How to Curve Text in Silhouette Studio

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Have you seen those cool designs and cut files with curved text and wondered how you could create your own? Today I’m going to show you not only how to curve text in Silhouette Studio, but also how to create interesting text effects on a variety of shapes. Let’s get started!

How to Curve Text on a Circle or Oval

To curve text in Silhouette Studio, we’re going to use the Text to Path function. The simplest shape (path) to use with Text to Path is a circle or an oval.

1. Use the Draw an Ellipse tool to draw a circle or oval to match the curve you want.

2. Type the text.

3. Make sure you’re in Text Editing Mode. You’ll know you’re in Text Editing Mode when you see a green box around the text. If you don’t see the green box, double-click on the text and it should appear.

4. Look for the little gray and white circle with a four-pointed arrow on the left side of the text box. This is the control point. Click on the control point and slowly drag the text box until the control point touches the oval.

5. Once the control point touches the oval, notice that the oval turns gray. This lets you know that the cut lines have been turned off for the oval.

Adjusting the Position of the Text

To reposition the text to a different place on the curve, simply click on the control point and slide it around the shape.

If you want the text to be above or below the curved line, adjust it using the slider bar on the left of the text box.

You can also change the font size and spacing or even choose a totally different font!

Convert to Path

At this point, the text is still editable. (Remember how to tell? Double-click on the text and look for the green box.) But that also means that if you delete the oval or try to copy and paste the curved text to another design, the text will snap right back to its original (straight) shape.

To keep the curved shape, you’ll need to right-click and choose Convert to Path. This changes the text into a shape. You can move the shape around, copy it, mirror it, resize it, etc. without altering the curve. However, because it’s a shape you won’t be able to edit it like text. For this reason, I usually duplicate my text and move a copy into the grey holding area before I convert it, especially if I think it’s something I may want (or need!) to edit in the future.

If you’re using a script font, weld the letters together before you convert to path. (If Convert to Path is not shown in the right-click menu after welding, use Make Compound Path.)

Once the text has been converted to a path, you can delete the original shape.

How to Curve Text to Other Shapes

One of the coolest things about Text to Path is that it allows you to do more than just curve text in Silhouette Studio. You can actually make text conform to ANY line path, not just circles or ovals.

Here are some examples:

Star drawn using Flexishapes in Silhouette Studio.

Curved line drawn using the Silhouette Studio drawing tools.

Pinwheel created using the Line Effects Panel in Silhouette Studio.

Text curved around a Print & Cut shape.

How to Curve Text at the Bottom of a Circle

There’s one more trick to curving text in Silhouette Studio that I want to share with you. Sometimes you may want to have part of your text curve around the top of a circle and the rest of the text curve around the bottom of the circle, like I did with this glass-etched plate.

If you try to curve the “Happy Birthday” as one text element, the text at the bottom of the plate will be upside-down.

To make it appear right-side up, type the words in two separate text boxes and align each of them separately to the curve.

Once you have each text box positioned to your liking, select both and either Convert to Path or Make a Compound Path. Easy-peasy!

Cut Settings

Before you send the design to be cut on your Cameo, Portrait, or Curio, make sure to check the bold red cut lines that appear in the preview window of the Send Panel. If the design includes text you want to print only, be sure to set it to No Cut or set the shape that includes the text to Cut Edge.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed learning how to curve text in Silhouette Studio as well as how to create other fun text effects with the Text to Path function. If you need help, feel free to leave a comment below or email me. And be sure to subscribe to the newsletter so you don’t miss a single blog post or any of the other helpful information I share each week!

Until next time,

Lycia Evanoff

Lycia is a lifelong crafter whose goal is to help others find value, confidence, and joy in whatever they create.  She geeks out on using technology to supercharge craft projects with Silhouette Studio, Design Space, Glowforge, sublimation, etc.! Lycia teaches these skills and more through online tutorials and videos as well as in-person classes at both the local and national levels.

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