How To Curve Text in Procreate

You must have seen those lovely and unique poster designs that feature curved text and thought they looked cool, no? Well, curved text goes beyond being just a stylistic choice; it can also add to the overall appeal of your artwork. Whether you're working on a digital painting, poster, or social media graphic, using this type of design opens up new opportunities for defining the creative theme you’re going for. Adding a curve to your text can guide the viewer's attention and, more importantly, create dynamic compositions that keeps your work interesting from all four corners of your canvas. It is a subtle yet impactful way to highlight specific elements within your artwork.

If you're interested in adding a unique touch to your digital artwork, learning how to do curve texts in Procreate is a valuable thing to learn. While Procreate doesn’t have a focused text warp tool, this guide will take you through the alternative steps to effortlessly include creativity into your designs. Let’s jump in!

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Accessing the Text Tool

Let's get started by getting to know the basics of accessing the Text Tool in Procreate.

Open up Procreate on your device and set up a new canvas. Think about the dimensions and background color that will go well with your overall design. Is this for an A4 poster? A social media post? Consider the purpose and adjust your canvas accordingly. 

Look for the Add Text Tool in the toolbar in the upper left corner. When you tap on it, a whole bunch of font options and text settings will appear. You can start typing and take some time to check out different fonts and choose a size that works for your project. Remember, playing around with different and even importing font styles can really change the look of your curved text. Have some fun with the alignment options to make sure your text is positioned just right. Procreate lets you adjust spacing and make sure your straight text looks nice and polished before you start curving it.

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Pro Tip: Since we will be using alternative ways to curve our texts, you will need to finalize your text before moving on to the next step. You will need to rasterize the text-- meaning, you won’t be able to edit what you’ve written any further. When you start with the next steps, you can pre-emptively rasterize your layer or Procreate will give you a prompt to do so. 

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Curve Text in Procreate

Now, let's jump into the fun part – curving text in Procreate! As I’ve mentioned before, Procreate doesn’t have a built-in text curve tool (yet!) so we will be going through two ways we can do instead. 

The first method we’ll go over is the Warp Tool-- your go-to for adding curves to text. Select the text layer you want to curve and tap on the warp tool. You can find it in the Transform menu. Go ahead and experiment with different curves by dragging the anchor points. If you want more control, you can tap on the Advanced Mesh to fine-tune the curve. Move them around until your text flows exactly how you want it to. And remember, readability is important! If your text starts to look too crazy, just adjust the curve to make sure it stays legible. Don’t be afraid to undo! 

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The second method we can use is Procreate Liquify Tool! Like we did in the previous method, select the layer you’d like to curve. Go to Adjustments, select Liquify and you can go ahead and start warping. Make sure to start with a large brush to gently nudge your text into the curve you like. When you’re satisfied, you can then go in with a smaller brush to adjust the finer details. 

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Procreate provides guides that can help you create accurate curves. By enabling them in the Canvas settings, you can ensure your text is well-aligned.

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For a more adventurous approach, you can explore advanced features such as layer blending modes and brush textures to enhance the creativity of your curved text. Additionally, Procreate community is filled with skilled artists, so take the opportunity to learn from their techniques and styles. 

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There you have it! This is how one does a curve text in Procreate. It might be a little tedious at first, but in due time, I’m sure you’ll find it very entertaining to play around with these tools. Happy typing! 

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As a bonus tip, text isn't the only thing you can apply this to. Check out our marble tutorial using these same techniques!

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