Inkscape Tutorial: Create a Curved Ribbon with Text

so in today's tutorial I'm going to show you how to use Inkscape to create text curved text on a curved ribbon like this but in order to do this you're going to have to download the fonts that I've included it in the description too just go to the link in the description and download that font it's a free download open it and install it and once you have it installed go ahead and open up Inkscape and we'll get started so let's go ahead and open up a new document here this should be your view we're going to go to view have custom selected view and we're going to go to view zoom zoom one to one then we're going to go to file document properties let's uncheck these two boxes and close that out and then we're going to open up our aligned align and distribute menu by clicking on that button right there and then we will open up our edit objects colors gradients and Stroke menu by clicking that button right there and down here in the align and distribute menu make sure you have less selected chosen from that list so once you have that set up we're ready to get started so the first thing we'll do is come over here to the create circles and ellipses and we're going to click on that and let's set the color to red I might have to draw it first so let's go and draw let's go and draw any lips like this just click and drag to draw any lips something about that size in that shape turn it red and then come over to the opacity slider and let's let's slide that down enhance make sure you have it about half so you can see through different layers while we're working then we're to come back up to the arrow and then we're going to right click on this ellipse and we're going to go to duplicate and we're going to turn that blue and then hope while holding your ctrl key click and drag this down to about to about there and then hold shift and click on the red ellipse and let's go to path difference all right now let's right-click that and go to duplicate and now we're going to draw a box over this shape we're going to draw a box about about that big all right after you've done that come over to the arrow key click on that and then hold shift and click on our little crescent here and come down to the align of distribute menu and let's Center that on the vertical axis by clicking that button and we're going to select we're going to go to pack intersection now let's go ahead and draw another box it's going to be a just a little bit smaller than the last one about that size and then come back up to the arrow and hold shift and click on this bottom crescent right here and let's Center that up on the vertical axis and let's go to path intersection and let's raise this the top by clicking this button right here we're going to click that once and then holding holding your ctrl key click and drag this up slightly up to about there all right now we're going to draw one more rectangle let's let's go ahead and click and drag and draw another rectangle over this just a little bit smaller than the second one go back to the arrow hold shift and click on this bottom piece right here we're going to Center that on the vertical axis and we're going to go to path difference now after that let's click on this top part of the ribbon that we're creating and let's click on this button right here to raise that to the top then let's go to we're magnifying glass let's click on that now let's click and drag over this bottom corner right here so we could zoom in and see what we're doing next we're going to go to our bezzie a pen click on that and then come up here to where it says snap to custom nodes let's click that button and turn that on now bring your cursor over the corner of this bottom piece right here and once it once your cursor snaps onto it click on that once and then hold your ctrl key and bring the line all the way up to about here and then click again and then let go of your ctrl key and bring the cursor over to this corner and once it snaps on to that corner click there and then bring it this line over to the starting point and click there now let's go to our arrow let's click on that let's turn that blue and we'll come up here to the stroke paint tab we're going to click on that and we're going to click the X button to turn the stroke off and I come over here to the opacity slider let's bring that down in half to about there and then let's click on this top red banner right here let's right click on this go to duplicate and then hold shift and click on this blue shape we just created and then go to path difference so you end up with something like that now let's right-click on this let's go to duplicate and let's flip this flip this horizontally by clicking that button once and let's click and drag this over here to this side now let's snap it onto those corners over there and once you've done that you can turn the snap to custom nodes button off so go and turn that off and you can zoom back you can zoom back out by pressing the one key on your keyboard and then we'll be right about here so the next thing we'll do is we're going to click on this top red ribbon right here and then we're going to right-click it and go to duplicate we're going to turn that green and then we're going to right-click it and duplicate it again and turn that blue and then while holding your ctrl key click and drag this down to about down to about there almost at the bottom but not quite maybe right about there and then hold shift and click on the green piece so you have them both selected and go to path difference and then hold your shift key and click on this red piece of the banner right there and let's come down here and let's Center that up on the horizontal axis so it looks like that now after you've done with that let's click and drag over this whole thing and then right-click it go to duplicate and then go to path Union and we're going to drop this all the way down to the bottom by pressing the button that says lower selection to the bottom we're going to click that and come up here to the stroke paint tab and let's click the blue button to turn that on and after you've turned that on we'll come over to the stroke style and we're going to give that a 15-point strokes and just type in 1 5 and hit enter see how that looks okay I think that looks good you want it to be relatively thick so you can you know it'll be visible at small sizes so once you've done that let's go to path stroke the path and then go to path break apart path Union now let's click on this red part these two red side pieces right here and then it hold shift and click on the black border we just created and let's go to path difference and then come and click on this red this red part of the ribbon right here that we just created then hold shift and click on the black border so you have them both selected let's go to path difference and then let's click on this blue corner piece right here and hold shift and click on the other one and then while still holding shift let's click on the black border so we can unify them we'll go to path Union that's going to make that all one shape just like that now let's go back to our magnifying glass and let's zoom in on this this side right here let's go to the bezzie a pen and then let's go let's turn this snap to custom nodes you'll turn that back on and bring the cursor over to this corner right here and once it snaps on to it click once and just bring the line up to here and once it snaps on to that corner click again and then bring it up to this corner and once it snaps click again and then bring it back down to the starting point and click so it should make a shape like that now let's go back to the arrow let's right-click this and go to duplicate and let's flip this horizontally and click and drag it over to