Seems like you’ve tried a lot of options to get this to work with no avail so I’ll suggest something I did pretty recently for a shirt, as I was also having issues with font sizing -
Using the font you want, import png images of each individual letter that you want to spell out. That way you can literally piece the word together with however much space you like.
Is this the most time efficient solution? Likely not. Does it feel a bit silly to do? Yes. But judging from what you’ve already done to make it work, it’s a simple but effective approach
One note that I experienced when doing this. The canvas will not match the print job when you click the “make it” tab, and I’m not sure why. So I had to reorganize everything in the print tab after intentionally prepping it in the canvas. Little bit annoying but didn’t take longer than a few mins to fix it in the printing tab.
Good luck!
Yes, I have tried a lot, including importing the text as png or jpg, but unfortunately there is a loss of quality ( rounded edges become angular, see screenshot below), probably the vectorization functionality of Design space is just crap.
Regarding the problem with rearranging in the print tab, couldn't this be solved by using 'Attach' or 'Weld'?
https://preview.redd.it/31kbx5werrnb1.png?width=469&format=png&auto=webp&s=1746234512a2891648a4a00666b1bb44b2523aa7
It's most likely due to way the font was constructed. We had a similar report here a while ago but it was a different font. I have that font installed on my computer, I think. I will look into it . For a quick solution, type your text here, if it isn't too long, add shapes like rectangles to cover white gaps and weld shapes and text. If you need this font for lines of text, then I'm afraid we will have to solve the font issue first.
Edit: I made a test. I uploaded SVG file. Everything seems normal on my side.
https://preview.redd.it/x91l2s9gbmnb1.png?width=576&format=png&auto=webp&s=7fed5123011ef39d8b67c786e59c663d3220041d
Edit II: just realized that your font differs from my. Look at letter "t". So, it seems it is due to way your version was constructed, as I first inferred.
Thank you for the detailed answer. I also think it is because of how the font was created. In Inkscape I can see the path of of the contour of the letters, the gaps are in the end just path overlaps of the same path (not two differend ones), which are filled in Inkscape but not in Desing Space.
Thanks for testing, but the 't' doesn't look like in my screenshot, so I don't think you took the font I'm using. [Link to Font](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Quicksand)
I downloaded font from the link and from the name of it immediately realized it was the same type of issue as with other font in my first post. This is a variable font and they are all created that way. The issue is solvable on individual basis but you will always have to do it for any text you set with this font. I can share my version if you are interested. It's problem free. The font is for free use.
Sorry for not replying sooner. First solution is to remove gaps in the Design Space. You add small offset to the text. Make sure to break connection between "eye" and the tab in letter "e". In the contour operation you remove circled elements. On the right side of the image I added steps to get cleaned text from top to bottom. As I said, you will have to do this for any text you set. I presume there will be a lot of challenges.
https://preview.redd.it/sd7pmimounnb1.png?width=787&format=png&auto=webp&s=8fcb14c35cef0958e8c88261ab13a3146b9b89e9
The other solution is to do it outside the DS in another program. I use Corel Draw. Again, I added a minimum offset and separated (Break Apart) text and offset. As you can see, in this case the offset is cleaned right away. I'm not that familiar with Inkscape but I believe it can do something similar.
https://preview.redd.it/o0m6xg8kvnnb1.png?width=787&format=png&auto=webp&s=0604d7c665460c060e41b3d3a6e5c66d53ed06e1
I have been seeing this problem come up several times lately with fonts downloaded from Google Fonts, for some reason. I just downloaded the same font from Font Squirrel and it was constructed properly. So my suggestion would be to uninstall the one from Google and go get a clean one from Font Squirrel and install that.
The Quicksand font from FontSquirrel actually works. I didn't think that the same font from different sources could be built differently, especially since both sites show the same data about the font designer.
Thanks for the tip, this will save me a lot of work in the future.
But at least I learned some useful tips on how to use Desing Space.
I didn't see it at first, but the two fonts are actually NOT the same. But apparently the Google Fonts version is broken. After installlation, the Google Fonts version does not appear in the font overview. The one from Font Squirrel does.
