Create and Edit Text

Use the Create Text Tool to add text to your projects. Text created using the Create Text Tool is a special type of built-in shape called a Text Object.

There are several special settings you can apply to Text Objects through the Text Options Toolbar, Shape Properties Window, or by directly editing them in your Workspace.

Use these settings to adjust font and size, change spacing, bend or curve your text, create Variable Text, and more.

Creating Text

Note

By default, the location you click will be the center of the Text Object you create, but you can adjust alignment in the Text Options Toolbar.

To add a Text Object to your project, click the Create Text icon in the left sidebar, go to Tools → Edit Text, or press Ctrl/Cmd+T.

Click anywhere in your Workspace and type in the text you'd like to add.

Press Enter while typing your text to jump to a new line and continue typing.

Press Esc to finish creating the Text Object.

Editing Text

To edit a Text Object after creating it, enable the Create Text Tool and click on it again, or double-click it without the Create Text Tool enabled.

Right-click any Text Object and select Edit Text Shape to open a dialog window where you can directly edit and adjust the text's attributes.

Enable Selection double-click shows Text Edit dialog in the Settings window to open the Edit Text Shape window by double-clicking instead.

Using the Edit Text Shape window

Bending Text

In addition to the Transform Control Handles used to Move, Resize, Rotate, and Shear objects, Text Objects have a special handle for Bending.

Select any Text Object to show a blue dot over the the text, then hover your cursor over the dot until you see the Bend cursor .

Click, hold, and drag the cursor up or down to curve the text around an imaginary circle.

Double-click the dot to clear the curve and restore the text.

Enable or disable the Distort toggle in the Text Options Toolbar to choose whether to distort the text as part of the curve, or leave the individual characters unchanged.

To curve text around more complex paths, use Apply Path to Text.

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The Text Options Toolbar is where you adjust attributes of Text Objects, including, Font, size (Height), spacing (HSpace and VSpace), and more.

The Text Options Toolbar is located in the top toolbar in LightBurn by default, to the right of the Numeric Edits Toolbar.

If you have closed the Text Options Toolbar, go to Window → Text Options to re-enable it. To restore it and all other windows to their default positions, go to Window → Reset to Default Layout

Tip

The layout of LightBurn is highly customizable. For more information on enabling and disabling windows and toolbars, or rearranging the default layout, see Customizing the LightBurn Window.

Options

Use the Font dropdown menu to select a a font. See below for more information on fonts.
Height sets the overall height of text. Height varies based on your selected font, and is not exact — it is generally the height of a capital letter X in the font, but every font has an internal size that is scaled by this Height, and the dimensions aren't required to be accurate.
HSpace adjusts the horizontal spacing between individual characters, as a percentage of the font size. Positive numbers space the characters out more, and negative numbers move them closer together.
VSpace adjusts the vertical line spacing as a percentage of the font height. Positive numbers increase the distance between lines, and negative numbers reduce it.

Note

In the case of text, horizontal always refers to the direction of the text as it is read, regardless of whether the Text Object is rotated. Vertical refers to the opposite direction, regardless of rotation.

HSpace always controls distance between individual characters,and VSpace always controls distance between lines.

Adjusting HSpace and VSpace
Align X determines the horizontal anchor position of the text — Left, Right, or Middle.
Align Y determines the vertical anchor position of the text — Bottom, Top, or Middle. Top aligns text to the top of capital letters, and Middle aligns to roughly the middle of the capital letters. This is most useful when using Apply Path to Text.

Using Align X and Align Y
Enabling Bold displays the font in bold typeface, if available for the selected font.
Enabling Italic displays the font in italics, if available.
Enabling Upper Case forces all characters to be upper case.
Welded enables automatic welding of characters. When characters touch or overlap, as is common with script fonts, enabling this option will automatically weld the overlaps together. Characters will also weld together if HSpace is reduced to a point where they overlap.

Welded vs. Unwelded comparison
Distort controls whether individual characters in a Text Object will be warped when Bending them.
Enabling Right-to-Left forces Right-to-Left text rendering. This option will not appear unless it's enabled in your Settings. Right-to-Left will automatically be enabled if your current input language is Right-to-Left.
The Text Mode dropdown menu and Offset field are used when working with Variable Text. For information on these options, see Variable Text.

Leave this value set to Normal if you are not using Variable Text

Fonts

The list of fonts in LightBurn is taken from your computer system. If you want to use a new font in LightBurn, install it on your computer, then re-start LightBurn.

Installing fonts

On Windows, after you have downloaded a font, right-click it and choose Install. On Mac, double-click the font and click Install in the font preview window that opens.

Favoriting and Filtering Fonts

Your most recently used fonts will always appear near the top of the font list in the Recent section.

After selecting a font, you can right-click it in the dropdown menu for additional options.

Select Add to Favorites to add the font to the your Favorite list. Favorites will appear at the top of the font list. To remove it from the list, right-click again and select Remove from Favorites.

Select Hide this font to remove the font from your list.

Click to enable or disable Show System Fonts, Show SHX Fonts, or Show Hidden Fonts — a checkmark will appear next to each option when it's enabled. SHX and System fonts are always displayed by default, while Hidden fonts are not. When displayed, Hidden fonts are shown in red.

See below for more information on SHX Fonts.

Text Settings

There are several global font settings in the Editor Settings tab of the Settings window.

Default Font changes the automatically selected font for new projects.
Default Height changes the automatically applied font Height for new projects.
Enable Right-to-Left text support allows you to turn on Right-to-Left font rendering for any text. This setting is automatically enabled on first run if a Right-to-Left language is the current system input language, but it can be forced on here later if necessary.

SHX Fonts

Set SHX Font Path sets the directory containing SHX font files — clicking this button will open up your system's file explorer window, where you can navigate to the location of the SHX font folder on your computer. Click the button next to Set SHX Font Path to clear the path.

Once LightBurn knows where to load the SHX fonts from, they will automatically appear in the Font dropdown menu in the Text Options Toolbar.

SHX Fonts are differentiated from normal fonts by the icon next to each entry:

denotes an SHX font.
denotes a standard operating system font.

SHX fonts lack many of limitations of standard system fonts and have the ability to define single line fonts, such as this:

Moving LightBurn Files With Fonts

If you want to move designs containing text between computers and continue to edit the Text Objects, be sure to install all necessary fonts on all computers you're using.

When you save a copy of a file that contains text, LightBurn automatically includes a copy of the text as a path and embeds it into the file. If you open the file on another computer that has the same font, you will be able to edit the Text Objects as usual.

However, if you open the design on a computer without the font, LightBurn will warn you about the missing font(s) and load the path embedded in the file. This prevents the file from breaking when you move to another computer, but you won't be able to edit the text without the correct font.

If the font is installed at a later time, LightBurn will recognize it and the text will become fully editable again.

Right-click the imported text and select Convert to Text to change the font of the text, and regain the ability to fully edit it.

Right-click the imported text and select Convert to Path to change the text into a standard vector graphic that can be edited using the Edit Nodes tool. Note that this change is permanent, and you'll be unable to edit any of its text properties later.

Importing Other Files With Text

If you open files not made in LightBurn that contain text, make sure that any fonts used in the file are installed on your computer, or that the text has been converted to paths using whatever tools are available in the other program.

Different programs use different terms for this process, but terms such as welding, convert to outline, and convert to path are common.

Converting Text to Paths in LightBurn

In order to directly edit the lines and nodes of text in LightBurn, select all Text Objects you wish to convert, then go to Edit → Convert to Path, press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + C, or right-click in your Workspace and select Convert to Path from the menu.