This was ok for me not anymore!

[TinaK]

Ok, I thought I had small lettering down and this time I am doing something wrong as I have done small lettering before with no problems.

This is what I have going - Working on patches that I contracted out and sent to clients. Then clients decided to get some lettering done in a space that is 1.75" x .25". This area is filled in black and I am to add white lettering in this space. Got everything sized down ok and am using 60 weight thread 65/9 needle density at 4.5, pull comp .1 no underlay and am using arial narrow for my font but my lettering doesnt show up that well.

What am I doing wrong? The two that I have done so far sews out well however doesnt show up that well...Hmmmm!

Oh mighty small lettering heros please help this poor humble miss lettering in need!

TIA

[signman]

How 'small' is the lettering? There is a limit on any lettering as to really being legible. I find that when I really have to go small, density is 5 or 5.5, but I change stitch length to 15-20. I've added 'dates' to patches that way but all the ones I've done the background was a light or white color.

Roland

[Body Cover]

We have had luck with a tip from a tech that came to work with us a long time ago.
He used double zig-zag underlay at around a 6 and then the top satins would be more like a 5 or 5.5 on density. same thin thread and small needle.
the trick seemed opposite of what I had thought
since I figred less thread in a small area would be better, but it turned out that the high density numbers let the thread build height and thickness without the high number of needle penetrations and tightly packe thread that causes all the thread breaks, you may have to play with the numbers but I know they were a lot higher than I ever expected. Might be a way to get a new result on a project.
Ron

[TinaK]

Roland:

Size of the lettering is .20 I have done as low as .23 before with no problem but on a fabric background and not on a fill like this.

I should mention that I don't use DS but use Embird.

Thanks to both of you for answering my call for help and I will try both suggestions and see if they help me or not. Cross the fingers and toes...Anyone else have suggestions please chime in as well.

[TinaK]

Ok, update as I am no further then I was before on this. I tried decreasing my density and switched back to the 40 weight thread test sewed it and worked great put my patch on sewed it and lost my thread in the fill in places.
If I had to guess on this could it be that it is the fill that is not working well with the small lettering and if so then why would it look so good on the lettering the patch company did? Hmmm! Anyone?

TIA

[Juli in Kona]

If the direction of the fill under is the same as the letter on top, then the letter will sink in and be lost. Try using solvy on top of the patch. Do your letters have underlay - that should help to life it.

Juli in kona

[TinaK]

Thanks Juli however I did try WS on top and it did not help. This just has me puzzled...

Thanks!

[Big Dog]

Tina I know this is an old post but did you every get the problem lettering fixed?
I've been fighting the same battle with a tall narrow font and I'm an Embird user too. I discovered a fix, it requires some manual editing, but it solves the problem.
Using the font engine the lettering is just to narrow to completely fill certain parts of the letters, mainly the letter "A" in my case. The left leg didn't fill. Using studio open the EOF file and edit the problem letter by manually widening the stitch points in the object editor in the right panel. Be sure if there is an opening in the letter to highlight both parts of the letter when you edit, or you'll have to edit the opening separately which is a bit harder to do. Save the file with an altered file name and test. I've managed to get the lettering to fill in well even with lettering as small as .20
If you need more info or help, you can email me at [email protected] and I'll walk you through the process.