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How to upload fonts to Cricut and use special characters

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Large image shows how to install system fonts for Cricut Design Space.

Using text in your designs can take your crafts to the next level, and to really stand out, you can make your text unique with special characters known as glyphs. In this tutorial, you will learn how to upload fonts to Cricut Design Space, organize and store fonts, and use digbats or specialty characters.

How to Upload fonts to Cricut

When I started, I had no idea how to install my own fonts, weld fonts, or even change the font size in my Cricut projects. I was baffled at how other crafters could create such pretty script fonts and one-of-a-kind text. But you don’t have to be! Keep reading for a complete guide to installing and using fonts with your Cricut!

I will share this knowledge with you today so that you know the best way to create your perfect font, too! In today’s post, I am going to teach you:

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Large image shows how to install system fonts for Cricut Design Space.Plus how to use special characters.

Where to Get Fonts For Cricut (Free Fonts too!)

Before I get to the step-by-step guide for how to upload fonts to Cricut, you might wonder where to find the best fonts for Cricut Design Space. I have written a list of fonts that covers my top favorite 60 fonts of all time and where to discover more! There are millions of different fonts to choose from so have some fun with it!

Additionally, check out my Holiday Font post for even more options. Here are a few more of my favorite places online to find fonts. These font options are a mixture of free and paid.

How To Choose and Pair Fonts For Crafts

Learn how to pair fonts perfectly together for craft projects and SVG designs with my free font pairing guide! Create your free account with your name and email below for the Craft Vault to download this free printable. 

If you already have an account just click here to log in and download the font pairing guide for free! 

How To Download Fonts To Your Computer

Choose a free or paid font to download and install. I will use a font I downloaded from Font Bundles, called Bohema Spirit to show you how to unzip the file and install the fonts you may pay for. You can also watch my video on “How To Install and Organize Fonts!”

  1. Navigate to your downloaded font. In my case, this is my purchase history on Font Bundles. 
  2. Click the Download button.
  3. The zip file will automatically start downloading. You will want to choose a location to save the font on your computer. Likewise, the download may autosave in your download folder.

How To Install Your System Fonts: Windows Users

A computer screenshot shows a Windows downloads folder open, with a list of downloaded files. A secondary right-click menu appears on the screen, showing a list of actions including the option to unzip a downloaded zip file.
  1. Go to where the zip file was downloaded. If your font did NOT download as a zip, skip to the next step. You will know if it is not a zip because it will have a .otf or .ttf extension at the end. 
  2. Right-click on the zip folder and click Extract All on Windows. 
  3. Once the file is extracted, click through to find the .otf or .ttf files. On your Windows computer right-click on one of the font downloads.
Another Windows download folder shows a right-click menu with a list of options, and a cursor hovering over the “Install for all users” option, which will install the downloaded font onto the computer.
  1. Choose “Install for All Users.” This step is essential because it may not appear in Cricut Design Space if you do not install it for all users. Don’t think of the user as a person using your computer. Rather a program within your computer that needs permission to use the file. 
  2. Once you click this, it should quickly install. A loading bar may appear for a couple of seconds before your font finishes installing.

How To Install Your System Fonts: Mac Users

  1. Go to where the zip file was downloaded. If your font did NOT download as a zip, skip to the next step. You will know if it is not a zip because it will have a .otf or .ttf extension at the end. 
Font files in a Mac file finder
  1. Double-click to extract the zip or use a program like Better Zip on your mac computer to extract your files. 
  2. Once the file is extracted, click through to find the .otf or .ttf files and double-click
  3. Click on the Install button and your font will install on your Mac. 
Installing fonts on a mac computer

Should I use .oTF and .tTF font Files For Cricut?

TrueType Font or .ttf is one of two types of file extensions used for fonts and is a more simplified version of the more popular OpenType Font format. TrueType Font TTF was created by Apple and Microsoft for the purpose of a universal font experience that could be used across many devices and browsers.

OpenType Font or .otf is the second format option for font files. OpenType Font is considered superior to .ttf. TrueType Font allows for more in-depth design options like glyphs, specialty characters and ligatures (when two letters are joined seamlessly together), typesetting features, small caps, alternative characters, and older text figures.

Ultimately you should only install one of these formats, not both or you could risk unexpected results when designing. For Cricut Design Space, .otf (OpenType Font) is best because of the variety of options you will have with extra characters for design purposes.

So here is the secret, unlike images, how to upload fonts to Cricut is not about moving anything to Design Space but rather knowing where to look once the font has been installed on your computer!

