Why is a style or font greyed out?

A style or font is greyed out when it can't do its job for your song, and the reason is written on the card or shows when you tap the chip.

A greyed-out style: Behind

Behind puts your lyrics behind the person on your cover, so it needs someone to cut out. If lyrik couldn't cut anyone out of your cover, the card is greyed out and says 'Needs a photo of a person on the cover'. You can't pick it for this song.

What counts as a person: someone lyrik can cut out of the picture, with their head in shot. A clear photo of you, filling the middle of the frame, with your face not cut off by the edge, works best.

A cover without a clear person may still let you pick Behind. The big words then sit over your cover instead of sliding behind anyone, which loses the point of the style. If that happens, try one of the styles below.

What to try instead:

• Widescreen frames your cover like a film, with the lyrics over it. See Widescreen
• Xerox cuts you out of your cover for its collage when there's a person, and still works when there isn't. See Xerox
• Tapestry's Silhouette fills your outline with your lyrics. Without a person, it fills a big first letter of your song title instead. See Tapestry

Want Behind with a different cover? Use Colour → Change cover in the studio and choose a cover that shows you. Wait for it to finish preparing. See Adding or changing cover art.

A greyed-out font

lyrik checks every font against every letter in your lyrics, including accents and marks such as the dots under some Yoruba letters. A font that can't draw them is greyed out.

1. Tap or click the greyed chip. A line explains why, for example 'This font doesn’t have ẹ ọ, which your lyrics use'.
2. Pick another font from the row. The ones that aren't greyed out can draw every letter in your song.

If the font you'd already chosen for a style can't set your lyrics, the style shows a matching font instead, with the note: 'Your lyrics use letters Marker doesn’t have, so we’re showing a font that has them.' (with the font's name). The whole song is set in that one matching font, so it never looks mixed.

Broadside and Flicker are the exceptions. When only a few words need letters their font lacks, just those words use a matching font. With a mouse, the chip's tip says, for example, 'Gothic: a few words are set in a matching fallback face'.

Fonts that often grey out

• Marker: the Marker and Scrawl handwriting fonts only cover Western European letters. Other songs are written in Felt tip, or Round when Felt tip can't set them either.
• Diary: Marker, Cursive and Scrawl grey out for most accents beyond Western European ones, such as the dots under Yoruba letters. Quick hand greys out for some Yoruba and Igbo marks. All four grey out for the hooked Hausa letters. The song is then written in Original, Diary's Shantell Sans hand (or Neat for Hausa).
• Deck: Broad, Rethink and Outfit grey out for Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and Akan. Broad also greys out for Vietnamese, Greek and Cyrillic, and for lyrics that use ¿ ¡ « » „ or ·, as many Spanish, French and Catalan songs do. The song is then drawn in a plainer matching font. Melt sets the most languages.
• Flicker: Midnight and Salt grey out for the dots under Yoruba letters, some Igbo marks and the hooked Hausa letters, and the song is then written in a plainer hand. Solid greys out for the hooked Hausa letters and for some Yoruba marks, and the song is then typed in a plain bold sans.
• Workshop: Cosy and Storybook grey out for the hooked Hausa letters, and can for some Yoruba and Igbo marks. The song is then made in Elegant, which sets them all.

Good to know

• The check runs again after you edit your lyrics. Fixing words on the Sync screen can change which fonts are offered. A font you used before may grey out if you add a letter it can't draw.
• A greyed-out style isn't broken. It's waiting for something your song doesn't have.
• Styles that can't set your lyrics at all aren't suggested under 'Picked for your song'. They're still in the list, but they may leave out letters their fonts can't draw, so check the preview closely.
• See How do I change the font? and Which languages does lyrik support?

If something goes wrong

• 'The style stills couldn’t be made (…). The live preview still works.' The pictures on the style cards didn't render. This isn't a greyed-out style. Every style still plays in the preview, so pick one to see it. If it keeps happening, reload the page.
• Behind is greyed out, but you are on your cover. lyrik couldn't separate you from the background, which can happen with a busy picture, a cropped face or a very small figure. Try Widescreen or Xerox, or start again with a clearer cover.
• A font you chose before is greyed out now. You probably changed some words in Sync. Undo the change, or pick another font.

Hidden extras

• The note under the Font row tells you which font is really being drawn, so you always know what your download will use.