Handling Long Names
Long names are the most common production challenge in laser personalization. "Dr. Christopher Richardson-Montgomery III" needs to look just as good as "John Smith" on the same name plate. This guide covers how CraftStage handles these situations and what you can do when text is especially challenging.
How CraftStage handles it automatically
When you assign a template with a "shrink to fit" overflow policy, CraftStage automatically reduces the font size to make text fit. Here's what happens with our example name on a 2.5-inch wide field at 14pt base font size:
| Name | Base Size | Computed Size | Reduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Smith | 14pt | 14pt | None |
| José García | 14pt | 14pt | None |
| Mary O'Brien | 14pt | 14pt | None |
| Dr. Christopher Richardson-Montgomery III | 14pt | 10.5pt | 25% |
The long name was shrunk from 14pt to 10.5pt. Preflight will flag a warning if the reduction exceeds 30%, but 25% is usually fine for readability.
When shrink-to-fit isn't enough
If a name is so long that it overflows even at the minimum font size, CraftStage flags it as a preflight error. You have several options:
Option 1: Shorten the text
Edit the item and abbreviate. "Dr. Christopher Richardson-Montgomery III" could become "Dr. C. Richardson-Montgomery III" or "Chris Richardson-Montgomery." Check with your customer first.
Option 2: Lower the minimum font size
In the template field settings, reduce the minimum font size. Going from 8pt to 6pt gives the engine more room to shrink. But be careful — text below 6pt is often unreadable on engraved materials.
Option 3: Increase the field width
Adjust the template field to be wider. Even an extra 0.25 inches can make a significant difference for long names.
Option 4: Switch to wrap policy
If the field has enough vertical space, switch the overflow policy from "shrink to fit" to "wrap" with 2 lines. The name breaks across lines:
Dr. Christopher
Richardson-Montgomery IIIThis keeps the font size larger but uses two lines. Set the maximum lines to 2 or 3 depending on your design.
Practical recommendations by product type
| Product | Field Width | Recommended Policy | Min Font Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trophy plates (3") | 2.5" | Shrink to fit | 8pt | Most names fit at 10pt+ |
| Name badges (3.5") | 3.0" | Shrink to fit | 9pt | Larger width helps |
| Pet tags (1.5") | 1.0" | Shrink to fit | 5pt | Very small — consider truncate for titles |
| Award plaques (6") | 5.0" | Shrink to fit | 10pt | Rarely an issue at this width |
| Pavers (8") | 7.0" | Wrap, 3 lines | 12pt | Plenty of room for long text |
Testing your templates
Before processing a real order, test your template with extreme names:
- Longest: "Dr. Christopher Alexander Richardson-Montgomery III, Esq." (55 characters)
- Shortest: "Jo" (2 characters)
- Special characters: "José María García-López" (accents, hyphens)
- All caps: "CHRISTOPHER RICHARDSON-MONTGOMERY" (wider than mixed case)
If your template handles all of these gracefully, it'll handle real orders without issues.