XTOOL CREATIVE SPACE
Version tested: v2.3.24
Operating system tested: Mac
Date tested: 7 January 2025 / Nikita Grimes (Kitaleigh LLC)
Cost: Free
Where to get it: https://www.xtool.com/pages/software
Font file types to use: TTF/OTF, double stroke
Image file types to use: SVG, DXF
How to See & Use the Fonts
First, make sure that the font is installed on your computer or device. Check the “Install fonts on [operating system]” guides for more information.
Open up a new Canvas in xTool Creative Space.
Click on the text tool on the left hand panel and click on the canvas. This will populate the default font and text.
Select the text and type the words you would like. Click the font name on the top bar; this will give you a pop-up window where you can select the double stroke font you would like to use.
Double click the text box and type in what you would like. At this time you can send your text to the xTool machine to be scored.
If you would like to do further edits on the font, click the text on the canvas and click ‘Weld’ on the top toolbar.
Then click ‘Release Compound’ in the top bar.
From here you can click on each individual path and edit them. You can move, scale, and rotate them.
Want to take it even a step further? You can click ‘Edit’ on the top tool bar to edit the nodes.
Get creative and enjoy making the fonts uniquely yours for your projects.
How to Access Alternates, Ligatures, and Extended Character Sets
Some fonts will have extras, such as multi-letter ligatures or alternate characters. The example font, Spicy Sketcher, has both of those.
xTool Creative Space does not provide a way to access ligatures or alternate characters within the software, and does not include automatic replacement for ligatures. To work around this, I copied the alternate characters and ligatures from Font Book and pasted them directly into the program.
As shown in the last photo, I highlighted the character I wanted to replace. However, the software doesn’t allow you to paste directly over an existing character. Instead, you’ll need to delete the original character before or after pasting the new one.
Then you can do further edits by using Weld in the top toolbar or send it as-is to your machine.
How to Use SVG or Other Alphabet Sets
Some fonts will come with an SVG file that contains the full character set of the font, in case you prefer it! Our example font, Spicy Sketcher, now comes with one of those.
There are two different ways you can bring in an alphabet SVG. For the first one, you can click the ‘X’ in the top left hand corner of the screen. Then click File>Import Image, locate the file, and click Open.
The other, which is my preferred method, is to drag and drop the image in.
This will bring in the image, which will automatically be set to ‘Engrave’, causing it to look blocky.
In order to see this as lines instead, change the setting to ‘Score’.
The design imports as a single group, so you’ll need to click ‘Ungroup’ to access and work with each individual character.
Next, select the letters you want to use, duplicate any that you need more than once, arrange them as desired, and delete the remaining ones. To make it easier to arrange the letters, use ‘Align’ and ‘Distribute’ in the top tool bar.
It is now ready for you to save or send to your machine.
If this program has been updated since this test and this guide no longer works, please drop me a line at the contact form so I can update this page!