Stencil Font Generator

Bridges, and the centers that fall out

A stencil is a sheet with the letters cut out of it. The trouble is the closed centers: the middle of an O, both holes in a B, the triangle in an A. Cut around them and nothing holds them to the rest of the sheet, so they drop out and your O paints as a solid blob. We call those loose pieces islands, and the counter under the preview shows how many are left.

A bridge is a narrow strip you leave uncut so the center stays attached. Most bridges here are straight vertical or horizontal strips on the center line of the hole, crossing the letter by a short way out, and similar letters get them on the same side. A few script loops need a shifted or slanted one, and the tool says so. Colored bridges in the preview are the parts the machine won't cut.

In Stencil fonts mode the letters were drawn with their bridges by the type designer, so the tool leaves them alone and only steps in where a character still has a loose center (in these fonts that's mostly the # sign). Regular fonts + auto bridges takes one of six regular fonts and cuts the bridges in for you.

How wide to make the bridges

Wide enough to survive cutting, peeling and washing, narrow enough that the paint gap doesn't break up the letter. These are the starting points the material menu fills in. They are our own cautious numbers, calculated, not machine-tested, and the tool warns when a letter stroke, a strip of sheet or a bridge comes out narrower than the minimum.

Bigger letters can take wider bridges without looking chunky. If a bridge tears on the test cut, widen it; if the letters look chopped up, try Minimal or a narrower width.

Cutting the stencil on a Cricut

1. Download the SVG. It's one shape: all the letters, plus the sheet border if you turned that on, so everything stays in place on the mat.
2. In Design Space choose Upload, then Upload Image, pick the file and upload it. Design Space keeps the size you set here.
3. Leave the layer's operation on Basic Cut. That's the plain cut you want for stencil vinyl, film or cardstock.
4. Cut a test first: one letter with a center, like the O or B, to see if the bridges hold in your material. Then cut the whole sheet.
5. On a phone or iPad, use the SVG: the Design Space apps don't open DXF files.

Source: Cricut Help Center: How to upload images into Design Space · Last checked: September 27, 2026

Silhouette, LightBurn and Glowforge

• The DXF holds only closed outlines in inches or millimeters, the kind of cut lines laser software works with. LightBurn lists DXF among the vector files it imports. Source: LightBurn User Guide: Creating and Importing Artwork · Last checked: September 27, 2026
• The free Basic Edition of Silhouette Studio opens DXF but not SVG, so use the DXF there. Source: Silhouette America Support: File Types and Features · Last checked: September 27, 2026
• The Glowforge app takes DXF only for Premium members. Without Premium, use the Outline SVG button: Glowforge engraves filled shapes and cuts stroked ones, and that file has only thin lines with no fill (the regular SVG is filled, so it would engrave). Sources: Glowforge Help: Upload your own design file, Glowforge Help: Design Text is not Showing · Last checked: September 27, 2026

Another machine or app? The font formats compatibility tables say whether it takes the SVG, the DXF or both, app by app.

Printing big stencil letters at actual size

No cutting machine? Print at actual size splits the design over as many Letter or A4 sheets as it needs (the button shows how many). Neighboring sheets overlap by 10 mm and share red registration marks, so you line them up, tape them and cut the letters out with a craft knife. The alphabet sheet does the same for a full A-Z and 0-9 at the letter height you choose.

Print at 100% or Actual size, never Fit to page. Every sheet has a 1 inch line and a 25 mm line printed on it. Hold a ruler to one of them before you cut: if it doesn't measure exactly 1 in (or 25 mm), the printer scaled the page, so fix the print setting and print again.

Fonts in this tool and their licenses

Every font here is open source, released under the SIL Open Font License and published on Google Fonts. Stencils, signs, shirts and painted pieces you make with them are yours to sell; the font files themselves aren't for resale. Each license is linked below.

For a stencil font from another shop, check that font's license before you sell anything made with it. The font license checker shows what a font file says about itself, and font licenses for sellers explains the common license types. If you want more choice with a commercial license, browse stencil fonts.

Some links here earn us a commission (details).

Not legal advice: read the font’s own license before you sell.

Quick answers

What font is best for stencils?

Bold, simple letters with open shapes. A ready-made stencil font is the easy choice, since its bridges were drawn to fit each letter. For a regular font, pick a heavy sans serif (Anton or Poppins Black here): thick strokes leave room for bridges and hold up in the cut. Thin scripts with hairline strokes are the hardest to cut and paint. If what you actually want is a script name cut out as a solid shape, not a stencil, the cursive SVG generator welds the letters into one piece.

How do you make a stencil from a regular font?

Switch to Regular fonts + auto bridges and pick one of the six fonts there (Anton, Poppins, Playfair Display, Lobster, Pacifico or Great Vibes); you can't upload your own font file here. Type your text and set the letter height. Watch the island counter: when it reads 0 islands, every center is attached. Then download the SVG or DXF for a machine, or print the tiled PDF and cut by hand.

What size should stencil bridges be?

Our calculated starting points (not machine-tested) are about 2 mm (0.08 in) for vinyl and 3 mm (about 1/8 in) for cardstock or wood. Do a test cut and adjust. Go wider for stiff or thick material and for very large letters.

How do I print large stencil letters?

Set the real letter height, pick Letter or A4 and use Print at actual size. The PDF tiles the design across sheets with overlap and alignment marks. Print at 100%, check the 1 inch line with a ruler, then tape the sheets together.

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