Did you know that you can add a note to your Silhouette file?
This option has been in the software for awhile, but depending on what version you are using, it may work better in later versions. In the current v4.4 software version, it does seem to be behaving as it should.
This tutorial is written in v4.4.455
The Draw a Note tool is found on the left side.
Click on the Draw a Note and your mouse will change to a text cursor. Click on the Design Space to add a note box. I would suggest clicking in the gray “holding area” off the cutting mat. In the past, there were some versions that the note would get “stuck” and you couldn’t delete or edit it. For this reason, I would not suggest placing it in the cutting space on the screen. Just in case.
Type whatever information you would want to remember with this file such as text style names, sizes, colors, etc.
Want to delete the note, click the X in the top right corner of the box.
Want to change the size of the note, move the cursor on the outer edge and it will change to allow you to drag the size. This is limited in how much you can change the box.
In the top left corner, when the Draw a Note feature is active, you will see options for changing the text color, font style, size, and other options.
Note: each version of the Silhouette Studio software may vary. Older versions may not have these options and may still have some bugs in the Notes feature. This tutorial was written in v4.4.455.
Save this for future reference by pinning the image below.
Check out the full “Let’s Explore v4” series on the blog HERE as we go through each tool and feature in the v4 Silhouette Studio software in detail. The more familiar you become with the Silhouette software, the easier creating designs, working with designs, and creating your projects will be as you apply those skills to them.
Enjoy!
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Or if you are looking for more in-depth, step-by-step classes, check out all of my online Silhouette classes on my Teachable site HERE.
**This post may contain affiliate links. What that means is that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher but I may get compensated for sharing.
Today, let’s take a look at the Send tab in the Silhouette Studio software. It has a lot of information in it! In the v4 software, it is located in the top right corner of the program and controls everything about the cut settings.
This tutorial is written in v4.3.372 of the Silhouette software.
There are 4 different options for working in the Send Tab. – Simple – Line – Fill – Layer (Designer Edition feature)
The Simple option in the Send tab is the one I find I use the most.
But what does all this mean? Let’s take a look.
With a Cameo 3 or Curio selected as the machine being used, the above is what you will see on the Send tab.
On a Cameo 3 or Curio the tool housing is distinguished by a red circle (Tool 1) or a blue circle (Tool 2).
Tool housing on Curio & Cameo 3
On a Cameo 4, there are no red or blue circles, but it is designated by a number 1 or 2 for each tool housing. When a Cameo 4 is selected as the machine being used, you will see the Send tab show like this.
The numbers 1 and 2 are located on the tool housing locking tab on the Cameo 4. You will also notice that the blade and adapters for the Cameo 4, will also have either a 1 or 2 on the front of the tool to designate which tool holder it fits in.
The most important thing to keep in mind when you are switching between the Tool 1 and Tool 2 housing is that you first have to select the design on the screen you want to change and then choose No Cut under Tool 1 before turning on Cut under Tool 2. If you do not turn the cut lines off under Tool 1 housing, then it will complete the action using both Tool housings.
Now, let’s break this down into what each section of the Simple Send tab means.
There are 2 options for Cut Line behavior on the Send tab. No Cut, Cut, and Cut Edge. If you look at the icons each one shows you exactly what it does. Let’s take a look with some examples.
The #1 thing to note here is that the design has to be selected on the design mat in order to make any changes to the cut setting. To select the design, click directly on the design or the red line of the design. A selection box will appear around the design meaning that it is selected. Then you can change the cut setting between No Cut, Cut, or Cut Edge.
Since we are under Tool 1 – the cut lines will show as bold red. As you can see when the cut lines are turned off, there is no bold red outline around the design like the example in the top left corner.
No Cut and Cut are pretty easy to understand. Either the cut line is on, indicated by bold red cut lines or it is off, indicated by no bold red cut lines. If a design is sent to the Silhouette machine with the cut lines off, it will go through the motions of aligning the housing and setting the blade (Autoblade), but then the software will say “Cut Complete”. (More on that HERE) Note: if a design is sent to the machine with the cut lines OFF and you get the message “Cut Complete” – unload and reload the Silhouette cutting mat before sending again after turning on the cut lines to ensure that the blade housing resets to the proper starting point.