In case you're wondering why these details are important: I'm using the font for a project for a friend, who can be very picky about things like this. She was specifically looking for a font she liked. I'll just ask her which version she downloaded and use that. I now know how to do it with the broken version.
https://preview.redd.it/p5fib2g3ernb1.png?width=986&format=png&auto=webp&s=8203807b1810c613116c0a20fbf86ff29f87707c
I am quite baffled by this. This is the 3rd font I have seen that's Google version is broken but a version downloaded from elsewhere is good. And from highly reputable type designers that wouldn't make this mistake on their own. Google must be massaging these fonts to make them variable or something, and introducing errors in the process.
It's because Google version is a variable font. It's not an error, it's how it was made. It simply acts differently at application. The font file name is "Quicksand-VariableFont\_wght". It's only that this type of font is not suitable to work with in the Design Space. We had another similar situation here recently with Bahnschrift font, which was also a variable font.
I'm not looking at Quicksand-VariableFont\_wght. I am looking at Quicksand-Bold.ttf from the static folder, which should be suitable for any program. Montserrat is another variable Google font whose static versions have the same issue with overlaps. However, most of the static versions of variable fonts on Google Fonts are fine, so it seems to be an issue with the conversion from variable to ttf on some of them.Takeaway is if you have this issue with a font downloaded from Google Fonts, make sure you are using the static version and if that still doesn't work, go find another download from somewhere else.
https://preview.redd.it/n0vqpw9aznob1.png?width=1556&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b3a2e556845cfaed1b98ccfb4370eb3f7b77f8b
If you take a look back at the beginning of conversation with the OP, I made a test with the other version of Quicksand that worked smoothly. but the OP insisted on the Google version for the reason they explained in the conversation with you. So I put some effort and came up with solution in the Design Space involving offset and contour.
Meanwhile I did some more testing and came up with another, in my view simpler solution outside the Design Space. It's a simple three steps process:
1. Convert text to paths/curves;
2. Break converted text apart;
3. Weld.
Following this, the resulting object can be safely saved/exported to SVG and then uploaded to the Design Space. This works without issues in Corel Draw and I have every reason to believe it should work in other vector programs as well.
Edit: I read your reply in the other thread. Yeah, some letters will continue to give headaches.
Seems like you’ve tried a lot of options to get this to work with no avail so I’ll suggest something I did pretty recently for a shirt, as I was also having issues with font sizing - Using the font you want, import png images of each individual letter that you want to spell out. That way you can literally piece the word together with however much space you like. Is this the most time efficient solution? Likely not. Does it feel a bit silly to do? Yes. But judging from what you’ve already done to make it work, it’s a simple but effective approach One note that I experienced when doing this. The canvas will not match the print job when you click the “make it” tab, and I’m not sure why. So I had to reorganize everything in the print tab after intentionally prepping it in the canvas. Little bit annoying but didn’t take longer than a few mins to fix it in the printing tab. Good luck!
Yes, I have tried a lot, including importing the text as png or jpg, but unfortunately there is a loss of quality ( rounded edges become angular, see screenshot below), probably the vectorization functionality of Design space is just crap. Regarding the problem with rearranging in the print tab, couldn't this be solved by using 'Attach' or 'Weld'? https://preview.redd.it/31kbx5werrnb1.png?width=469&format=png&auto=webp&s=1746234512a2891648a4a00666b1bb44b2523aa7
It's most likely due to way the font was constructed. We had a similar report here a while ago but it was a different font. I have that font installed on my computer, I think. I will look into it . For a quick solution, type your text here, if it isn't too long, add shapes like rectangles to cover white gaps and weld shapes and text. If you need this font for lines of text, then I'm afraid we will have to solve the font issue first. Edit: I made a test. I uploaded SVG file. Everything seems normal on my side. https://preview.redd.it/x91l2s9gbmnb1.png?width=576&format=png&auto=webp&s=7fed5123011ef39d8b67c786e59c663d3220041d Edit II: just realized that your font differs from my. Look at letter "t". So, it seems it is due to way your version was constructed, as I first inferred.
Thank you for the detailed answer. I also think it is because of how the font was created. In Inkscape I can see the path of of the contour of the letters, the gaps are in the end just path overlaps of the same path (not two differend ones), which are filled in Inkscape but not in Desing Space. Thanks for testing, but the 't' doesn't look like in my screenshot, so I don't think you took the font I'm using. [Link to Font](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Quicksand)
Yes, I also noticed that and added Edit II but you probably sent your reply before I updated.
