The text editor - Puntotek 3

The text editor turns whatever you type into a stitch motif using a Puntotek font, ready to paste into your work.

You get in from the general tools menu, with the letters button. If it looks switched off it means you have not opened a font yet: load one from the file list first and come back.

The font and the measurements

The editor works with the last font you opened (from the Fonts tab of the file list). At the top you can see the name of the active font and the size of the text in stitches (width x height), updated with every change: you know how much room it will take on the fabric before pasting it.

The Puntotek text editor turning a text into a motif

The parts, one by one

The text field

Type and the preview redraws itself over the grid straight away, with the colours of the font. There is nothing to confirm: what you see is exactly what will be pasted.

Only what the font has drawn: if a character does not exist in that font, it simply is not written. It does not fail or warn you: it just does not appear.
Capitals and lower case are separate: a font may have the A and not the a. If half a word is missing, try swapping them.
The measurements at the top rule: the width and height in stitches are recalculated with every letter, so you know whether it fits on the fabric before pasting anything.

The spacing slider

The space that goes between one letter and the next, from -10 to +10 stitches. Positive values air the text out and negative ones tighten it, which in some fonts is exactly what a word needs so it does not look scattered. The spacing goes between characters, not after the last one, so the width at the top is always the real width of the motif.

At 0: The font exactly as it was drawn. That is the starting point.
Positive: Looser text. It reads better once stitched and forgives counting mistakes.
Negative: Tighter text. For long names that do not fit, taking care that the letters do not touch.

Tweaking the gap between two particular letters

The slider moves every gap at once. Sometimes the text is fine and only one pair looks wrong: a T followed by an A, a full stop sitting too far away. For that you can type a number in square brackets in the middle of the text, and that number changes the gap that goes after the previous letter.

Type H[1]ello and the H moves one stitch away from the e.
Type Hell[-1]o and the o moves one stitch closer to the l.
The brackets are not stitched. They are the one exception to “only what the font has drawn”: they are accepted as a mark and they disappear from the motif.
It adds to whatever the slider is set to, it does not replace it. Positive pushes apart, negative pulls together, in stitches like everything else.
At the start or the end it does nothing, because there is no letter before it or no gap after it. And if you type something that is not a number, it is simply ignored.

The measurements at the top and the preview frame both take the tweaks into account, so what you see is still exactly what will be pasted.

Paste the text

It does three things at once: it turns the text into a motif, it adds the colours of the font to your palette and it takes you back to the canvas with the text stuck to the cursor. Tap where you want it and there it stays. If you change your mind, undo removes it like any other stitch.

Makes a link with the name already typed. Whoever opens it lands in Puntotek with your text in place and the same font, ready to drop into their work. It is up to you, and only the name travels: your work is not shared.

You type a name, you look at it, and it feels a shame to leave it there. The share button fixes that: it turns what you typed into a link you can paste anywhere, and whoever opens it does not see a picture — they land in the program with that name already in place and can carry on from there.

The font has to be a public one. What gets shared is the name and the font it is written in, so it must be one from the gallery or one of yours that you have published. If the font only lives on your device the button stays switched off: there is nothing to link to.

With your account open it also makes the name its own page. With its picture, which is what shows up when you paste the link into WhatsApp, a forum or Pinterest. It carries the site address along the bottom, so anyone who comes across it on its own knows where it came from.

It works without an account too. You share the direct link, which opens the editor with the name typed just the same. What you do not get then is the page or the picture.

The tweaks travel inside the link. If you have tightened a couple of letters with the brackets and you share A[-3]gustinillo, whoever opens it sees exactly the same tightening you gave it.

Sharing the same name twice does not duplicate it. Repeat the same text with the same font and it hands you back the link you already had, so the one already going around does not break or end up orphaned.

You can create up to thirty a day. It is a limit on how many you make, not on how many you keep: the ones you have already shared stay alive, because breaking a link someone saved would be worse than not letting you share.

And they are yours. Delete them whenever you like from your account, under My names, where you also get the buttons to post them on social media if you feel like it.

If your connection drops at that moment, or the server does not answer, it shares the direct link and you never notice: the name goes out just the same.

Close / Help

Two simple buttons: leave the editor, or open this help page when you need a reminder.

Close the editor: Goes back to the canvas without pasting anything you typed.
Open help: Opens the explanation of the current screen.

Your text is now a motif

This is the part everyone overlooks and the most useful one: when you paste, the text is not just stamped down and done with. It stays on the motif clipboard, and there you have the whole copy and paste menu working for you — the same one you use with any cutting.

Paste it as many times as you like. The motif does not wear out: the same word in the four corners of a tablecloth is one text typed once and pasted four times.
Turn it 90 degrees. A name running up the side of a bookmark is done here, not by drawing the letters sideways.
Flip it with the mirrors. The horizontal and the vertical mirror, whether you are after the effect or you have run out of room on one side.
Paste it underneath. With the paste-under option the text only lands on empty cells: you can put it over a background you already stitched without eating a single stitch of what was there.
Save it with a name. A text you are going to repeat (your signature, “Merry Christmas”, a child’s name) is saved in the motif library and you have it forever, without typing it again or choosing the font again.

And mind the detail about the palette: the colours of the font are added to those of your work respecting the ones you already had. If the font brings a red you were already using, it is not duplicated; and if it brings a new one, it joins the chart and you can change it like any other.

Want to create your own fonts?

Turn on the font design mode in Settings: you will be able to draw each glyph, set its limits and save the font to use it here.

Tips

Check the width in stitches before pasting and compare it with your fabric: it is the quickest way not to discover halfway through that the name does not fit.
If the text is going over a stitched background, paste it underneath and check it before settling on the spot.
Texts you repeat (a signature, a date) deserve saving as a motif with a clear name. The list is sorted by name, so start them all the same way and you will have them together.