Cut and Cut Edge are the ones that I see the most questions about. Cut means that it is going to cut around each object on the screen. If the design is overlapping, then it is going to cut through each piece.
Cut Edge means that it will cut around the outside edge of any objects that are overlapping. It will also show a bolder, fuzzier red cut lines around it on the Send tab when it is set to Cut Edge.
In the Silhouette Studio v4 software, it now defaults all text to Cut Edge. So I often see a user question why the red lines appear fuzzy. It will still cut the same, but now welding a scripty, overlapping font is not absolutely necessary. The red fuzzy does not affect how it will cut, it is appearance on the screen only.
If you select the entire design on the screen, choose No Cut under Tool 1 and then turn on Tool 2 using the same designations as above, you will see bold blue cut lines appear around the images. Red lines = Tool 1 Blue lines = Tool 2
You will also notice that as it is shown above, I get a message that there is no Cameo 4 Tool 2 compatible Kraft Cut Action for this material as chosen for Cardstock. If there is not a preset for the specific material and tool chosen, you will see this message. You may have to create your own settings – see below for more information on that.
Next on the Send tab, we have the Materials, Action, and Tool options.
The Materials drop down is where you choose what material you are cutting from the preset options in the software or your own custom created settings.
If you choose a preset setting, this is just a recommended starting point for materials that are similar. Keep in mind that not all materials are created the same and there can be variance in those materials, even within the same brand. Also keep in mind, that as your blade dulls, you may need to adjust those settings to get a good cut using the same blade. The presets are just a recommendation for a starting point and I always recommend that you do a Test Cut first to see if it will work for you before sending the full design.
User Defined Settings are ones that you create or have modified yourself. These settings will appear at the end of the preset settings list.
The first time you create a new custom setting, it will appear at the very bottom of the list. Once the software is closed and reopened the list should be in alphabetical order.
Next, you have the Action. This is what you are telling the Silhouette machine to do. The Actions that are available will depend on what tool is selected.
Then comes the Tool section. This will show you what tool options you have available for the Tool housing you have selected, the material selected, and the action selected.
Now we move to the next section.
In the gray section, you will see the Action and Material chosen in the upper section appear as the Title. If using a Curio and the v4 software, you will also see it show the Platform stack recommendation there too.
The black dial is the blade depth. The current blade depth recommendation is the middle number that has a blue shading to it. The arrow on the left changes the blade depth down and the arrow on the right increased the blade depth up. If you are using an Autoblade in the Cameo 3, Cameo 4, or Portrait 2, this is the information that is sent to the machine to set the Autoblade by it’s tap dance at the beginning.
Blade depth is how far out the blade is sticking from the end of the blade. For thinner materials, you will use a lower blade depth and or thicker materials you use a higher blade depth. If you have too high of a blade depth for the materials you are cutting, the blade may get stuck in the cutting mat and cause cut issues.
The triangle with the overlapping areas is called Overcut and it is a neat feature that can help make cutting corners easier. Each design may vary. Learn more about the Overcut feature HERE.
Next is the Force and Speed.
Force is the amount of pressure that the Cameo is using to press down on the blade. Higher force equals higher pressure and can also cause the blade to stick in the mat, if the setting is too high.
Speed is how fast the blade is moving. Faster is not always better, but slower is not always better either. Each material will vary in the perfect settings.
Next comes the Passes and More option.
Passes is how many times you want the blade to do the same action. Some thicker materials require several passes to cut completely through the material. For normal cutting materials such as vinyl, htv, and cardstock; I find 1 pass should be sufficient with the correct settings.
More is the Advanced Settings and where you would enter Custom Cut Settings. Check out more information on that HERE.
So now you may be asking yourself – how do you know to change the settings? Honestly, I use the preset settings for the materials in the software almost all the time for most materials. I do use the Textured Cardstock setting to cut almost all cardstock. If it’s a material not in the presets, then I start with the recommendations from the manufacturer, or the closest material to it. The more you cut, the more comfortable you will get with the materials you are using and the settings needed.
