In this third of Cricut Design Space tutorials, you will learn how to find and use the extra characters in fonts.
Creating unique and beautiful words and names is one of my favorite things about Cricut Design Space. I’ll let you in on a secret if you don’t already know… most fonts have a bunch of extra characters you can use in replace of their standard ones!
How do you access them and how do you use them in Cricut Design Space? Those are the questions we are tackling in the third part of Cricut Design Space 101.
There is a full video tutorial at the bottom of the post but you also don’t want to miss the other video Cricut Design Space tutorials:
Part 1: Cricut Design Space for Dummies – An Overview
Part 2: Cricut Design Space Tutorial: All Things Text and Font
Part 4: How to Make a Split Letter Monogram in Cricut Design Space
What are Font Glyphs?
A glyph is an individual character and is a variety of designs of that certain character. Some fonts will have up to 15 glyphs for every letter of the alphabet (capital and lowercase). The glyphs usually contain pretty swishes or doodles that can make a name or word standout.
Unfortunately, most free fonts do not contain extra characters or glyphs. However, you don’t have to spend a lot to get beautiful fonts. In the last post (part 2), I told you where I get my premium fonts for free or for $1.
Let me show you what I’m talking about. One of my favorites premium fonts is the Samantha Font. Now, this one was not a $1. It does have a higher price tag, but you get so many extra characters. You can find it here for about $17. (affiliate link). Just search “Samantha”.
In this first screenshot are the letters in the standard font. I opened up a text box and typed the word in using Samantha font. Then I ungrouped them, moved them together and welded them.
Now, this is what happens when you kick it up a notch and use the extra font glyphs available. Beautiful, right? This how I make a lot of my free and deal SVG files.
How to Access Extra Font Characters
If you are using programs such as Illustrator, you can access the glyphs from inside the program. This is not the case for Cricut Design Space.
The easiest way I have found is using a character map. Now, I am on a PC, so this is probably different for macs.
There is usually a character map app already installed on your computer. If you search for it, it should pop up. The one installed on my computer is really small and hard for me to see!
No worries, I found a bigger one that you can download and it’s so much easier to see and use. It’s called Character Map UWP and is in the Microsoft store. Once you click on the link, you can download it and use it on your PC.
You can see in the picture below that all of the fonts on my computer come up on the left and when I click on one all the extra glyphs come up.
Then you’ll need to copy and paste the glyphs into Cricut Design Space.
Cricut Design Space Tutorials: Video Tutorial on How to Use Extra Glyphs
All of this is much easier to explain to you while I am doing it on my computer, so I put together a video tutorial on how to use the extra characters.
Also, if you don’t want to miss any other Cricut Design Space tutorials make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Be on the lookout for more Cricut Design Space Tutorials and if there is something specific you want one on, comment below.
If you’d like to save this tutorial for later, hover over the top left of the image below and PIN IT now.
Thank you for stopping by. Have a creative day!
Kim says
Hi Amy!!
Thank you so much for the tutorial. I had no idea about the character map!! I had one question, sometimes when I copy a letter, it pastes the wrong one or leaves off the extra swirls. I’m using the Samantha font. Do you know why it might be doing this? Thank you!!
Leap of Faith Crafting says
Hi Kim, you’re welcome! Hmmm, I’m not sure. Maybe try a new text box or copy it again. I used to have a few problems when I would save it and come back to the design later, there would be boxes in place of where the extra characters were. I don’t have those problems anymore, but I would just copy and paste it again. If it continues to happen you might want to contact the character map help or the Samantha font creators. Sorry, I couldn’t be more helpful!
Jenny Snyder says
Do you have to have that particular character map to get all of the different options for each letter? I have windows 8, but I bought Samantha, and used the character map on my computer. But it only has like 1 or 2 options for most letters, and they aren’t any of the neat swirly letters. Any help? Please and thank you!!
Leap of Faith Crafting says
No, you can use any character map but they all have different settings. You need to make sure you are in Unicode and Extra or Personal Characters. I can’t find a different map on my computer so I don’t remember the exact terminology in the drop-down menus. If I remember correctly the bottom drop-down lets you but in Unicode and the next one has one that says extra or personal characters.
Brenda S. Doblinger says
Great tutorial
Becky Leppard says
Thanks so much! I have been using the character map on my computer and it is so so so hard to see the differences in the font characters, so thanks for this tip. I now have the new character map program pinned to my taskbar! Thanks for your video!
Leap of Faith Crafting says
You are so welcome!! It was a lifesaver when I found it!
Colleen says
So I just watched your video on glyphs and I downloaded the character map yep. My fonts from my design space are not coming up in the character map. How do i get them in there?????? I’m getting so frustrated with this
Leap of Faith Crafting says
The character map should show you all the fonts you have on your computer. It won’t shoow Cricut fonts, if that’s what you mean. If it’s not showing your fonts you might need to contact the app. I’ve heard of a few other people that had a weird problem with it for some reason. Hope that helps!!
Sharon says
Hi Amy! Thank you so much for taking that leap of faith! I’m so thankful that you shared this information. I can see a world of difference in how everything is so much more flourished and beautiful by using the character map. I praise God that I found this! Blessings to you, Amy.
Leap of Faith Crafting says
You are so welcome Sharon! Thank you for your kind words, it means so much! God Bless!
Michelle says
Thank you so much!! Love this font and now I am not too overwhelmed to try it. Which Samantha font did you get? There are so many choices: Upright, Italic, Samantha Craft?
Leap of Faith Crafting says
Hi Michelle, you are welcome!! Using the extra characters opens up so much! I bought Samantha upright. I saw that Samantha Craft came out recently but I already had the Upright and I don’t have any problems with the thickness. I want to say it was around $16 when I got it. I’m not sure if they are all included in a purchase now.
Darcy says
Thank you so much for this. You have made a huge difference in what I can do now. I SO appreciate you taking the time to teach us this. Thank you from the bottom of my 💓
Leap of Faith Crafting says
Aww, thanks so much Darcy! So glad the tutorials are helpful! Let me know if there’s something else you’d like one on!
Emmajune says
Still learning Cricut, and am SO grateful for this tutorial !
Thank you !
Leap of Faith Crafting says
Yay, so glad it was helpful! Once you get the hang of CDS, it’s a really great program!
Betty says
Where exactly did you download the Samantha font from? There are so many options and some are up to $75!
Leap of Faith Crafting says
Hi Betty, oh geez, don’t spend that much! I’m pretty sure I got it off Mighty Deals for around $16 https://www.mightydeals.com/deal/samantha-script-font.html. I think if you google “mighty deals coupon” sometimes there will be a 10% or 20% off.
Amanda says
Thanks for this helpful tutorial. I downloaded Character Map UWP, but none of my installed fonts are showing up. Any idea why this might be? Your input is appreciated. Thank you 🙂
Leap of Faith Crafting says
Hi Amanda, hmmmm, not sure why that would be. Did you try to restart your computer? Did you take a look at the system requirements, I know there are a few. I downloaded it on my other computer to make sure and all my fonts came right up on that one too. Are you still having problems??