Small Lettering Guide: Difficult or Problematic Issues with Fonts - Negative Space, and Short Summary

Negative Space

The square on the left shows an e in black. The e is what we know of as the positive space. The square on the right shows the gray area surrounding the e and the orange area showing the enclosed space of the e. Both of these are negative space.

The negative space in the e on the left show a narrow space between the end of the e and the horizontal stroke. In embroidery, this space is going to fill up easily. On the right is an e that will embroider nicely.


Negative space is the area around or trapped inside a shape. When dealing with small lettering in embroidery it is the negative space areas that can cause the most problems. This guide will show you what to look out for.

Any enclosed space or area between letters are all negative space. Look for areas that seem close together, because if they look too close in print, they will definitely look too close in embroidery. Embroidery has a habit of filling up small areas when going around in a satin stitch (fig 8.2.)

A good example of nice bold letters, but with small negative space. As you can see, the e and the a nearly close up entirely.

In Summary

Use the guide to help you determine if your logo will work.

The minimums are just that, minimums. Generally, the larger and bolder the better.

If letters are small, first ask your customer if they are okay with you stacking the letters or enlarging or changing the font to allow for larger cleaner letters.

Tackdown can help clear the field when using heavy pile fabrics such as towels or polar fleece.

Water soluble topping can help with fabrics such as heavy knits and even pique.

Condensed or square fonts will look more distorted when small.

Crowded letters are problematic. If letters are too close, the stitching of each letter can influence and distort adjacent letters.

Conversely, too much space will determine if we have to trim. The more trims, the more problem areas. Each time there is a trim, it involves lock stitches before the trim and tie-ins at the beginning of the next letter. The smaller or thinner the letter, the more noticeable the lock stitches will be.

Extra space between letters can be utilized to enlarge the words and therefore get better looking letters. Drop unnecessary parts like “www.”

Serifs are difficult in really small lettering. A serif font may need to be changed to something San Serif such as Myriad or Helvetica to come out clean. Thicker is not always better with serifs.

Learning about negative space can help you notice possible problem areas in a design. If the hole in a lower case “e” looks small when printed, it will be even smaller when embroidered.