And, I do Test Cuts. These will be your best friend and save you lots of materials! If the square with the triangle test cut is not working for you, make your own with a capital B and move it around. For more details and photos on creating your own Test Cut, check out this Beginner HTV post HERE to see how I do that.
If the test cut does not come out well, then I look at adjusting my settings. I usually start with blade depth. Increase it by 1 and try a test cut. If it works, great! If not, then it will depend on what it did. If it cut too deep, then I will decrease the blade depth to what it was and increase the force by 1-2 and try another test cut. Do not change too much too fast, or you really don’t know what worked and what didn’t.
Now, let’s look at the bottom of the Send tab and what it tells us.
Machine name – this will show you the name of the current machine selected from the Machine list. Right click on the name and you can rename the machine.
Under this menu, there are also options to do a few more other things such as Calibration, Distance Adjustment, Tool Separation, Manual Registration (Print and Cut), and Automatic Registration (Print and Cut). We will not cover these in this tutorial today, but you can find more information on all of those in the Silhouette Handbook that is FREE in the Silhouette Design Store. Grab it HERE and then open it and hold down Ctrl+F on the keyboard for the search bar. Type in what you are looking for to learn more about that item.
Machine icon and status is directly below the Machine name. This will show a photo of the current Silhouette machine that is selected as the default machine and tell you the status of it.
Machine list is where you will toggle between different Silhouette machines or choose the USB versus Bluetooth connection.
Here you will see the Machine name, Firmware version, x to close a machine connection, Bluetooth and USB connections that are recognized by the software. To choose a new machine simply select the machine from the list that you want to send the project to and it will be the new default machine. Check out how to rename your machine HERE With the Business Edition upgrade, you can use multiple machines at the same time and just toggle between them under this icon. For more information on using multiple machines at the same time click HERE.
Next to the Machine list icon is a small icon like a graduation cap. It has a few instructions in there that need to be updated.
Moving to the right side at the bottom of the Send tab, you will find the Test Cut options.
The Test Cut arrows move the blade housing if you need to adjust where the test cut location is. Make sure to move the housing both directions to the exact location you want it to cut at.
Next to that is where you choose whether to perform the Test cut with Tool 1 or Tool 2.
And then you have the Test Cut button. When you are ready, click it to cut a small square with a triangle out of the material wherever the blade housing is set up. Note: after doing a test cut, make sure to unload and reload your mat before sending the project to cut, so it will cut in the exact location you have setup on the screen.
Below that is the Send button. When all test cuts have been performed, double check that the material settings are correct and press the Send button to send the project to the Silhouette machine.
Next to the Send button on the right is the barcode icon. A print and cut project can be setup with a barcode to read for the cut settings. It is briefly described in this post on the Registration Marks Panel HERE. It is not something I have needed to use.
And in the far bottom right corner is the Advanced Settings for the Send tab.
For most users, you may never use this Advanced Settings Panel. The 2 that I find are used the most are the Feed Option and the Cut Order Sorting.
After Cutting a Tile – choose whether the machine should “Await cutter ready” or “Pause”. For more information on the Tiling feature – check out this post HERE.
Feed Option – choose between “Return to Origin” or “Feed” Return to Origin tells the machine whether to pull the mat or material back to the front of the machine to unload it Feed tells the machine to feed to the back of the machine to use the Cross Cutter option. This can be helpful when cutting off a roll. For more information on the Cameo 4 roll feeder and cutting from a roll check out this post HERE.
Layer Sorting – choose between “no sort” or “Group Layers by Condition”. No sort cuts the layers in the order they are listed in the Layers Panel. Group Layers by Condition will cut layers with the same conditions together for instance, same color lines are considered a layer.
