Alphabets: To select the font or alphabet that you would like the text design to appear in, left click on the down arrow on the Lettering Tab. It looks like this, , located under the Letter Stitch Order box and above the Letter Height box.
For instructions on using alphabets, please refer to the alphabet code sheet for that alphabet. Click here or search on your hard drive for the alphabets.pdf file.
Closest Point: When a closest point alphabet is used, you may choose to have the letters connected using the closest point. Click the box next to Closest Point Connection to place a check mark in the box that symbolizes that the function is On. This will automatically insert the entry and exit points at the closest point between the letters. Click in the box again to remove the check which symbolizes that the function is Off.
Color Change Command (keyboard shortcut F6): A color change command will instruct the peripheral to pause for a re-thread on single-needle machines, or to change to a different needle on a multi-needle machine. It also changes the color in the View Window to the next color in the palette.
To add a color change in the text dialog box, place the cursor between the letters and click . A ^ symbol marks the color change.
Customized Spacing: Sometimes text is too crowded or too loosely spaced. This often happens to arc lettering. To illustrate customized spacing, you can do the following exercise:
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First, select Athletic Block (do this by clicking the drop-down arrow that is below the spacing buttons). Now set letter height to .75 and type DECEMBER in the text dialog box. Next click a check mark into the "Place Letters On Arc" box. Click "OK". Your image should look like the first one in the image to the right, Notice that E, M, and B are closer together than the rest of the letters. |
Right click or double click anywhere on the element to get to the properties page. Now place your cursor between the Letters E and M. Click the button or click F8 to add space. Click between the letters M and B. This command will display in the text dialog box as this » symbol. Press "OK". Your image should now look like the second one that is displayed to the right. Each » adds a space equal to 1/16 of the letter height. For example, with a 1" letter, the space would be 1/16". With a 0.5" letter, the space would be 1/32".
You can also decrease the space between letters that are too far apart. Again, you should place the cursor in the text box between the letters that are too far apart, in the text dialog box. Next click the button or click F7 and a « symbol will appear in the text box. Click OK and the letters will move closer together. Each « subtracts a space equal to 1/16 of the letter height.
Increases Space = F8
Decreases Space = F7
In addition to being able to change the spacing between letters as mentioned above, you may also change spacing on individual letters as follows:
1. Create a lettering job.
2. Select the lettering by left clicking on it (there will be an box around the lettering with eight square handles showing that it is selected).
3. Hold down the <Shift> key, left click on a letter, drag it the desired distance.
Note: This type of spacing is not be displayed on the lettering properties tab.
Fabric Adjust: When you click on this button, a Fabric Adjust Dialogue box will appear.
Because lettering is so exact and may be very small, it is possible for the actual sew out to turn out different from the way that it looks in the View Window when it was digitized. This is especially true when you are sewing on different types of material. The lettering may bunch up or become knotted, even in a way that is illegible. This may happen because of the material that you are sewing on. You can prevent this from happening by first selecting the type of fabric that you are using, here on the Fabric Adjust Dialogue box. Select the fabric by left clicking on one of the types. Light knit is an example of type. After you have selected the type of fabric, you must select the Letter Size Range as well. Fabric Adjust will not implement any changes without both the Fabric and the Letter Size Range being selected.
After you have selected the fabric and letter size range, Fabric Adjust will change some of the default settings on the Lettering Properties accordingly. You will notice a change in Stitch Length on the Lettering Tab. You will also notice changes in Density, Column Width, and Primary Underlay Type on the Column Tab.
Justification: This is where you can select the justification of your lettering job, i.e. justify all lettering to the left, center, or to the right. This does not work for monograms.
Letter Height: This is where you can set the overall height of a capital letter. The default is one inch.
Monogram: When using a non-monogram alphabet to create a monogram you can do this by clicking in the box next to monogram. A check mark in the box symbolizes that this function is on whereas, no check mark symbolizes that this function is off. For standard monogram alphabets (3 letter alphabets like 3 Letter Circle), you don't have to turn on the Monogram feature in EDS IV. This is automatically turned on for you.
Monogram Properties: When using a non-monogram alphabet you have the option to change the letter height and/or density of the individual monogram letters, click the "Monogram Settings" button. The following dialog box will pop up:
For instructions on using monogram alphabets and their borders, please refer to the alphabet code sheet for that alphabet. Click here or search for alphabets.pdf on your hard drive.
Place Letters On Arc: When you choose to place letters on an arc the text will curve, To select this function left click. A check mark will appear in the small box to the left symbolizes that this function is turned on.
