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How to Purchase Digital Content in the Webstore

https://vimeo.com/944519760?share=copy

How to Find Purchased Digital Content in FrameShop 7

https://vimeo.com/944519645?share=copy

Introduction

Info

  • The letters in the various LetterMats all contain the specific characteristics associated to the specific font. Some of the letters are Single line, and some are Outlines.

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titleSingle Line Font Definition

The letters are formed with Single Lines, not drawn as the outlines of shapes. Single Line LetterMat fonts can only be Debossed or drawn with the Pen.

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titleOutline Font Definition

The Outline LetterMatfonts display the shapes of the letters as outlines with only a slight distinction between the thin and thick strokes.

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titleLetterMat Definition

The LetterMat™ fonts are specialized fonts designed specifically for the Wizard FrameShop software.

Single Line Fonts: The letters are formed with Single Lines, not drawn as the outlines of shapes. Single line fonts can only be Debossed or drawn with the Pen.

Outline Fonts: The Outline fonts display the shapes of the letters as outlines with only a slight distinction between the thin and thick strokes. These fonts can be Debossed, Penned or Cut.

See: Add Font Function

See: LetterMat Properties

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titleMat Design Definition

Mat Designs are complete mat designs containing openings and can contain decorative or thematic elements to be cut/applied on the CMC created in Designer the Design Editor and Visualization.

Info

  • Even with all the decorative elements of the individual fonts, captions can easily be Deboss/Penned smaller than they can be cut, but there may be a few spacing problems that require attention.

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LetterMat Spacing Questions

Info

  • Whether it is FrameShop or MatDesigner, the Wizard design program’s FrameShop’s main purpose is to align rectangular openings. The program measures the distance between letters as if they, too, were rectangles.

  • With the angles and curves of letters, some letter pairs appear incorrectly spaced in the Wizard program. The spacing must be corrected manually to make a caption look its best. Fortunately, the lower case letters of the Thorndike OL font have few glaring spacing problems.

  • Some would say that the spacing problems with the Thorndike font are too insignificant to notice, but every framer will evaluate and decide. Whatever the decision, it is good to know what spacing variances do exist and how to fix them.

Spacing Strategies

Info

One method for repairing the spacing is to click the Explode Font button under the Advanced tab. This splits the entire caption so that each letter is a separate LetterMat item. Though everything about each letter is now individually adjustable – size, font, and placement - this option discards the most useful LetterMat utilities of Kerning and Tracking.

A more surgical approach to spacing is to divide the caption into pieces at the incorrect space. Then line up the parts of the caption and move them individually to correct the spacing. Each part of the caption still has Kerning and Tracking control, and no letters will be accidently moved off the baseline.

A Spacing Example

  • The name at the top of this illustration shows how the program spaces the letters after Kerning and Tracking are adjusted.

  • There are 2 places where the spacing could be improved.

Warning

Remember that this is only an example. Decide in each situation if spacing needs attention.

  • The e-j in Alejandra.

  • The a-y in Baylor

  • Both instances illustrate the most common spacing problem.

  • When letters with horizontally extended strokes are adjacent to small letters, the spacing is too wide.

  • In the middle line of the illustration, the name is divided into 3 sections.

  • Copy and paste so that there are 3 duplicates of the caption.

  • Edit the Text for each section.

  • They should read:

    • Ale

    • jandra Ba

    • ylor

  • Select all 3 of these LetterMat items.

  • Click the Align Objects to Bottom button under the Alignment tab.

  • The Align Objects to Bottom button lines up the baselines of LetterMat items – not the actual bottoms of the letters. Many letters (g, j, p, q, y, for example) have descending strokes.

  • Once the 3 parts of the captions are in line, use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the parts left or right so that the spacing looks better.

  • Remember that holding the Alt key as you click the arrow keys changes the increment to 0.01 inch (0.2mm in metric) per click instead of the usual sixteenth inch (1mm in metric).

  • The bottom name in the illustration shows the new spacing.

  • Compare it with the top line to see the improvement.

Grouping

Info

  • Once the manual spacing is complete – with this, or any other LetterMat spacing project - it would be best if the parts remained together as work on the design continues.

  • Select the parts of the caption.

  • Click the Group Selection button at the upper right under Tools.

  • The selected items become locked together. The software will treat them as one item. The entire caption can be moved from place to place in the design without worry that its parts will be accidentally nudged out of place.

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LetterMat Review

Info

  • Select the LetterMat caption in the design. Click the Properties tab at the top. Here are a few reminders of some important fields down the left side of the screen.

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The Caption

  • Type the caption into the Text field.

  • Select the font by clicking the drop-down arrow at the right of the Font Name field then select the font from the list that appears.

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Size

  • Enter the letter’s size in the Height field.

  • Several items in the Parameters section below are important to understand.

  • Look at the Minimum Height

  • This field displays the minimum recommended height for the font.

  • The machine will form the strokes of smaller debossed and pen letters easily, but keep in mind that the details of smaller letters may be blurred because of the width of the chosen tool.

  • This will impact readability.

  • Remember that the Minimum Height value does not change if the font is set to draw with the pen - though the caption can be smaller with the pen than if it is debossed.

  • Check the Keep Aspect Ratio button.

  • This locks the letters’ original proportions. While letters look best at their original proportions, it is a viable option with debossed and pen captions to uncheck Keep Aspect Ratio to condense or expand the caption.

    • Kerning is the size of the spaces between the letters.

    • Tracking is the size of the spaces between the words.

  • These two settings will be the key to refining every caption.

Info

Changing the Cartridge

  • The button at the bottom that currently reads Deboss is the cartridge selection button. Click it to select the Pen, for example. Below, the Type field offers the choices for each cartridge.

  • For example, when Deboss is selected above, click the Type field to pick the Wide, Medium, or Thin debossing cartridge.

For More Information