Show Cutter Divisions – choose between “Known Cutters” or “All Cutters” *more information on this option coming soon
Show Weed Settings – choose between “Auto”, “Always”, “Never” *more information on this option coming soon
Cut Order Sorting – choose between “No sort”, “Maximize Speed”, “Minimize Roller Movement”, and/or “Sort Interior Contours First”. This is where you can change the order in which the machine cuts. You select what you want it to do whether by the fastest way to cut, minimize roller movement, etc. What works best may be different for each user. I have mine set to Minimize Roller Movement and Sort Interior Contours First. The Silhouette software and machine will choose the best order to cut with based on these selections. It does not always cut in the order we think it should, but I just let it go and it will do it’s thing.
Note: different version of the software may show different Advanced Settings under this menu. Older software version may not have as many options as shown above. This tutorial is written using v4.3.372.
Whew!
Did you know that the “Simple” tab of the Silhouette software contained all that information?
I would love to hear what you learned today or see your Silhouette projects! Feel free to post photos or questions on my Facebook group at Silhouette Secrets with EllyMae.
Save this for future reference by pinning the image below.
Enjoy !
THANK YOU for your support! How can you help? Click HERE & buy a coffee. Every little bit helps with the cost of running the site.
Silhouette Classes
Never stop learning! Let me help you take the anxiety out of learning with Silhouette and get to creating faster! My Silhouette classes are heavily focused on software, so you can take the skills & techniques taught and apply them to many future projects!
**This post may contain affiliate links. What that means is that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher but I may get compensated for sharing.
Let’s talk software. The Silhouette Studio program is a software program that is installed directly on your computer.
What is software? Well, the most basic answer I can use to describe it is, it is code put together in a pattern that tells it what to do. We don’t see this side of things and I know I wouldn’t understand any of it if I did. It is numbers and letters arranged in a particular pattern to create what we see on the screen.
The Silhouette software has grown over the past 10 years from a basic cutting software to a powerful graphics program that can do much more than just send a design to be cut on a Silhouette machine.
Silhouette America puts out software updates on a regular basis. These updates are free of charge and are either released to correct a bug (coding) or to release new features in the software.
Recently (2019), the version 4.2 was released and this has many new features added into it such as flexi-shapes, color fonts, library updates, lasso selection, warp templates, puzzle generator, and more. But, any time a new feature is added it changes the “code” of the program. This is true for all software related devices – Iphones, Ipads, android devices, Silhouette Studio, etc.
There is a Silhouette Beta team, which I am a member of, and this team tests updates as they are created. At any point and time, there may be 1 or more Closed Beta versions that are released to us to test. Testers download and use these current “test” versions and report back on any unusual things we experience. There may also be a Public Beta version on the website, that any user can download and use. However, I do only suggest an experienced user download the Beta version as it is still in testing and may have unknown bugs in it.
There are many, many factors that play into how the software will react for a user. And even though the version is tested within the Beta group and Silhouette’s staff, there may still be things that pop up after it is released to the general public. This can be for many reasons, but the number 1 reason I see is that no user’s computer is the same as the next person. Some of us have computers built for multiple graphic program use, while others are built for surfing the internet. That means that a software program may react differently for one user vs the next.
And then you throw in another big factor – the big computer companies also have updates to their operating systems. And they don’t let anyone know prior to releasing the update what they are going to change. In this day and age, you may not even have a choice on whether to accept these updates to the Operating System or not, it just happens. You close your computer one night and then next morning open it back up and are faced with that spinning wheel that says, “Please wait while updates are installing.”
Now, I say all that to give you a little back story on my view of software updates as a Silhouette Studio user and Terri Johnson Creates Licensed Silhouette Instructor. I troubleshoot a lot on Facebook and when teaching classes at events, so I see a lot of things pop up. Not all the issues that come up can be blamed on the software.
Today, I’m going to touch on 2 “bugs” in the software that we experienced in my classes at the All Things Silhouette Conference this past weekend. I say “bugs” because they are not detrimental bugs but are changes that a user can still work with once they know why it is happening.
Today we will discuss 2 of the things that I saw during my classes – edit points & multiple machines recognized.
Both of these are workable “bugs” once you understand that they are happening.