Arc Properties: When placing letters on an arc you have the option to change the arc properties. You can change the radius, the angle, and the direction. To change the direction, click the radio button for CW (clock wise) or CCW (counter clock wise).
Arc Radius: The radius of a circle is the distance from the center of the circle to the circumference of the circle. The longer the radius, the less the amount of curvature in the arc (an arc is a piece of a circle).
Arc Angle: The arc angle is a position on a circle where the center of your lettering will be located. This position is entered in degrees; with 0 (zero) degrees being the top of a circle, and 180 degrees being the bottom of a circle.
Angle Type CW or CCW: The angle type is a direction of sewing. In most cases, you will want to be sewing in a CW (clockwise) direction if the arc angle is in the top half of a circle. You will want to be sewing in a CCW (counterclockwise) direction if the arc angle is in the bottom half of the circle.
A common occurrence when sewing counterclockwise is that the letters may touch. To correct this, you must use some positive horizontal spacing between the letters.
Even though the word "Denver" was
entered first before "Colorado", the design sews as shown above
when you have your arc properties set at 180
Save As Default: Any time that you change a setting or settings and click the Save As Default button your changes will be saved. Even if you exit out of EDS IV and get back in again, your default settings will be saved.
Sequenced Lettering: There are many options available that can be applied to the stitch order of your letters or lines of text.
Letter Stitch Order: This option gives you more control of how each letter will sew out.
Left to Right - Stitching will start with the left letter and proceed to the right.
Right to Left - Stitching will start with the right letter and proceed to the left.
Center Out - Stitching with start in the middle and proceed to the farthest right, then come back to center and proceed to the farthest left.
Note: Center out stitching is commonly used to solve problems with registration, such as caps and difficult fabrics.
Line Stitch Order: This option gives you more control of how each line will sew out.
Top to Bottom - Stitching order will start with the top line of letters and proceed to the bottom line.
Bottom to Top - Stitching will start with the bottom line of letters and proceed to the top.
Line Wrapping - Stitching will start at the side specified by the letter stitch option, left-to-right or right-to-left and alternate the direction for each of the lines of the lettering object. Center out letter stitch order is not available with line wrapping.
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Slant Angle: This inclines lettering in increments of one from +15 to -15. Positive values slant lettering to the right and negative values slant lettering to the left. Below is an example: |
Horizontal Spacing: By putting a positive value here,space will be added in between the letters. A negative value will take away space between the letters.
Line Spacing: If you have multiple lines of text, you can increase or decrease the spacing in between the separate lines.
Here is an example of changing line spacing: If you have 1.00 inch letter height you could add half of that (.50) to equal 1.50 inch line spacing for a sufficient amount of space between the lines.
Vertical Spacing: By putting a positive value here, vertical height will be added in between each letter, so that each letter is higher than the one before. A negative value will cause each letter to be lower than the one before.
Styles: Lettering styles are named collections of lettering properties that can be loaded and saved from the lettering properties page. Styles include all user specified lettering properties, column properties, and lock stitch properties. Lettering styles can be saved by clicking on the "styles" button, type the name for your style, click "save", click "OK". the new style will be added to your list of styles.
To load an already saved style, left click on the "styles" button, click on the drop-down arrow and select the desired style, click "load", click "OK".
Styles are saved in the EDS IV\Styles\directory. Two types of files can exist in this directory: files ending in the extension ST1 (EDS IV\Styles\*.ST1) and ST2 (EDS IV\Styles\*.ST2). The files of type *.ST1 are EDS III styles and files of type *.ST2 are EDS IV styles. You may copy your previously saved files from EDS III into this directory and they can be read into EDS IV, then saved as EDS IV styles. You cannot read EDS IV styles into EDS III.
Text Dialogue Box: When you click inside the large white box, your cursor will appear in the top left corner. This is where you will type out your text design.
Trim (keyboard shortcut F9): A trim command causes peripherals equipped with trimmers to perform a trim between each letter. Trims between lower case script lettering are unnecessary. Add a trim in the text dialog box placing your cursor (left clicking) between the letters you want to trim. When the cursor appears, click the button or click F9. A € symbol will appear in the text dialog box to mark the trim. There will be no visible difference in the View Window.
Any time that you are in a property page, you can click "Apply" after making a change and it will immediately apply your change. The advantage of using "Apply" verses clicking "OK" after a change is that you can apply your changes and still move on to making other changes. Once you click on "OK", your changes will be applied and the property dialogues will close and you will be back at the View Window. You can also click "Cancel" and the property dialogues will close without implementing the last change.