Learning how to curve text in Silhouette is so easy but can look so intimidating! Please don’t be scared! Follow along with me and I have also included a video where I will show you how easy this process is so you can step up your crafting game!
First Step
The first step on how to curve text in Silhouette is to open up your Silhouette program. For this exercise I make sure my grid marks are on and set at 1″.
You can do this with the icon on the very top right “Open the Page Setup Panel”.
When you hover over these icons you will see what they are called.
This will open up the “Page Setup panel”. Here in the pop up box go to the middle icon at the top labeled “Grid Settings”. Look towards the bottom of this area to “Spacing” and adjust the grid to 1 inch and I almost always work in black. Just my personal preference.
Now to the next step of adding your shape that you will use to curve your word or text.
Second Step
The next step on how to curve text in Silhouette is to start making your desired shapes. I commonly use a circle to curve my words. However you are not limited to this!
I will show you how to curve text using an arc, a circle and a squiggly or curvy line in the video tutorial below.
On the left side of your Silhouette program find the “Line tools”. Remember to hover your cursor over the symbols and the name of these tools will show up for you.
Once you find the “Line tool” scroll over to the one marked ” Flexishapes”. This is the tool we will use to make our arc. Click on this to activate this feature.
Go to your design area. Make a click and scroll over to your right and click again. This will make the start of your arc. Now move your cursor down.
Do you see the arc? You can make this any degree you want. For the purpose of this demonstration, in the video I made mine 90 degrees.
Once you have the arc the degree you want it, click again. Then to deactivate the “Flexishape” tool go back up to the top left and hit the arrow button that is marked “select”. This will deselect the Flexishape tool.
Now click the arc to highlight it and use the green button to rotate it where you want it. The green button is to rotate and you can use your mouse to move the entire design to where you want it on your design space.
Now comes the fun part! Adding your word or text so you can curve it!
Final Step!
The final step to curve text in Silhouette is to add your word or phrase.
To add your word go to the left side of your Silhouette program to the “Text” tool. In the video below I typed, Melissa Peterson Designs.
I wanted something on the long side and show you how multiple words can look and I also will show you how you can space these out to make them look better! BONUS!
When you have a longer word or phrase sometimes your words may end up placed on 2 lines. Really the spacing in this text tool needs to be adjusted or lengthened.
Double click your word so a green box appears around it and on the right is a thicker green line. Grab that line and pull it to the right. This will make room for your wording or phrase.
While this green box is outlined on your word or text, look to the left of this word on the bottom of the green box. Grab the plus sign and use this to drag your word over to your arc.
This is where the magic happens.
While your word is outlined in green you can move your word around your shape until you get it where you want it.
Sometimes it take practice because it may go where you don’t want it, such as upside down. Just pull it away from the arc and try again. It gets easier each time you do it.
Do you have more arc than wording? No problem!
Look to the right of your Silhouette program for the letter “A” marked, “Open the Text Style Panel” when you hover your cursor over it.
This is the box where you can change your font styles. However, this is also where you can increase or decrease the spacing in-between each character!
Scroll down to “Character Spacing” and it will say 100%. You can bump that up with the arrows or even type in the number you want.
For this sake just hit the up arrow button one at time to see your characters separate over the arc. You can stop at any time where you like it.
You can even go back and highlight your curved word and with the plus arrow keep repositioning the word on the arc until you like your placement!
The last step is to separate your word or text from your shape.
While your word is highlighted go up to “Objects” at the very top of your Silhouette program. Scroll down and click on “Ungroup”. Immediately hit “Group” again and you can move your text away from the shape.
If you make a mistake during the ungrouping. Just go back to “Edit” and click on “Undo” until you get back to where you were before you ungrouped it and try again.
That is it!
This is how you curve text in Silhouette!
In the short video below I’ll show you how to do this using an arc, a circle and a squiggling or curvy line!
It’s the same technique!
Video Tutorial on how You can Curve Text in Silhouette
Now you can head over and learn how to curve text and master the Knockout method! Click here and Click here to learn how!
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xoxo
M
