The best fonts for machine embroidery (and which to avoid)

The best fonts for embroidery have strokes of fairly even width, open counters (the holes inside letters like a, e and o) and no hairline-thin parts. Bold block fonts such as Archivo Black and Anton sew cleanly at small sizes. Chunky scripts such as Pacifico and Oleo Script work well for names. Fonts with very thin strokes, such as Abril Fatface and Great Vibes, only look right when they're big. Below is why, and how big each font needs to be.

What makes a font sew well

Fonts are drawn for screens and paper, where a line can be as thin as you like. Thread can't. Each stroke of a letter becomes a satin column, a fill or a running stitch, and each has limits. A font sews well when its shapes stay inside those limits at the size you need.

• Even stroke width. When the thick and thin parts of a letter are close in width, every stroke can be a satin column of similar width. High-contrast fonts end up with satins that are too wide in one place and too thin in another.
• No hairlines. As a rule of thumb, a satin column narrower than about 1 mm (0.04 in) struggles to cover the fabric. Thin serifs and hairline strokes turn into a single running stitch or disappear.
• Open counters. Thread spreads a little, and pull compensation makes strokes slightly wider on purpose. Small, tight counters fill in, so an e turns into a blob. Read more in pull compensation explained.
• Simple shapes. Distressed, textured, outlined or shadowed fonts add details too small to stitch.
• A little extra spacing. Letters that nearly touch on screen can merge once they're stitched.

Size changes everything. The same font can be perfect at 50 mm (2 in) and unreadable at 8 mm (0.3 in), because every stroke shrinks with the letters while the thread stays the same thickness. Our guide to minimum text size for embroidery goes into this in detail.

Block fonts for embroidery

Block (sans serif) fonts are the safest choice for small text, names on workwear and anything that has to be read from a distance.

• Archivo Black is wide and very heavy. Wide letters keep their shape when they're small, which makes it one of the best choices for small names and short words. Watch the counters in a and e at the smallest sizes.
• Anton is tall, narrow and heavy. It fits a lot of letters into a small width, so it suits team names, sleeves and cap text. Its narrow counters can close up when it's very small.
• Bebas Neue is all capitals, condensed and clean, with lighter strokes than Anton. It looks modern on caps and polos but needs a little more height because the strokes are thinner.

Script fonts for embroidery

Scripts are popular for names, gifts and café logos. The rule is simple: the bolder and rounder the script, the smaller it can go. In SatinSmith, satin columns follow the stroke of script letters, so a bold, smooth script stitches as clean, shiny curves.

• Pacifico is a chunky, rounded, connected script. Its strokes are thick and fairly even, which makes it one of the easiest scripts to sew. Good for names, bakeries and casual brands.
• Oleo Script is heavy and rounded with a friendly, informal look. It holds up well at small sizes for a script.
• Lobster is a bold retro script with more contrast between thick and thin strokes. It's good for logos and short words.
• Kaushan Script is a brush script with tapered, uneven strokes. It gives a hand-painted look for sports and street brands, but the thin ends need size.
• Great Vibes is a fine, formal script with thin strokes and big loops. It's lovely for weddings, towels and gifts, but only when it's large.

Slab, western, serif and monogram fonts

• Alfa Slab One is a heavy slab serif with a varsity look. The slabs are thick enough to sew, so it works for teams, schools and workwear.
• Rye is a decorative western face with lots of small details. Use it big, for ranch, barbecue and country brands on jacket backs, totes and caps.
• Abril Fatface has very thick vertical strokes and hairline-thin horizontals and serifs. It's the classic font to avoid at small sizes, because the thin parts vanish. On a headline or jacket back it can look striking.
• Playfair Display SC is an elegant serif in small capitals, with clear thick-and-thin contrast. It suits salons, restaurants and upscale brands at larger sizes.
• Cinzel Decorative is based on classical Roman capitals, with decorative flourishes. It's made for monograms of one to three large letters. Avoid it for small text.

Embroidery fonts compared: minimum sizes

Sizes below are the height of the capital letters. For scripts, also check the lowercase letters, which are much smaller than the capitals.

Fonts to avoid, or only use big

• Hairline and high-contrast serifs, such as fashion-magazine display fonts. The thin strokes vanish.
• Thin script and handwriting fonts at small sizes. The loops close up and the joins break.
• Distressed, grunge and textured fonts. The texture becomes a scatter of tiny stitches.
• Outline, inline and shadow fonts. Each extra line needs room of its own. At small sizes they merge.
• Light, condensed weights. Thin strokes packed close together are the hardest case of all.

Fabric matters as much as the font. On towels and fleece the pile swallows thin strokes, so pick a bolder font, go up a size and use a water-soluble topping. SatinSmith's Towel fabric preset adds stronger underlay so letters don't sink. Very large letters are a different case: once a stroke is wider than about 7 mm (0.28 in), digitizers usually sew it as a fill rather than a satin. See satin vs fill stitch for why.

Using other fonts commercially

To use a font that isn't on the list, set the text in your design program and upload it to SatinSmith as an image. Only use fonts you have the right to use for the work you're doing. Font licenses vary, and not every license covers products you sell, so read the terms that came with the font before it goes on customer orders. If in doubt, ask the font's maker. The same goes for customer logos: only stitch artwork you have permission to use.

Lettering a name in SatinSmith

1. Open the studio and choose Lettering in the Artwork panel.
2. Type up to four lines, pick one of the 13 fonts and choose left, center or right alignment.
3. Pick a letter height: Small name (8 mm), Name (12 mm), Cap text (20 mm), Monogram (35 mm) or Headline (50 mm). Then choose a thread color.
4. Press play in Watch it sew, then open Checks. You'll get a warning for letters under 6 mm tall and for fine scripts under about 25 mm.

Switching fonts and sizes is free while you preview, so try two or three before you decide. The lettering tutorial walks through every setting. Then test-sew the name on a scrap of the same fabric.