How to Curve Text in Canva
If there’s one feature that people were always asking the people behind Canva for, it was the ability to curve text. Photoshop has it, why can’t Canva? And to their credit, it has taken a little while but now there is a feature that lets you curve your text as much as you want. Shall we learn how to curve text in Canva?
Why curve your text?
Curving text is a popular graphic design feature in lots of different situations. Let’s say you have a logo and you want to use a circle shape. Yes, you can add straight text across the centre but it looks better if you can curve the words around the outside, especially if you have some kind of visual elements in the logo.
But there are tons more ways you can use curved text, not just in your logo. From circular stickers to print and add to handmade products through to curved text as part of text art and quote graphics, there’s no shortage of ways to use it.
Anywhere there’s a circle or curved shape, you can get the text to follow it and create a startling new visual effect.
How to curve text in Canva
You can curve the text in any design where you have text. So to start with, grab a design and add a text box.
Select the text box and open the Effects panel. This is where all of the special text effects live including the shadows, hollow text and even the funky neon effect. It is also where you find the option to make the text curved.
The default is to create a semi-circle with your text. But the slider lets you change this so you can mirror a shape that’s already present or to get the exact arc you want for your design. In this case, around 46 makes it the same circle as the white background so the words follow it.
Alternatively, you can move the text to the bottom of the circle and move the slider to the minus area. This curves it the other way and makes it follow the bottom edge of the circle.
How to create a word circle
The ultimate curve is a circle and you can easily make words into a circle in Canva with the same process.
Move the slider right to either end and the words will make a circle. In this case, going to the far end of the minus slider makes the words a bit easier to read. Going the other way made them seem upside down!
You might want to increase the font size before you curve depending on the look you want. You can also go completely 100% curved so the ends overlap but this can make it a little hard to read the first and last words.
Rotating the circle
The final thing to do is to use the rotation tool to change where the start of the circle is located. You might want the first one or two words to be the easiest to read, in which case move them down to the bottom of the circle.
Curving in subtle ways
Curved text doesn’t always have to be the centrepiece either. With this graphic, the only curved part is the quote credit at the bottom. It just makes the quote look a little more visually interesting but means the actual quote is still easy to read.
Make the most of curved text
You can also now add any of the other text effects to the curved text so there’s tons of ways to add it and lots of ways to make it interesting. From logos to spicing up Pinterest pins or other visual marketing elements, you’ll have great fun using the curved text in Canva.
