Put text on a curve

In the template editor, Curved Text makes a text run along a path, for example along an arc or a wave. The text stays a normal text: you set its content, font and color the same way as before.

This takes two steps:

1. Draw the path on the canvas.
2. Put the text on the path in the properties panel.

Draw the path

1. Click the pen nib in the toolbar. This is the Add path tool.
   
2. Click on the canvas where the text should start. The first point is set. The text will later run in the direction you draw. For a text that reads from left to right, draw from left to right.
3. Drag a little to the side, starting where the text should end, with the mouse button held down. A second point appears and the line bends into a curve.
4. Press Esc. The path is finished and stays an open line.

How to change the points of the path later is described in Draw and edit a path: create your own shapes and lines.

Put the text on the path

In the properties panel you connect the text to the path.

1. Click your text on the canvas or in the layers panel. The properties panel shows its properties.
2. Tick Curved Text in the Text section. Path, Baseline and Offset appear below it. Until you choose a path, the text is not visible.
   
3. Choose your path under Path. The list shows the paths in your template with their names from the layers panel, for example path1. The text now runs along the path.
   The list only shows No Path?

   Your template has no path yet. Rectangles, ellipses and other shapes don't show up here. Draw a path with Add path first, as described above.

   The text is upside down?

   The text follows the path in the direction you drew it. If you drew from right to left, it is upside down. Draw a new path from left to right, choose it under Path and delete the old path.

   
   
4. Choose under Baseline how the letters sit on the path:
   • Baseline: the letters stand on the path. This is the default.
   • Middle: the path runs through the middle of the letters.
   • Hanging: the letters hang below the path.
5. Type a distance under Offset if the text should not sit right at the start or end of the path. left is the distance from the start, right the distance from the end. The text stays between these distances.
6. Look at the result with a short and with a long text. If a long text doesn't fit on the path, it gets smaller. It never gets bigger than its Max Font Size.

With Align you move a short text to the start, the middle or the end of the path. On a tight curve, text can become hard to read even if it looks fine as straight text.