How do I pick a font that will carve well?

What makes a font carvable

The machine does not render pixels. It drives a physical wedge or cylinder through fibers, so fonts fail physically:

• Hairline strokes v-carve as barely-visible scratches (V-carve depth follows stroke width, so thin means shallow).
• Tiny counters (the enclosed holes in a, e, o) become fragile islands or uncarvable specks.
• Extreme thick/thin contrast (Bodoni-style) gives wildly varying carve depth across one letter.
• Dirty outlines in cheap free fonts: self-intersections that break toolpaths (see the skipped-letters entry).

What works, by style

• V-carving all-stars: classic serifs (Times, Georgia, Garamond at weight) and clean romans. The serif taper is exactly what a V-bit loves, which is why traditional sign fonts look "carved" even printed.
• Bold sans (Montserrat, Futura Bold, Arial Black): great for raised letters and pocketed text. For V-carving, watch the total depth on wide strokes (see the Flat Depth entry).
• Scripts: choose fat, connected scripts (thick strokes, generous loops). Keep text LIVE for overlap handling or weld carefully (see the script-font entry). Skinny elegant scripts are the number one disappointment font class.
• Single-line fonts for quick engraving (Profile-On). Remember they are open vectors by design.

The physical size check

Before committing: the thinnest stroke and smallest counter must survive your bit (see the minimum-detail entry). Preview at final size. If detail vanishes in the preview, it vanishes in wood. Scaling text up a little or picking the Bold weight fixes more "bad carve" problems than any toolpath setting.

Pro tips

• Letter spacing (tracking) slightly wider than print-normal reads better carved, because grooves visually bleed together more tightly than ink.
• Test-carve your go-to fonts once on scrap at typical sizes and keep the winners in a shortlist. Sign shops work from a handful of proven fonts, not hundreds.
• ALL-CAPS in a solid serif is the most forgiving first-sign choice.