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Thursday, October 18, 2012

Silhouette Studio Tip: How to make a ¢-symbol in Silhouette Studio


So I was playing with Lettering Delights' new Little Ho-Ho-Ho-ligans the other day.

I was trying to use the Santa stamp SVG (Cut Its) for a project when I realized that unlike the graphic set, the "price" of the stamp was not there on the image. I had to add the "5¢" into the design myself. I easily typed out  a "5" but I was stumped by the "¢" symbol. It is a special character that is not available on the keyboard and using the "Alt-" method didn't work for me. After a few failed attempts, I decided to ask the Silhouette America customer service for help.

I am constantly amazed by how professional and fast the Silhouette America help desk is. Brian took my call and even though he didn't have an immediate solution to my problem, he offered to call me back as soon as he found out. I left my email address with him and imagined that it'll probably be a day before I hear back from him.

I couldn't be more surprised when I saw Brian's email 5-minutes after I finished talking to him on the phone. He had done some checking and found out how to bring a special-character onto the virtual mat.

Here is the email that I received:


The text in the above screenshot is small so here's a "cut-and-paste" from that email:

----------QUOTE----------
Hi Jin –

Thank you for your recent call.  There are two ways to obtain a ¢ symbol in the Silhouette Studio program:

Method One
1. You may copy the following symbol from within this email by highlighting it and pressing CTRL + C on your keyboard:  ¢
2. Once copied, place your mouse anywhere on the screen in the Silhouette Studio program (NOTE: This is NOT while using the text cursor tool.  It should just be the regular select arrow).
3. Press CTRL + V on your keyboard – the intended symbol will show up
4. You may select it and change the font style by going to the Font Style window thereafter

Method Two
1. Select the Font cursor tool to create your text
2. While in the Text Editing mode where text is created, hold down the ALT key on your keyboard and type 0162
3. After typing this sequence of numbers as you hold down the ALT key, the intended symbol will show up

We hope this information is helpful.  Please let us know if you may ever require any further assistance.

Thanks,

The Silhouette Support Team

----------UNQUOTE----------

I used Method 1 and it worked like a charm! For those of you who ever wondered how to bring a special character to the Silhouette virtual mat, well, there's no need to wonder about it anymore cos' now you know. :-)


UPDATE: oct/18/2012

I just received an email from the Silhouette America customer service with more instructions, specifically for the Mac users:

"By the way, if you are on a Mac, “Method One” would be a bit different.  In step 3, you would press OPTION + 4.  (http://osxdaily.com/2009/11/06/how-do-i-type-the-cent-symbol)

Thanks,
The Silhouette Support Team
www.silhouetteamerica.com "




7 comments :

  1. Thank you for the info....I have needed it on several occasions. I think that symbol is becoming a "thing of the pass" for elementary age children....just like cursive writing....what a pity! Can't wait to try this process and YES, the people at Silhouette are super duper nice, helpful and quick to solve a problem. They certainly get my praise too.

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  2. You can also find other special characters by using the character map. I'm using Windows 7 so I go to the Start menu, then all programs, then system tools, then character map. If you right click on character map you can pin it to the start menu or the task bar. You probably can also save a shortcut on your desktop for it, although I haven't tried that. I know the Mac has the same thing and probably easier to access.

    Thanks for a great post!

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  3. Thanks for the info Jin. Although I haven't needed to use this symbol yet, it's good to have the knowledge ahead of time. :)
    And thanks to Doreen as well, I think I will add the character map to my task bar.
    Lori

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  4. great tips Jin, Doreen and Silhouette!!

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  5. Also, keep in mind to use a font that has those special characters. Many free fonts don't have them.

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  6. Jin, FYI: You are supposed to use the Numeric Keypad opposed to the numbers that are above the letters on the keyboard to type these characters.

    I have a 'cheat sheet' index card taped to my computer hutch that has the most common characters I use.

    "ALT Characters"

    Degree sign: ° is ALT + 0176
    CENTS sign: ¢ is ALT + 0162
    1/4 sign: ¼ is ALT + 0188
    1/2 sign: ½ is ALT + 0189
    3/4 sign: ¾ is ALT + 0190
    CROSS sign: † is ALT + 0134
    Copyright sign: © is ALT + 0169
    Registered: ® is ALT + 0174
    Trademark: ™ is ALT + 0153

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  7. ☛ These are also called ASCII codes and you can find a list of all available online.

    Here's one resourse: http://www.edlazorvfx.com/ysu/html/ascii.html

    I couldn't figure out how to get a b flat ♭ onto a music sign I'm making with my silhouette cameo and this was a great help. Thanks

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