Edit points
Edit points are the data points of a design that the software recognizes and relays to the Silhouette machine to make the cut happen.
For a more information on edit points and working with them check out this blog post HERE.
The typical behavior is if you double click on a design, they will appear. However, in the current public versions of the Silhouette software, they are more sensitive and like to come out to play much easier – sometimes with a single click of the mouse button. And sometimes they do not necessarily show up on the screen as the dots, especially if a design is grouped together.
There are a few ways you can tell if the object has entered point edit mode.
The first would be that the gray edit points appear on the edge of the design.
The next way to tell if the Edit points have come out to play is if you can see the Edit Points options in the top left corner of the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar) or if the Edit Points Panel opens on the right side. There may be times that you may not see the gray dots of the edit points so at first glance, you may not know that’s what happened, but check to see if the Point Edit mode panels come up.
So, what do you do if this happens? First, try not to get frustrated as that doesn’t make those little guys go away.
Two things you can do – click off the object and try to select it again or right click to bring up the menu and choose “Exit Point Edit Mode”.
Knowing why it is happening, what causes it to happen and how to get out of it – I believe helps with understanding how to work with it.
And of course, when you want to recreate the issue to show someone or demonstrate in class, those little guys keep on hiding. But, they love to come out to play when you aren’t try to get them to do it on purpose. I find this happens often when I find something I think might be a bug in the software & I try to recreate it to bring to the Beta teams attention – and it just laughs at me.
Multiple Machines Recognized
Now, this “bug” may not affect users as much as it did for those in attendance at the All Things Silhouette Conference, but you may notice that the software is now scanning continually for machines nearby.
On the Send tab in the top right corner, at the bottom right of the page is a machine icon. By selecting this icon you can switch between Silhouette machines, which is a Business Edition feature, or if the software is picking up multiple machines, you can choose the one that shows “Available”.
With the current Silhouette Studio v4 software, it is continually scanning and will pick up some other machines nearby. Sometimes, it may even recognize the same machine, but think it’s a new one that’s plugged in. We had both situations happen during class at the June 2019 All Things Silhouette Conference.
The good news on this is the connection between the Silhouette software is getting much stronger and it’s picking up more now. However, I did see more issues with a MAC vs a PC in class. Now, as a home user you may not have any issues with it picking up and placing more machine names in the machine list. But, if you are at an event or just returned from the All Things Silhouette Conference, you may see that you have a lot. The most that I saw on a users computer was 62. While we figured it out during class (Thank you to my Silhouette America staff helpers – Jesse & Ben!), it can still be there when you get home.
The Silhouette America website has a fix for this. While these are the instructions for a “Crash on initializing”, they are also the same instructions for many other issues & can clear out a lot of things that will help the software run a bit smoother as well.
On the other side of it, this operation does wipe out any Custom cut settings (User Defined Settings), so it is best to export those before you proceed. Check out this post on how to Export the User Defined Settings – HERE. It also will reset some of the Preferences to factory defaults, so keep that in mind. The Preferences in the software can be adjusted and which option you choose is a personal preference. But, we will get to that part in a bit.
Once you have exported those User Defined Settings, then you can proceed to clearing out the machine history.
These instructions are direct from the Silhouette America website HERE and I have verified these with Silhouette support.
Since I know that some are visual learners, I have created a video going through the steps of both exporting the User Defined Settings and Clearing out the Silhouette Studio software preferences.
Here are the written instructions from the Silhouette America website, if you are showing multiple machines in the Silhouette software and want to clear those out do the following:
“Please do the following to clear your Silhouette Studio software preferences. Please note that this procedure will result in the removal of user generated cut settings (blade/thickness/speed settings) and user option selections:
On a Mac:
Close the Silhouette Studio software
Open the Finder
Press CMD+SHIFT+G
Type in ~/Library/Preferences
Press Return
Delete the Folder com.aspexsoftware.Silhouette_Studio
Empty the Trash
Re-open the Silhouette Studio Software
On a PC:
Close the Silhouette Studio software
Press the Windows key (lower left, between CTRL and ALT) and the R key on your keyboard simultaneously
Type in %appdata%
Press Enter
Delete the Folder com.aspexsoftware.Silhouette_Studio
Empty the Recycle Bin
Re-open the Silhouette Studio software”
Now, the next step. Once you have cleared out all of the Silhouette Studio software preferences, there may be a few things that you want to go in and change back in the Preferences Panel.