How To Access System Fonts In Design Space (How To Upload Fonts To Cricut)

Adding text to Cricut Design Space.
  1. Open the Cricut Design Space app. If you already had it open, close it first (after saving any progress on your project, of course!), then reopen it so the new font options load.
  2. Type out any text of choice by clicking on the Text tool to the left of the screen in the Design Panel. Double-click inside the text box and then navigate to Fonts > System Fonts in the Text Edit Bar. I searched by the new font name under system fonts; you can see my Bohema Spirit font is present.
  3. Click the font to change the text on your canvas to your newly installed font!
How to upload fonts to Cricut. Shows how to change fonts in Cricut Design Space

Font Manager: How To Use Font Cloud To Store Fonts and View Specialty Characters

Before we go any further you need to learn how to store and organize your fonts. 

My favorite way to organize my fonts is with Creative Fabrica’s Font Cloud. The Font Cloud allows you to store your fonts in case you switch computers you can redownload and install them. This process is also great if you want to delete font files from your desktop to free up space.

My favorite part is that you can easily copy special characters and decorative scripts from the Font Cloud. Additionally, you can preview all your fonts to make choosing the perfect font easier! 

Here is how to use an account with Creative Fabrica’s free Font Cloud. 

  1. Go to FontCloud.CreativeFabrica.com and create a free account or sign into your existing Creative Fabrica account. 
How to add fonts to font cloud
  1. Drag any fonts you have downloaded onto the left side of the screen where it says “drag and drop your files here.” You can upload .otf or .ttf formats.
How to preview fonts in Creative Fabrica font cloud
  1. Your fonts will appear in the preview area of the center of your screen. You can click on any of the fonts to see more specialty characters. Likewise, you can type your phrase at the top to preview what the text would look like with all your available fonts at once!
Font cloud for font storage for storing and uploading fonts to Cricut.
  1. To download or delete a font click on the three dots to the left and select download or delete. 

Font Cloud makes choosing and organizing fonts so much easier than general computer storage. The next time you design a project in Design Space and can’t remember what fonts you have, go through your organized fonts in Font Cloud!

How To Use Speciality Characters and Digbats In Cricut Design Space

Now, what about adding those special font characters?

With some fonts, those special characters come in their file, and you can view them under System Fonts in Design Space. But with many others, you will need to learn how to navigate to the Character Map on your computer and copy in the particular font character to make a fancy interconnected script. 

But if you use the Font Cloud like I suggest above you can easily copy the special characters out into Design Space!

Important Note: Some fonts come with their own .otf or .ttf files with the special characters that are installed as their own font while others have the glyph characters already installed in the main font file. Just know that sometimes this means you will have more than one file to install for the font. 

For example, I have a fun font called Mermaid Tails. The specialty characters have little tails to add at the beginning or end of a word. With this font, you can find these within the main font file. 

But with the Bohema font, there is a separate font file just for the special glyph characters. 

Changing Fonts In Design Space

  1. Click on the text tool in the Design Panel to the left. 
  2. Type your desired text into the text box on the canvas in Design Space. 
  3. Change the text to your desired font under the System tab in the font dropdown menu. In my case, it’s Mermaid Tails. You can search for the name of the font in the search bar of the font menu.
Shows how to change fonts in Cricut Design Space using system fonts you have downloaded.

Locate Your Special Character or Glyph

Shows how to copy a special font character into Cricut Design Space.
  1. Open the Font Cloud, and locate your font. Fonts are organized in alphabetical order.
  2. Click on the same font you plan to use in Design Space to reveal all the possible characters.
    You can also use your character map or viewer on your computer but I find the Font Cloud much more user-friendly. 

Adding the Glyph 

Shows how to add glyphs when uploading fonts to Cricut.
  1. In my case, I want to change the letter “D” in my Mermaid text box to a specialty character, a.k.a., glyph. Click on the letter “D” in the corresponding font in the Font Cloud. It will automatically copy it to your clipboard. 
  2. Highlight only the letter you want to replace in the text box in Design Space. Then paste the glyph character replacement.
  3. You have now added that fancy tail ending to your word!
  4. This process will look similar for any font you might use and install in the system fonts.

Now that you know how to upload fonts to Cricut, here are a few of my favorite fonts that have fun flourishes and characters!

Video Tutorial: Installing and Organizing Cricut Design Space Fonts

If you’re a visual learner, be sure to watch my video tutorial below, where I walk through each step I outlined above! This video will explain exactly how to download and install new fonts for Cricut Design Space, as well as organize them. 

What other questions do you have for me about how to upload fonts to Cricut, and use special characters? What Cricut crafts do you want to make next using these new font skills? Let’s chat in the comments!

How To Choose and Pair Fonts For Crafts

Don’t forget to download your guide to choosing and pairing fonts! Create your free account with your name and email below for the Craft Vault to download this free printable. 

If you already have an account just click here to log in and download the font pairing guide for free! 

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2 Comments

  1. I attended your Cricut workshop. Can’t seem to find or download the svg files for Christmas/fonts? can you please help me out?

    Kim
    [email protected]