Before discussing how to download fonts to silhouette cameo and Cricut, let us understand what these two do and the basic differences.
Silhouette Cameo
This electronic cutting tool has amazing versatility. It can be used to cut objects as small as ¼” to large objects up to 12″. These measurements are for width while the length remains unlimited. Silhouette cameo can be used to cut:
i. Cardboard.
ii. Paper.
iii. Cloth.
iv. Vinyl.
v. Other common materials used to create designs.
Cricut
This computer-controlled die-cutting plotter is meant to be used for small projects. This can cut most materials used to print designs. Some users have used it to cut wood, leather, and mat board. Unlike a printer, a Cricut cuts the design on the material fed into it.
The Notable Differences
i. Cricut needs a mat to perform cutting operations whole Silhouette cameo doesn’t.
ii. The cutting area of Cricut is 1 foot in width and 2 feet in height. Cameo can cut objects up to 10 feet in length and 1 foot in width.
Downloading New Fonts for Silhouette Cameo
All fonts that are preinstalled in your system can be put to use on a Silhouette machine. Projects require more appealing fonts to create good designs. There are thousands of free fonts available online that can be used for your projects. The trick is in finding free fonts for personal as well as commercial use that are not installed in your Cameo. Use the below procedure to find how to download fonts to silhouette cameo.
Download Fonts to Your Computer
You can do a systematic search to find fonts compatible with your model of Cameo machine. The fonts should be first downloaded into your computer.
How Do Fonts Come?
Almost all variants of fonts reach the download folder of your system as a zip file. Unzip or extract the folder that contains your desired font. The actual font will have a file extension name .TTF or .OTF.
Making the Font Available to Your System OS
The new font is now on your computer but not yet available to programs. A program accesses fonts from the ‘fonts’ directory’ of the operating system of your computer. Let us move the font to the correct directory before seeing how to download fonts to silhouette cameo.
For Windows OS install the font file in the font viewer. In a Mac system, it will go into the Font Book. Alternatively, you may also use the font management wizard of the computer.
Tip: Most fonts will launch their installation prompts if you double-click the file. Following the instructions will successfully install the font.
How Will Silhouette Retrieve the New Font?
The Silhouette studio should remain closed while you were installing the font to your computer. In case you forgot to close the studio during the installation process, close it and open it again.
How To Download Fonts To Silhouette Cameo
After opening the Silhouette studio, follow the below steps to make the new font available:
i. The text tool is situated in the sidebar on the left side. Activate the tool and type anything.
ii. Select the text and open the panel for text styling as you would do in any word processor.
iii. Scroll down to the newly installed font and select it. The text style will change to the new font.
Tip: Instead of scrolling down to find the name of the font, you can type the name of the font in the search box.
Downloading New Fonts for Cricut
Instead of downloading a font when the requirement arises, it is always better to download and install a bunch of good fonts in a single go. You can search using appropriate keywords to find many aesthetic styles to suit your future projects. How to upload fonts to Cricut that are installed on your computer?
The First Step is Installing to Computer
We discussed above that font needs to be first installed on your system for making it available to programs or devices connected to the computer. Move the downloaded font to the correct folder on your computer using the methods detailed in the beginning. Now you can use a word processing software available on the system to check whether the font has become available. If you can’t find the new font in a program, restart the system and check again.
Tip: Save a copy of the font in a different folder. This folder can have all the fonts you downloaded for Cricut. This will come in handy in the future when you can’t find a particular font.
Using the New Font in Cricut
Adding a font to your computer is enough to make it available for Cricut. It doesn’t require further installations. That is how to upload fonts to Cricut.
You can simply open the ‘Design Space’ and type something. Select the text and change it to the new font from the scroll down box. Well, that’s it, you have a new font to use for projects on Cricut.
Tip: restart your computer after installing a new font. Most fonts don’t require restarting, but this is only a best practice advised by IT geeks.
Troubleshooting
It is very usual for computer programs to behave erratically to make the user mad. The first rule is “do not panic.” In most cases, it is only a minor issue that can be sorted out in no time.
Overlapping Text
Due to the design of certain font types, its letters can overlap. This will create a problem when you cut the material by way of the lines of a letter overlapping inside another letter will also get cut. This will render your work illegible.
Solution: We can solve this very easily by ‘welding’ the overlapping text.
i. Select the text that needs welding.
ii. Right-click on the selected matter.
iii. Click ‘weld’ from the dropdown box that appears.
iv. The overlapping lines will disappear.
Adamant Fonts Refusing To Show in Silhouette
This is a common issue faced by Cameo users. Most people resolve the issue by restarting the system or reinstalling a particular font. However, some fonts keep repeating the pretty annoying behavior. This too can be taken care of in less than a minute by following the below steps:
i. Press the Windows icon and the letter ‘R’ together.
ii. In the box that appears, type ‘%localappdata%’ and press OK.
iii. Go to the fonts folder and select the difficult font.
iv. Right-click and select ‘install for all users.’
Now you have tamed the difficult font.
