How to Use Fonts in Cricut Design Space

Quick answer: Cricut Design Space fonts come from two places: the app, and your own device. A font you want must be installed on the computer first. Add it in Windows or macOS, restart Design Space, then open the font picker and choose the System index to find it. Check the licence if you plan to sell what you cut.

How Design Space finds fonts

Design Space has two kinds of fonts. Cricut fonts come with the app. System fonts are the ones installed on your own device. The font picker has an index for each, so you can view only one group.

Nothing is uploaded into Design Space. The font lives on the device, and the app reads it from there.

Windows: adding a font

If the font came in a zip, right-click the zip and choose Extract.
Find the TTF or OTF file and open its context menu.
Choose Install.
Quit Design Space fully, then start it again.

These are the steps in Microsoft’s support article for installing fonts.

macOS: adding a font

Open the TTF or OTF file with a double click.
A preview appears. Press Install there.
Restart Design Space.

This follows Apple’s Font Book guide.

Find your font in the picker

The toolbar shows the current font, Cricut Sans by default. Clicking it opens the picker, which has tabs, a search box, keyword buttons and filters.

Pick the system fonts index to see only what you added. If the list is long, search by the font’s name.

Kerning and spacing

Cricut says it optimised kerning for system fonts and many Cricut fonts. Kerning is the gap between letter pairs. A filter in the picker, called Kerned, shows only fonts that have it.

If the gaps still look off, use the Letter Space tool and adjust until the word sits evenly.

Script fonts: keep the letters joined

Script fonts are made so the letters touch. Cut as separate shapes, each letter may be cut on its own, and you get loose pieces. Here is the fix that Cricut’s help describes.

Space the letters with Letter Space so they overlap a little.
Use Ungroup to Letters if you need to move single letters.
Select the touching letters and use Weld, or Combine and then Unite.
Send it to the machine.

One catch. Cricut warns that the Curve tool does not work on text that was ungrouped to letters and then re-grouped. Curve first, then fine-tune the spacing.

Phones and tablets

Design Space on iOS and Android shows only the fonts installed on that device, plus the Cricut fonts. Cricut also notes that some system fonts may not import or may behave oddly.

Cricut’s own fonts guide (a PDF on its learning site) says system fonts work on a computer, an iOS device or an Android device. It also warns that a project using a font installed on one device may not work properly when you open it on another device that lacks that font.

I could not confirm from Cricut’s own pages how a font gets onto a phone, so I will not invent steps. A computer is the safer route.

Selling what you make

A font file has a licence, and many free ones are for personal use only. If you sell stickers, mugs or signs, pick a font whose licence allows it. The Eurostile and Ethnocentric pages show how different the terms can be. Fonts under the SIL Open Font License are a safe start.

Cricut explains text tools in its article Design Space, Working with Text.

Free fonts from this site that cut well

Each of these is under the SIL Open Font License or Apache 2.0, so selling finished crafts is fine. Scripts need the weld step above; the bold display faces mostly do not.

Cookie: a rounded script with solid strokes. Weld it before cutting.
Kaushan Script: brush-style strokes with plenty of weight, which suits iron-on mugs and tote bags.
Damion: a slanted, heavy script in the baseball style, good for names on shirts.
Luckiest Guy: chunky comic capitals that suit vinyl.
Bungee: blocky signage letters for door signs and car decals.
Bangers: comic-book capitals with a slight slant, handy for party labels.
Archivo Black: wide, plain capitals that stay readable when cut small.

I could not find a free stencil font among the pages here yet, so for stencils I would start from a plain bold face and add bridges by hand.

Cricut Design Space font questions

Can I add my own font to Design Space?

Yes. Install it on your computer, restart Design Space and look in the system fonts index.

Why is my installed font missing?

Restart the app after installing. Then check you are in the system fonts index, or search for the name.

Why does my script font cut as separate letters?

The letters need to be welded. Overlap them with Letter Space, then use Weld or Unite.

Can I use a downloaded font on my phone?

Design Space shows device-installed fonts on iOS and Android, but I could not verify the install steps.

Can I sell crafts made with a free font?

Only if its licence allows commercial use. Read the licence file that comes with the font.

I would test one small cut on scrap paper before a big job. More free picks are in the design fonts section.