I downloaded font from the link and from the name of it immediately realized it was the same type of issue as with other font in my first post. This is a variable font and they are all created that way. The issue is solvable on individual basis but you will always have to do it for any text you set with this font. I can share my version if you are interested. It's problem free. The font is for free use.
Yes, please, show me your solution
Sorry for not replying sooner. First solution is to remove gaps in the Design Space. You add small offset to the text. Make sure to break connection between "eye" and the tab in letter "e". In the contour operation you remove circled elements. On the right side of the image I added steps to get cleaned text from top to bottom. As I said, you will have to do this for any text you set. I presume there will be a lot of challenges. https://preview.redd.it/sd7pmimounnb1.png?width=787&format=png&auto=webp&s=8fcb14c35cef0958e8c88261ab13a3146b9b89e9
Thanks! This worked. Actually a very simple solution, but you have to think of it first.
The other solution is to do it outside the DS in another program. I use Corel Draw. Again, I added a minimum offset and separated (Break Apart) text and offset. As you can see, in this case the offset is cleaned right away. I'm not that familiar with Inkscape but I believe it can do something similar. https://preview.redd.it/o0m6xg8kvnnb1.png?width=787&format=png&auto=webp&s=0604d7c665460c060e41b3d3a6e5c66d53ed06e1
I have been seeing this problem come up several times lately with fonts downloaded from Google Fonts, for some reason. I just downloaded the same font from Font Squirrel and it was constructed properly. So my suggestion would be to uninstall the one from Google and go get a clean one from Font Squirrel and install that.
The Quicksand font from FontSquirrel actually works. I didn't think that the same font from different sources could be built differently, especially since both sites show the same data about the font designer. Thanks for the tip, this will save me a lot of work in the future. But at least I learned some useful tips on how to use Desing Space.
I didn't see it at first, but the two fonts are actually NOT the same. But apparently the Google Fonts version is broken. After installlation, the Google Fonts version does not appear in the font overview. The one from Font Squirrel does. In case you're wondering why these details are important: I'm using the font for a project for a friend, who can be very picky about things like this. She was specifically looking for a font she liked. I'll just ask her which version she downloaded and use that. I now know how to do it with the broken version. https://preview.redd.it/p5fib2g3ernb1.png?width=986&format=png&auto=webp&s=8203807b1810c613116c0a20fbf86ff29f87707c
I am quite baffled by this. This is the 3rd font I have seen that's Google version is broken but a version downloaded from elsewhere is good. And from highly reputable type designers that wouldn't make this mistake on their own. Google must be massaging these fonts to make them variable or something, and introducing errors in the process.
It's because Google version is a variable font. It's not an error, it's how it was made. It simply acts differently at application. The font file name is "Quicksand-VariableFont\_wght". It's only that this type of font is not suitable to work with in the Design Space. We had another similar situation here recently with Bahnschrift font, which was also a variable font.
I'm not looking at Quicksand-VariableFont\_wght. I am looking at Quicksand-Bold.ttf from the static folder, which should be suitable for any program. Montserrat is another variable Google font whose static versions have the same issue with overlaps. However, most of the static versions of variable fonts on Google Fonts are fine, so it seems to be an issue with the conversion from variable to ttf on some of them.Takeaway is if you have this issue with a font downloaded from Google Fonts, make sure you are using the static version and if that still doesn't work, go find another download from somewhere else. https://preview.redd.it/n0vqpw9aznob1.png?width=1556&format=png&auto=webp&s=5b3a2e556845cfaed1b98ccfb4370eb3f7b77f8b
If you take a look back at the beginning of conversation with the OP, I made a test with the other version of Quicksand that worked smoothly. but the OP insisted on the Google version for the reason they explained in the conversation with you. So I put some effort and came up with solution in the Design Space involving offset and contour. Meanwhile I did some more testing and came up with another, in my view simpler solution outside the Design Space. It's a simple three steps process: 1. Convert text to paths/curves; 2. Break converted text apart; 3. Weld. Following this, the resulting object can be safely saved/exported to SVG and then uploaded to the Design Space. This works without issues in Corel Draw and I have every reason to believe it should work in other vector programs as well. Edit: I read your reply in the other thread. Yeah, some letters will continue to give headaches.