Round Text Generator

Bend your words round a circle — a closed ring that meets itself, or a half round that curves over the top of a badge. Both are one button apart in the editor below, and both export as a PNG with a transparent background.

“Round text” means two different shapes — pick yours first

People type round text for two jobs that need different settings, so decide which one you are after before you touch a slider:

• A closed ring. The words travel all the way round and meet themselves, the way a rubber stamp or a round label is set. Press Circle. A second text box appears, so the bottom of the ring can carry its own line the right way up instead of upside down.
• A half round. The words follow the top of a circle and stop — the curve that sits over a badge, a crest or a name on a shirt. Press Arc and drag Curve until the ends drop as far as you want them to.

Both come out of the same editor above. The only difference is which shape button is pressed.

Making round text, step by step

1. Type the words in Your text.
2. Press Circle for a closed ring, or Arc for a half round.
3. A ring is sized with Diameter; a half round is bent with Curve. Those are the two sliders that do the real work.
4. Open the words up with Letter spacing until they sit evenly round the bend — a curve crowds letters that looked fine on a straight line.
5. Press Download PNG with Transparent background ticked, so the artwork drops onto a coloured mock-up without a white square behind it.

Which shape suits what you are making

• Stamps and seals — a closed ring. A name round the top, a town or a date round the bottom, and both halves reading the right way up.
• Badges and crests — usually a half round on top with a second line curved the other way underneath, rather than one continuous ring.
• Bottle, jar and candle labels — a ring when the label itself is a circle; a half round when it is a rectangular wrap whose top line follows the shoulder of the bottle.
• Coasters, mugs, bottle caps and round stickers — a ring, because the artwork has to live inside a circle anyway.

Which page to read next

This page is the fork in the road. The two shapes each have their own page with the detail this one deliberately leaves out:

• Circle text generator — the closed ring in full: how the top and bottom lines are laid out separately, how diameter and font size trade against each other, and how to run the top arc on its own.
• Arched text generator — the half round in full: one-degree curve control, arching up versus sagging into a valley, and which fonts hold an arch.

To check that the exported file really is see-through before you send it to a printer, see the transparent background page.