I am new to all of this; after getting messages about paying $50 for premium and I am still in my 14 trial period; I would like to know - how to type words in inkscape to cut in glowforge. I have seen some videos that just do not make sense. A lady spent 12 minutes just redoing the same thing and she was frustrated attempting to inform others. Not my cup of tea - I am already stressed, don’t need her adding to it. Can someone help, it is appreciated.
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I think there are some tutorials in the Tips and Tricks section. I’m currently riding in a bouncy car making myself carsick so I’m gonna leave the searching to you. 
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I believe what you are looking for us under the path tabs. Should be an option called “Object to path”. Select your text and click this and you should end up with something GFUI can read.
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Going to give it a shot. Thanks.
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I don’t use inkscape, so I am not sure. But in Adobe Illustrator, there is an option when saving the file as an SVG for the font. It asks if you want the font to be SVG or if you want it CONVERT TO OUTLINE. Not sure if there are similar options in Inkscape, but you should choose convert to outline or convert to path when given the choice.
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100% correct. What you’ll end up with is a group of filled shapes of your letters. Cursive fonts can be tricky here, the letter shapes can overlap. For them you’ll want to do additional steps:
- Select your new text outlines
- ungroup. This makes a bunch of independent letter path objects.
- path->union. This will merge them all into one large shape, ready for cutting/scoring/engraving.
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Good to know. I haven’t used cursive yet so I didn’t know this. Yay learning!
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So I just did the union and taking baby steps here. I am learning something new and I feel crappy but good about it. Thank you all for being so kind and helping me. I was losing hair follicles at a rapid rate earlier. 
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I just found this dude on youtube and he has made my day brighter. I still have some strains of hair left because of him. I owe him a dinner and a movie. lol.
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I found this guy on YouTube, and his Inkscape tutorial series helped me more than any other videos.
TJFREE is his name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f011wdiW7g
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The big advantage of the text in the GFUI is that you can change the text as you wish while no other system can do that as it needs to make the text to an object in every other case.
If you are making something like a birthday wish cake decorations etc. with a different name in each case, it could pay the premium fee all by itself.
As it turns out this is exactly the opposite of true: all systems (that can save as pdf) can do it --text in PDF is engravable with no extra steps.
I suppose if I had to find an advantage here, it would be that you wouldn’t have to re-upload your pdf each time.
As for the disadvantages:
- cost of premium
- inconsistent alignment tools in UI, and even what they do have may not work depending on your design
- Glowforge auto grouping prevents true granular editing of almost every design
- limited typeface selection
- limited web resources for troubleshooting
In all, a proper editor wins in all areas except possibly uploading.
There are ways to do this very efficiently in an external editor. It’s not difficult. Take inkscape for example:
First, setup a template:
Use your text tool to type something. Get it sized and aligned and whatnot, and leave it as a text object. Now save your doc as a template. (More info)
Close the template you just saved (you want it to stay the way it is) and start fresh.
Open a new document of that template type (File->new from template or control-alt-n). You now have a base design ready to edit your text.
Edit the text to say whatever you want it to say. Update a name, change a greeting, etc. Now convert to a path. Since we’re talking about efficiency here, (mostly) ditch that mouse and use the keystrokes:
- Select your text. (click it with a mouse if it’s not already highlighted)
- convert to path [control-shift-c]
- ungroup [control-shift-g]
- union [control-shift-+]
Done*. Literally two seconds with practice.
Save your new doc ready to engrave. GFUI editor is an inferior toy in almost all ways.
*Well maybe done. Changing the text will usually change its size and so you may need to re-align things. Good thing we’re in a proper editor that can do alignment! Learn to use your control key (to constrain movement along an axis), guides, and snapping modes to make alignment more accurate, faster, and easier.
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Was my point.
Ah, as stated it was:
No mention of upload, just the text interpretation. Anyway, that guide I posted is effective if you’re making a lot of the same design and need to alter one text element of the design.
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CorelDraw is nice in that it can automatically convert your text to curves. It’s still editable in Corel. Just drag the SVG to the GFUI and you’re ready to go.
I have Premium but I don’t use it for much of anything. I prefer to design in a design app.
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Search “Logos by Nick” on YouTube for anything and everything you would ever want to know about Inkscape.
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Don’t forget that Inkscape has extensive documentation for those of us who prefer written instructions to video.
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Yes, he is very informative too. Love it!
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