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Your ability to design your own creations with Silhouette Studio expands exponentially when you add new fonts from the web to your library! Learn how easy it is to add fonts to Silhouette Studio software in this tutorial.

One of my favorite features of the Silhouette Studio Software is that it allows you to design with ANY font that you have installed onto your computer. This opens up a whole new WORLD to what you can design and make yourself in the software.

I am going to talk a bit first about types of fonts you can use with your Silhouette and where to get them, but if you already know this, feel free to scroll down to section 3 where I give the instructions on how to load fonts into Silhouette Studio.

What Fonts Can I Use with My Silhouette CAMEO

You can find tons of free fonts and paid fonts all over the internet and you can use them all with your Silhouette Studio software. If it can be installed on your computer, the software will allow you use it to design. There are a few considerations though that will make a BIG difference.

• Free Fonts. Free fonts are GREAT but be careful as they are a very common way to spread computer viruses and other malware. Make sure you only download free fonts from HIGHLY reputable sources. Getting one computer virus removed is MUCH more expensive than buying MANY (possibly even hundreds of) high quality font files. (I tell you this from personal experience… it was rough.)
• What type of font do you need? If you are making things just for your own personal use, any font is fine! If you plan to sell your creations (even just to friends and family) you should use fonts that offer a commercial use license. You can still find some free commercial use fonts, but most will have at least a small fee.
• Do you want access to glyphs? You might be asking, “What the heck does ancient Egyptian art have to do with my Silhouette?” Some fonts come with fancy extra characters called glyphs. These are usually another version of the letter that has extra decorative parts like the swirls you see in the example below. These are SO fun to design with and you will really love using them. These glyphs mostly come in paid fonts although you can occasionally find them in free fonts also.

Where do I find Free Fonts, Good Deals on Fonts, or Fonts with Glyphs?

There are a lot of places to get fonts online. A lot might actually be an understatement there are an overwhelming amount available. All are NOT created equal though. I tend to steer away from most free fonts because of the reasons above, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t accumulated a huge library of amazing fonts to design with.

With all the resources available, I wrote an entire post on my recommendations on the best places to get free and cheap fonts here. Check it out to get the low down on where to get the best fonts and where to stay far, far away from. A few things to keep in mind when you are looking for fonts for use with your Silhouette:

1. Fonts that are solid (not distressed looking) will cut more easily. You can still use distressed looking fonts for beautiful print and cut projects.
2. All fonts are not equal– Some come with just lower and uppercase letters, others include all of the punctuation and more. There is little that is more frustrating than spending tons of time picking out the perfect font and then when you go to add an apostrophe, period, or comma, it is not available and switches to a different font. This is a great reason to buy professional grade fonts!
3. Look for 100% Accessible fonts: Although any font can be used with your Silhouette, some have extras that you might want to be able to use. Without going into tech overload, the way fonts are coded for your computer can be different. Some are coded so that the pretty extra fancy letters with gorgeous swirls and swashes, can only be accessed with special design specific software like Adobe Illustrator which would mean you can use the basic font in Silhouette Studio but not any of the beautiful extras. Fonts can also be coded so that you can use these special characters in Silhouette Studio. Look for fonts that say they are 100% accessible to all, or have PUA Encoded Characters. This means that your Silhouette can use them! If you aren’t quite sure what I am talking about check out the gorgeous extras on Storybook Font. It gives you lots of extra letters with swirls on them. They are available BOTH through a font viewer and as separate font files. That means you will have multiple fonts installed that will give you the basic font then the others will give you the other letter options with the decorative elements. Let me know if you still have questions on this in the comments below!

I get most of my fonts in bundles from The Hungry Jpeg. Their bundle options are pro grade fonts that come with an extended commercial license giving you the ability to sell creations you make with the fonts. Many of the fonts included are optimized for crafters and you can use the graphics with the machine as well! They usually end up coming to only pennies a file with everything included. It is definitely the best combination of quality and price on the market! Here is a peek at the February Bundle:

How Do I Get Fonts into Silhouette Studio Software?

Now that you understand all about fonts (who knew there was so much to understand!) all we have to do is get the ones you have picked into your Silhouette Design Studio software. The good news is, this part is EASY!

• Step 1: Close Silhouette Studio if it is open.
• Step 2: Download your desired font.
• Step 3: Install the font on your computer (NOT in Silhouette Studio.) Usually the font file is compressed, you will need to unzip the folder (usually by clicking on it) then open the unzipped folder, find the font file you want and click to open. Once it is open there should be a prompt to install. If these simple instructions don’t work here are simple instructions to install a font on a Mac or install a font on a PC.
• Step 4: Open Silhouette Studio. Click the font icon and your new font will now appear in the font menu! (See Pic above for reference)

Troubleshooting: Very rarely even after restarting Silhouette Studio the font will not appear. If that happens try these steps:

1. Double check the name of the font. Sometimes the font name shows up differently then you might think. Find the font in your Font Book program on your computer and see what it is named.
2. Restart your entire computer. This should not usually be necessary, but if you are having trouble with the font showing up doing a complete restart can help force Silhouette Studio to do a complete restart and inventory the fonts again.

Easy as that!! And now that you know how easy it is, I hope you go crazy adding all sorts of new fonts for fun designing! For fun, I would love to hear your favorite font below in the comments!