While a few of these Preferences are personal preference, there are also a couple that will help the software run better if you do not need them.
The Preferences panel can be found under the Edit menu in the top left corner or by clicking on the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the Design tab.
Under the Preferences Panel, click on the Defaults tab at the top.
I choose to have the Default Fill Style as Outline Only and the Cut to Edge of Page checked. These are personal preferences only.
Under the Tools tab in the Preferences Panel, I change it to “Choose Select” on After Creating a Shape, After Drawing Freehand & After Using Zoom.
Next, click on the Advanced tab at the top of the Preferences Panel.
These are 2 options that will help the software run smoother by decreasing the data that is saved with each file. It does not affect the design but does affect how large the file is.
Change the Packet Size to 500
Uncheck the “Include Cut Data” – this is only needed if you are saving to a USB stick and want to use the USB stick directly in the Silhouette machine to cut the design with.
I hope this helps explain a little bit about the Silhouette software and how to work with some of these “bugs” that are showing in v4.2. As I said above, I don’t really find them to detrimental bugs, but things that can be worked with once you understand that they are there.
**This post may contain affiliate links. What that means is that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher but I may get compensated for sharing.
Have you seen edit points pop up in Silhouette Studio before? Do they intimidate you? Well let’s see if we can change that.
Affiliate links may be present in the following blog post and as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
What are Edit points?
Edit points are basically the data points the Silhouette reads to make a particular shape of the object. Each edit point has qualities on how it is supposed to act such as straight line, corner, curved, etc. and this is how a shape is made up.
The edit points will come up on an object if you double click on the object or use the keyboard shortcut letter “A” with the object selected.
If you draw a circle, it is made up of 4 edit points.
A square also has 4 edit points but the type of edit point are different than the above circle.
By clicking on an edit point, you can see what property it has in the Point Editing Panel.
Why Edit Points Might Not Show
In order for the edit points to appear, the object has to be a single object and an ungrouped object.
For instance, if I type out text, it is not treated as a design. So the edit points won’t appear.
If it is converted to a path, the edit points still will not appear because even though it’s acting as a design, it is still grouped together. If the design is ungrouped the edit points will appear because all the pieces are now separate.
Or if the design is made into a Compound Path, then the edit points will appear.
Altering Edit Points
There are many ways to change the edit points.
By clicking on an existing point, it turns white, indicating that it is the point selected.
It will tell you what kind of edit point it is. This one is a corner. Grab the blue squares on either end and this will adjust the outcome of this edit point.
To select multiple edit points, hold down the Shift key & drag the selection box around all the points you would like to select. Then make changes to a group of edit points all at one time by moving or choosing a new property for those selected.
All edit points that are selected will show as white points.
Point Editing Panel
When the editing points are active, the Point Editing Panel should pop up or click on the Edit Points tool on the left side menu.
This panel has many options for how you can alter an edit point(s). The name of each tells you exactly what behavior it will have. Each design you work with will react differently to what is changed.
Remember, edit points are the data points that your Silhouette software relays to your Silhouette machine to connect the cut.
The Cameo machine needs to hit every single one of those edit points in order to make the cut. Some files such as dxf files or traced images can have lots of edit points and this can make the Cameo sound odd when cutting. The Cameo is not broken, but has to connect each of those edit points to make the cut.
Simplifying Edit Points
Some files can have the edit points simplified without changing the look of the design. For instance, this Leafy Mandala by Rhonna Farrer from the Silhouette Design Store has a lot of edit points when I first opened it.
In the Edit Points Panel, select Simplify.
You should notice less edit points in the design.
In this case, the design did not change in the look at all, but the edit points are now much less.
