We specialize in bringing various fonts to life in a 3D fashion. What fonts you ask? Well, anything we can get a .ttf file for. We have a number of them already, but there are thousands more out there… We recommend going to fonts.google.com (we’ll provide a link at the bottom) to browse through their selection of fonts, but before you pick one out, there are a number of things to consider…
How skinny do you want your characters to be?
Skinny fonts will not be sturdy! Every font is different, and many fonts have various “styles” which include different font-weights, and often, italic variations.
The font “Raleway”, for example, has 18 styles:
These generally equate to having font-weights of 100-900 respectively, but not always; that’s not really important. It is, however, important to note the name of the specific style you are looking at, because the font you are looking at may not be “regular”. Make sure you are picking out the style from the list of styles available for the font. (Generally speaking it will only have a few styles, not 18…) It is also important to note that some fonts do not have different styles at all, and therefore can not natively be made any bolder.
We, on the other hand, have a method of making all fonts or font styles bolder, but if we have to thicken up a font, it will end up being a distortion of its true self. In most cases, the distortion is barely noticeable and is still closely resembles the font, but still, it is a deviation from the font itself. So, if you really want a font, and it is only available in a skinny style, make a special request that we thicken it up, and we will run our design past you before we do any cutting.
It should also be noted that for the “Edge Extended” edge trim option (if elected) we will automatically thicken up, and hence slightly distort the font(see edge-options) for details about that).
In the “Raleway” example above, any of the styles of a weight lighter than “Semi-Bold” might need to be thickened up, either by selecting the “Edge Extended” trim option, or by asking us to do so…
We recommend picking out a font in which every part of all of the characters you want are wide enough to be practical. If you are not sure, please don’t hesitate to ask, but generally speaking, if you limit the thickness of your choice of fonts at fonts.google.com on their 1-10 scale by a thickness of 5 or greater, you usually end up with a font wight above 400 and we can probably work with it. You may find that fonts of size 8 or 9 however may already be too bold to make it any bolder with the “Edge Extended” trim option, so you may also want to have your edge trim style in mind before you choose your font-style as well.
Using harder, sturdier materials will also allow you to use thinner fonts. 1/4″ MDF fiberboard, for example, is very soft and breaks easily with fonts of mid-thickness. If you really want a skinny font, choose a harder material like oak.
Of course you don’t have to get your font from google, but we will download it for you from there if you just tell us what you want… If you get your font elsewhere, you must send us the .ttf file…
Now, if you are ready to browse some fonts, click ont the fonts.google.com button below, pick out a font and take note of the font-style you want by clicking on the font and viewing its styles. When you’ve got one picked out, return here and Go Design…