As mentioned in the chapter before, user can enter letter through toolbar or through drawing window. Both ways are simple and good enough for short, one-line words. What to do when user has multi-line input or whole sentence? This is where Text settings comes into play.
When you click on the Text settings, a dialog window appears. In the text dialog user inputs multi-line text. Three dropdown menus are also available. These apply even if the text is single-line
User can choose how the machine will behave in different situations when sewing. Options one and two offer the same settings: Trim, Needle up & Stitch.
Trim option stops the machine, cuts the thread and moves to the next letter, cutting down the profit. Needle up does not put stitches between the letters and does not cut the thread. Stitch option will place stitches between words or letters. Needle up is the most recommended option, but it all depends on the situation and design.
Between Each Line adds the fourth option – Color Change. It allows changing the thread color, thus moving to another needle with different thread color.
If Stack Each Line (Name Stacking) option is checked, all letters will stack in same point, one on top of another.
Selecting the Stack Each Line option, Color change option is selected and grayed out. The final output looks like this:
Stacking is used in situations where the embroidery is used on different garments. Imagine a situation where the machine prints names of football players. Machine loads the file with names and is programed to stop at color change. When color change occurs, machine stops and allows replace of garments. Once the garments are replaced, second name embroidery can begin. Procedure repeats for same amount of names in the file.
Text settings toolbar icons depend on each other and should be observed as one section
First part is choosing the text setting to change. When the tool is selected, its icon becomes red. Text Height and Letter spacing tools are selected by default when the user enters lettering mode.
Second part is text label. Text label changes depending on the change of the selected text setting. The upper label changes on left mouse click on any of options. Mouse right click changes lower text label. All of these settings can be selected anytime in lettering mode, but Letter Arc is only selectable when text is entered
Values on the right side of the label allow manual change of text setting by exact value input. User confirms values change by clicking the blue checkmark. Value change can also be confirmed by pressing the Enter key after value input.
These values can also change by using sliders. Sliding left reduces amount change of selected option while slide to the right increases the amount change.
Set letters exits enter text command keeps lettering mode on. Cancel letters discards all text changes and exits the command.