Ann The Gran Community

Hi ladies,  (and men!)

My name is Brandy and I am new to this forum.  I am a 31 year old stay at home mom of a 2 year old and I just purchased my first embroidery machine.  It is a Janome MC 350e.  I would like more fonts and the dealer is pushing me towards buying their products: monogrammed wizard plus and others.  I was told about this sight by someone else and came to check it out.  If I purchase fonts from here how do I resize them?  I am using them for hair bows, head bands and other crafts for craft shows. My husband knows someone who let him download Embird.  Will that work?  Is it a good program?  Any help is appreciated:) 

Thanks,

Brandy

Hi, Brandy and welcome to ATG.

First - do not share software - it is illegal.  I can understand how you and your husband may not have known this, but the person who shared should have known.

You can download your own free trial of Embird at http://www.secretsof.com/content/1798

Dealers always want you to buy their products, but they don't always know how to use what they sell when it comes to software.

Embird is a good product and is used by many.  I believe one thing that makes it so appealing is that it can be downloaded and you can start with the basic and then add what they refer to as "plug-ins" as you progress and what to add more features to the product.

Some fonts come in small sizes and you may not need to re-size.

Be Careful what you make for resale - licensed products, like Disney is a no-no.  There are some foreign sites that have all the Disney characters and more, but they are bootleg designs and not legal in the US and possibly some other countries that have copyright laws.

Always check the information where you download.  Some companies and designers do not allow the designs for use other than personal and some are OK with you using their products on items that you will be selling - with limitations.

Feel free to ask any question you like.  I do not use Janome, but there are some members who do and I am sure tell will be happy to share information with you.

Pattiann

Hi Brandy,

First let me welcome you to ATG site.

I have a Janome and it doesn't come with many fonts.  Check out Ann's Alphebet Express.  You can download a trial of it from this site.  You can make the font's as large or as small as you would like.  Also Ann does have many different fonts to go with this program.  I have it and love it.  The neat thing about it is you can see where the letttering goes in your hoop.

Check it out, it proabley will do everything you want.

Marge

Hi Brandy,

You can get all the fonts you want with embird if you purchace font engine. You can download any true type font and embird will convert it to stitches. They also give you website places with loads of free true type fonts. Also you are not restricted to the 20% enlargement ratio.

bsue

Brandy,

You don't have to worry about resizing fonts with embird. With font engine you can use any trutype fonts, which gives you any font imaginable, and you can make them any size you want. You are only limited by your frame size.

bsue

Brandy - You are in the same place as we all were at one time, confused and worried about spending money needlessly.

Your issue of the fonts is not so much the large ones as the very, very small ones.  Putting lettering on baby/children items can be a real problem.  When you do a test sew out, you will see that mini letters are hard to read.  Buying those mini lettering is also hard because most lettering is for adult sizing.

In addition to reducing the size, the density (which is reduced at the same time by most software) may well still need to be reduced even more.  I have been working with "Compositions" by Ken Parsons and he has a lettering that is 4mm (24mm equals 1").  That is a great resource.  It does so much more as well, too many to mention here.  As software goes, it is really excellent, but it is not a digitizing or download program. 

AlphaXpress is an excellent program as well.  Check out the trial and I think you will find it to be excellent.  Remember, all software requires practice and will have a learning curve.

Read everything you can about lettering and monogramming.  I have a blog with some information that just may well be helpful to you.  Check it out.

Pat, The Avid Embroiderer

Brandy,

Pat is very right about the sizing programs with very small lettering. I do very small letteringg with embird and with font engine you can go to parameters and change density further to make these letters sew pretty. Software is a choice you have to decide according to what you want to do, and how much you want to spend. If you want to do other things, I would not spend money on a sizing program when you can spend a little more and get a full program which would allow you to accomplish anything. That is only my  opinion. When I started in the home machines I wasted money on other programs and I did not need them for what I wanted to do. First you need to decide on what you want to accomplish.

bsue