The best way to learn how edit points act is to find a design and just play around with the different options.
While they can look intimidating when they pop up on the screen, once you understand their purpose and how they work, I think it makes it seems a lot less daunting when you see them.
Save this post for future reference by pinning the image below.
Enjoy !
THANK YOU for your support! How can you help? Click HERE & buy a coffee. Every little bit helps with the cost of running the site.
Silhouette Classes
Never stop learning! Let me help you take the anxiety out of learning with Silhouette and get to creating faster! My Silhouette classes are heavily focused on software, so you can take the skills & techniques taught and apply them to many future projects!
**This post may contain affiliate links. What that means is that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher but I may get compensated for sharing.
Silhouette Studio software will pull in any font that you have installed on your computer. Once it’s installed, a text style name should show up in the Text Style Panel.
Let’s take a look.
Text Search bar – 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.
Text Size – Use the drop down box to change the text size smaller or larger here or highlight and type in a new number to change the pt size.
Text Style Panel – The first 2 sections to appear in the Panel are the “Frequently Used” and “Recently Used” sections. You may have other sections in the Panel because you’ve created folders in your Fonts folder in the Silhouette cloud library. When you choose a font style for your text, the font style name will be highlighted.
Text Properties – If a font has the options, choose Bold, Italic or Underlined here. Some text styles may have additional options available and the drop down box next to U will be available to select.
Text Alignment – Choose your text to be align left (default), align centered, align right or Full.
Horizontal/Vertical Text – Choose whether your text runs horizontally or vertically on your design mat.
Line Spacing – Increase or decrease the space between each line of text. This will affect text created in the same text box.
Character Spacing – Increase or decrease the spacing between each character. This can come in handy when you are trying to weld something and the letters do not overlap.
Kerning – This feature adjusts the spacing between letters to make them look better, such as AW or AV. Instead of having such a wide space between then, you can turn the Kern on and they move closer together.
Now, let’s talk a little about how to create with Text.
First click on the Text Tool on the left side of the Silhouette Software.
Click on the design mat & type out the words.
Click off of the words to deselect it and then click back on the text once to select it.
Fill the text with color to make it easier to see & work with.
Click on the Text Style Panel on the right side.
Now, click on a Font Style Name, the text will change to that font style.
You can then either click on each font, use the text search bar if you know what you are looking for or use the arrow keys to scroll through the text list and as you do the words will change to each font – this is my favorite method if I don’t know what font I want.
You will notice that I have red lines still going through my letters. Because my letters are overlapping, I want to weld this before I cut so that it will cut anything part that overlaps as one piece. Right click on the design and choose Weld.
This will change the text from editable text to a vector image, so you might want to make a copy and pull it off your mat before welding. Once it’s welded, you will see that any piece that was not overlapping will have now become it’s own separate section with a bounding box around it.
To keep the pieces together, we want to Group.
There are several ways to Group – right click & choose Group, Ctrl (Cmd) + G, Object tab at top & Group or use the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar) at the top and select the Group icon.
And now your font is ready to cut.
I hope that helps to explain the different parts of the Text Style Panel and how to create text designs.
Check out the other posts in the Let’s Explore v4 Series HERE.
Enjoy !
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Looking for more in-depth, step-by-step classes, check out all of my online Silhouette classes on my Teachable site HERE.
**This post may contain affiliate links. What that means is that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product or service is not higher but I may get compensated for sharing.
Today we are going to explore the Fill Color Panel located on the right side of Silhouette Studio v4.
I use this feature a lot when I design in the Silhouette software for many reasons.
Now, understand that by filling a design with color, it does not cut in that color. The color you fill it with will be a visual reference only, unless you are making a Print and Cut project. If you are creating a Print and Cut project, then the colors will be a representation of what colors will print on your printer.
I fill my designs and fonts with color so I can visualize the design better. Typically, I just fill it with black, but if I’m creating a multi-color image, I can then choose the colors that will best match my design. Another reason to fill it with color is to be able to select the design or font easier. When an image is transparent, you have to click on the red outline of the image to select it, which can sometimes be difficult. However, if you fill it with a color, you can click anywhere on that color to select the object.
