The short version
- Cricut Design Space uses the fonts installed on the device you design on. Install your handwriting font there and it shows up under System fonts.
- Make the font with SnapFont from one photo of the sheet, then install the TTF on your computer, or the profile on your iPhone or iPad.
- Cut it big enough. A handwriting font's thinnest strokes need to be a few millimetres wide in vinyl or they tear on the weed.
- Letters do not join on their own. Tighten letter spacing in Design Space and weld where they overlap.
Why your own handwriting on a Cricut
The fonts that come with Design Space are fine, and there are thousands more for sale, and every one of them looks like it came from somewhere else. A label in your own handwriting on a jar, a card, or a tumbler reads as yours before anyone has read the word. That is the entire appeal, and it is the one thing no font store can sell you.
The old way to get there was a scanner, a desktop font tool, and an afternoon. The new way is a printed sheet and one photo.
Step 1: Make the font
Print the SnapFont sheet, write the 72 letters over the faint guides with a dark pen, and take one photo with your phone. A few minutes later the font exists. The full walkthrough, pen advice included, is in how to turn your handwriting into a font with one photo.
One tip that matters more for cutting than for anything else: write with a medium or bold tip, not a fine one. Thin strokes make a pretty screen font and a miserable vinyl weed. A fine point Sharpie is about the thinnest I would go for a cutting font.
Step 2: Get it into Design Space
Design Space does not have a font upload button. It reads the fonts installed on whatever device it is running on, so the job is to install the font there.
- Computer. Export the TTF from SnapFont, send it to the computer, and install it (right click, Install on Windows; double click and Install in Font Book on Mac). Close Design Space fully, open it again, and filter the font list by System.
- iPhone or iPad. Tap Install in SnapFont and approve the profile in Settings. Open Design Space, add text, tap the font name, and switch the filter to System. It is there.
- Android. Design Space for Android only sees fonts the phone already has, and Android does not install fonts, so use the computer or an iPhone for this part.
The step by step for each device is on the Cricut Design Space page.
Step 3: Make it cut well
A handwriting font behaves differently from a script font that was drawn to be cut, and a few habits save a lot of vinyl.
- Size for the thinnest stroke. Zoom in on your thinnest letter, usually a lowercase l or the crossbar of a t. If it is under about 2 mm at cutting size, go bigger or the weed will lift it.
- Tighten the letter spacing. Design Space sets each letter on its own. Reduce Letter Space until the letters sit the way they do on paper, then Weld only where they overlap. Welding a whole word that does not overlap does nothing.
- Test on scrap. Cut the word once on a scrap of the same material before the real one. Every font, every material.
- Use the Pen tool for the hand written look. With a Cricut pen the machine draws your letters instead of cutting them, which is the closest a machine gets to your actual handwriting.
Things people cut with it
- Pantry and spice jar labels that match the ones you wrote by hand years ago.
- Place cards and thank you tags in the host's writing.
- A child's name on a water bottle, in the child's own letters.
- Recipe cards in a grandparent's hand, if they will fill in a sheet for you.
- Mugs and tumblers with a line that is clearly yours, not a store's.
The recipe card one is the one I would do first. It takes a grandparent fifteen minutes to fill in a sheet, and after that every card you cut is in their hand for good.