and it has a glyph count of 213.
Keep in mind the larger the number of glyphs, the longer it will take to load that font in the text style panel. Be patient with your computer as it processes the data.
I’d love to see how you are using glyphs in your projects!
Feel free to post on my Facebook group at Silhouette Secrets with EllyMae.
To save this for later reference pin the image below to Pinterest
Enjoy!
9 thoughts on “Let’s Explore v4.3+ – Glyphs”