How To Create Curved Text In Canva

It doesn’t matter how good your advert, document, or social media post is, standard text can turn an eye-catching design into a forgettable one. To avoid this, you can curve some or all of your text to give it a more fun and approachable feel. Here’s how to create curved text in Canva.

To curve text in Canva, first, click on the piece of text you’d like to curve. Then click on the “Effects” Button in the upper settings bar. In the Effects panel that appears, click on the Curve setting to automatically curve your text. You can then adjust the curve slider to alter the curve amount.

Curving your text is great, but you also want to ensure it’s readable. I’ll show you how to ensure your text is readable with the letter spacing option while maintaining its contour to your design. In this article, you’ll find plenty of ways to use curved text to spruce up your designs, even if you’re on the go with Canva Mobile.

How To Curve Text In Canva 

To create stunning designs in Canva, you can layer images, graphics, and text, or flip and rotate elements. If you have mastered those skills, then it’s time to learn how to curve text to add even more flair to your design.

Before you can curve your text, you must place some text on your canvas. Click the Text Tab to see all your text options. You can Add A Heading, Add A Subheading or Add A Little Bit Of Body Text depending on the text size you need. You can also press T to drop a quick text block on the canvas. 

Click inside the text block to add your word or phrase to the canvas.  

Now that your text is on your canvas, you can start the curving process by clicking the Effects button and selecting the Curve option under Shape.

You will immediately see your text curve slightly.

Now, you can adjust your curve with the Curve Slider.

Drag the slider all the way to the right to curve your text all the way down. Drag your slider all the way to the left to curve your text all the way up.  

It’s common to go with just a slight curve to give the illusion of a softer-looking text, but it all depends on what you’re going for in your project. 

From here, you can change the Font of your text with the Font Drop Down Menu, the font size with the font block, and add additional effects with the Effects Button. 

Unfortunately, Canva limits you to one extra effect per text block. Thankfully, all of your choices for effects are worth using with curved text, so you can’t go wrong here.  

You may notice how squeezed the spacing might look when you add an effect.

If your text looks squeezed, click the Spacing button to reveal your spacing options. From here, you can adjust the spacing between your letters with the Letter Spacing Slider. 

Drag the Letter Spacing Slider to the right to put more space between each letter. You can even make your text a complete circle if you want to. 

If, for whatever reason, you want to squeeze your letter closer together for your project, drag the Letter Spacing Slider to the left. 

How To Use Curved Text With Other Design Elements 

Curved text is a great way to add flair to your designs. Here’s how you can quickly add that professional flair with little effort. 

First thing first, add some text to your design by pressing T. 

To curve this text, select your text and click on the Effects Button. Under Shape, click on Curve. 

Before you perfect the curve of your text, you must place it near where you need it to be in the final piece. 

Drag your text toward your target area. Now, use the Rotate button to skew your text to line up with the curve in your design. Don’t worry; this doesn’t need to be perfect. Just line it up to about where it needs to be. 

Now that the text is lined up adjust the Curve Slider to bend the curve of your text. 

Adjust the Curve Slider slowly; it should bend precisely how you need it. You will most likely need to inch your text up or down to get it to line up perfectly. 

Now that you’re perfectly curved your text and aligned it with the contour of your design, you can make the cosmetic choices required to blend your text with the rest of your design. 

For instance, you can change the Font of your text with the Font Drop Down Window. 

You can add one more effect to your curved text to make it pop more. Choosing the best effect depends on your project, but you can never go wrong with using Shadow, Echo, or Lift. 

Curving your text is not just about bringing a professional touch to your work but can also make it look more fun or cool. 

You don’t need to curve the text too much, either. Just enough to imply a “smile” is often sufficient. 

If you have some text that looks unapproachable or a bit too “buttoned up,” just put a “smile” on it by curving your text slightly.  

How To Create Curved Text Using Templates 

If you want a quick solution to adding curved text to a design, Canva has you covered with pre-made templates that feature curved text. 

To find these pre-made templates, first, click on the Social Media Tab on the Canva Homescreen. This will reveal thousands of social media templates for every social media site. 

If you want, you can wade through the thousands of social media templates from here and try to pick out the templates with curved text. If you don’t have all the time in the world, a much easier way is to search for templates with curved text in the search bar. 

To do this, type in the kind of template you’re looking for + “curved text.” 

You will now see many more templates with curved text in your search results. 

Be warned, though. There are plenty of templates that you can only use if you are a Canva Pro member. You will know if the template is “Pro only” if there is a Crown Icon in the corner of the preview picture.

Once you find a template that you can use that appeals to you, select the curved text itself and then click on the Effects button. From here, you can adjust the curve or add any effects you’d like to. 

Or, you can leave the template “as-is” and just change the text itself. 

Double-click each text block to change the text itself and type in your word or phrase. 

So if you need some inspiration to help you brainstorm ideas for curved text, using one of Canva’s pre-made templates is never a bad idea. 

How To Curve Text In Canva Mobile 

Another cool thing about curving text in Canva is that you can do it on the go! Here’s how you can curve text on the mobile version of Canva. 

To start, click the Plus Button and scroll to the Text Tab. Add a heading, subheading, or body text to the canvas. Tap inside the text block to add your text.

To start the curving process, tap on your text and the Effects button. From here, tap on Curve to get things rolling. 

Now that your text is slightly curved, it’s time to adjust your curve exactly where you need it. You can do this with the Curve Slider at the bottom of the screen. 

If you drag the slider all the way to the left, you will curve your text up. If you pull the slider all the way to the right, you will curve your text down.

Once your text is curved the way you need it, you can add one additional effect. 

To do this, tap on Style to bring up the Effects Scroll Wheel. You can tap on one of these effects to add it to your text. 

Now that your text looks the way you want it to, you can adjust the letter spacing to make your text more readable or artsy.