For today’s example, I am using a font from the new SoFontsy site called Wine Not and will be creating my own design.
You can see in my photo above that when I use the Text tool and type in my font, that it comes in transparent. Also, notice that the font name has a few extra letters in front of it, this is the Designer’s signature and something to keep in mind when you download fonts. You may need to pay close attention to the full font name to find it in your Text Style list.
Something else to point out here is the extra space around the font, as you can see my text selection box is 2.218″ in height but if you look at the grid spaces, the font is really less than 2″ in height. Check out this guest post I wrote at the Silhouette School blog on Forcing Accurate Text Sizes for more information on that.
So, how do you fill something with color? First, make sure your object is selected. You will see the selection box around it when it is selected. Then, you can click on the Fill Color Panel on the right side of your Silhouette software or it can also be found in the top left corner of the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar).
Now let’s Explore the Fill Color Panel.
Color Palette Selection – In this area click on one of the blocks of color and the design selected will change to that color.
Eyedropper color selection – Click on this and then click on another color on your design mat to pick up that color and use it.
Color Selection – This is the color that is currently chosen as the Fill color with the Eyedropper tool.
Transparency – This changes the transparency of the Fill color chosen. In the above photo, the design at the top has my website placed over the top as you would place a watermark and the Transparency is decreased to 71% versus the design on the bottom that is still at 100%.
Advanced Options – Opens up a panel where you can move the color selection around manually or under the color graph you can input the specific numbers for a certain color that you would like.
Fill Gradient – Here you have many options to change the color and the gradient fill and change the properties of how the design looks. You can also decrease the transparency of the gradient, adjust the color even more, and change the angle of the gradient.
Fill Pattern – Here there are many patterns for you choose from or you can add new patterns into the library and those will show up here. You also have the ability to change the Transparency of the pattern and under Advanced Options can choose to mirror, change the aspect ratio, rotate, change the angle, scale, and pan the pattern.
In the photos above, on the left, you can see I just clicked on the Fill Pattern option and chose a polka dot pattern, I did not change anything else. On the right, I changed the mirror, angle of the pattern, increased the scale, and panned the pattern so that it was a bit different.
As you can see, you have many options available when you are designing and using the Fill Color Panel. Keep in mind, that while you can change the color, gradient and pattern fills on the screen, the Cameo will still cut the color that you place on your mat. If you want the design to be how you have filled it on the screen, you need to look at creating a Print & Cut project. Check out more information here on last weeks exploration of Registration Marks for Print and Cut projects.
For our project today, I have used a font called Wine Not by Design Shark available on the new SoFontsy site. All the designs on the site come with a 100% Commercial Use license and are cuttable files.
And I’ve included the design used in the post as a freebie!
The graphics I used also came from the font file and I accessed them through the Glyphs Panel in my Silhouette Studio software. The Glyphs Panel is available in the Silhouette software for those who have the Designer Edition upgrade and higher than v4.1.197 of the Silhouette software. You can find great prices on the software upgrades at Swing Design if you need to purchase it. I highly recommend upgrading to at least the Designer Edition upgrade.
I hope you learned a bit about the Fill Color Panel and how useful it can be when you are creating in your Silhouette software.
Check out the entire “Let’s Explore v4” series HERE.
THANK YOU for your support! How can you help? Click HERE & buy a coffee.
Every little bit helps with the cost of running the site.
Looking for more in-depth, step-by-step classes, check out all of my online Silhouette classes on my Teachable site HERE.
Enjoy !
THANK YOU for your support! How can you help? Click HERE & buy a coffee.
Every little bit helps with the cost of running the site.
Looking for more in-depth, step-by-step classes, check out all of my online Silhouette classes on my Teachable site HERE.
**This post may contain affiliate links. What that means is that I may receive compensation if you purchase through the links I have provided. The price you pay for the product
THANK YOU for your support! How can you help? Click the link to buy a coffee. Every little bit helps in the cost of running the site.
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