In the example (the letter E)on the left you will see how small lettering is digitized to make sure that it is going to sew well at only .16 inches, which of course would not be possible with an ordinary font.
Let's take a look at how he letter is constructed to make this possible. First look at the zigzag underlay which forms a base for the top stitching. This also serves to fill in any gaps in the top stitching which might result from the reduced density. What many people do when they are having a problem making small lettering legible is to increase the density. This is the opposite of what you should do. Because the column sttches that form the lettering are so skinny, it take many less stitches to get good coverage. Reducing your density to about 45 stitches per inch should yield good coverage and defined columns.
You might also notice that the stitches placed in the corners of the "E" are exagerated, this is because the stitches will actually pull in and become shorter when the letter is sewn out. The last feature that I want to mention is that the center bar of the "E" is digitized as a running stitch as opposed to a column stitch, this is because there is no way that it would be possible to sew out a column stitch that was that skinny. The running stitch serves to create the definition neccessary to make the letter recognizable as the capital letter "E", without causing thread breaks which would probably occur if you tried to create it as a column stitch. To see how both the "Minature Block and Script sew out in Compositions project based embroidery software you can download your free copy of Compositions to use for 30 days at www.kenparsonsdesigns.com