For the Business of Apparel Decorating
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24 || P R I N T W E A R S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 level digitizing software programs, you can create a new font using an existing font. According to Caroselli, sometimes this can be your best option when you need a customized alphabet. "Open each letter and move the nodes to create the shape you need. You can then save your work as a new font. It does take a bit of time to adjust each letter. But in the end, you have an entire keyboard-ready font that sews beautifully, as long as you started with a font that you already know works well." This can also be done just for the letters you need if you do not have the time to modify an entire alphabet. All these options bring me back to my original point. How much time can you afford to spend chasing an elusive font? We offered a large number of fonts in our digitizing software, and we found that the majority of our customers were more than satisfied to select something from the fonts we had on hand. We charged custom digitizing fees or graphic design fees if the customer insisted that we generate lettering that was not already in our system. It was rather rare that the customer chose to pay the higher price to get the custom- ized font, particularly for small and one-off orders. It seems like these cus- tomers are the most demanding, yet you earn the lowest profit and spend the most time trying to satisfy them. Hopefully, some of the suggestions and tools above will help you expand your font offerings and reduce the time you spend on these wild goose chases unless you are being compensated fairly for that time. STITCH SOLUTIONS Left: With a few online tools, you can quickly narrow down the list of possible fonts from an unimaginable number to a handful of possibilities, saving yourself hours of scrolling through pages of font styles. (Image courtesy Mary Mayer, Your Name Here) Right: Look closely at the lowercase letters of a font, such as a, b, d, e, g, p, q, and o, as well as the uppercase letters A, B, D, P, Q, and R to make sure they are not a mess on the inner edges. (Image courtesy Valerie Nau, R&V Embroidery & Screenprinting) Consider charging an extra fee for a specialty font if it's not yet in your li- brary. (Image courtesy Rebecca Law- rence, Gert & Bert Creations)