this side so we could snap it onto the corners over here just like we did over there all right now let's press the 1 key on the keyboard to zoom back out let's hold shift and click on the first shape and then click on the the border of the ribbon while holding shift you want all three of those selecting the two shapes we just drew as well as the black the black border then we'll go to path Union and you should end up with something like that okay now let's go up here to where it says snap to custom nodes let's turn that off and let's write some text go over to our text tool click on that and then just click anywhere on the canvas and write text I'm just gonna write text that's the sake of the tutorial you can put in whatever you want and then after that come up to the text editor up here let's find that font we just created that we just installed be this hit apply X out of that and there you'll see it now let's go back to the arrow let's bring this text on top of the green this green part of the ribbon right here and let's hold ctrl and shift and just click and drag on one of these corner arrows to enlarge it you want to make it about about the same size just eyeball it for now it doesn't need to be exact at all once you get it to about this size click and drag it out of the way let's turn it blue and let's bring the opacity in half and actually let's hold shift and then click on the green ribbon and let's Center it up on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis let's deselect everything by clicking on this button and let's go to our magnifying glass and let's zoom in over this selection right here so we can see we're doing now let's go back to the arrow click on the text hold ctrl and bring it up to about the center bring it up to about the center of that green ribbon it doesn't have to be exact but somewhere in that somewhere about there and they're going to go over to our create rectangles tool we're going to click on that and we're going to create a rectangle going over the letter T just like that once you've done that come over to the stroke paint tab let's turn that off by clicking the X button and let's make this red and then you're going to want to come back up to the arrow over here and you're just going to want to visually you know just just eyeballing it make this box about the same width as the letter T right here and you want to make sure that this box is longer than the entire ribbon right here like I have it on my screen so once you have it about the same width as a letter T let's right-click it and go to duplicate and let's hold ctrl and click and drag this over to the left edge of the letter E and again let's make this about the same width as the letter E do the same thing again right click duplicate hold ctrl and click and drag this over to the left edge of the X and let's make this box the same width as the letter X and then let's right-click that duplicate it hold ctrl click and drag it over to the left edge of the T and let's make that the same width as letter T and then after that we're going to have to click on this we're going to click on the text in the background but you're not going to be able to click it you can you can get around this by holding your Alt key and clicking it again and then it will select that layer and then you just raise the selection to the top like this and let's just click and drag this out of the way for now and let's press the 1 key on the keyboard to zoom back out now let's click on each and every one of these boxes right here hold shift and click each one so we have multi come down here to the align and distribute menu and we're going to come over here to where it says make horizontal gaps between objects equal we're going to click that once to even them out and we're going to go to path Union and then hold shift and click on the green ribbon and let's Center that up on the vertical axis and then afterwards we're going to go to path intersection now we should end up with something like that now let's go back to our magnifying glass let's zoom in over this let's click and drag over this now let's come to our bezzie a pen and come up here and let's turn this snap to custom modes back on and for what we're going to do next it's important that we start at the top left corner and work in clockwise fashion in order for what we're going to do to work so let's go to the top left corner of each box click click click click and then finish it up around the end right where you started so we're going to go and do that for each one of these four green shapes like I said starting at the top left corner and going clockwise otherwise the extension we're going to use to make the text to take the shape of these um these objects for creating isn't going to work so it's important we do this in clockwise we do this in a clockwise way so go ahead and draw these boxes over each one and once you're done let's go ahead and turn this off just snap the custom nodes will click and we'll turn that off and let's go to the arrow and click on just the green shapes in the background you'll know you have them selected because you could look down in the left bottom left corner and you'll see the green stripe there so you'll know you had them selected and just press the Delete key on your keyboard we don't need them anymore so once you've deleted them press the 1 key on your keyboard to zoom out and let's click on the text let's go to path object to path and then we're going to ungroup them and we're going to deselect everything by clicking that button right there now let's click on just the letter T let's hold shift and click on this first box and then go to extension modify path and envelope and this may take a little while depending on how fast or slow your computer is for me it usually doesn't take that long but I'm currently recording this while trying to create this so the program I'm using to record this is taking up even more memory so this may take a little longer for me than it will for you but either way just sit tight be patient and it will eventually get there okay so once that's done let's click on the letter e we're gonna do the same thing hold shift and then click on this second shape right here and let's go to extension modify path envelope and we'll sit and wait for this one to render again as well it's important that you click the letter first before you click on the shape because if you click the shape first and then the letter it won't work it'll be completely backwards so this is certain there's a certain order that has to be followed here if you just if you do everything exactly as I'm describing it it should work out fine okay let's click on the X and then hold shift and click on this third shape let's go to extension modify path envelope this normally doesn't take a quarter of the time it's taking now it's because uh this recording software I'm using it's using up some memory on my computer so this will probably render a lot quicker for you than it does for me all right one more to go let's click on the tea let's hold shift let's click on that shape and let's go to extension modify path and envelope and we'll just have to sit and wait one more time all right we made it so once that's all done let's go to the magnifying glass let's click and drag over this selection right here to zoom in let's click on our arrow and let's go and delete each one of these uh these little boxes we created let's click on it and just press delete click on it press delete click on it make sure you're not clicking the actual letters you'll know you have the letters clicked on if you see the blue stripe in the bottom left if you click on just the box you'll see a black stripe on the bottom so that's how you'll know you click the right one so let's click it let's go to delete and let's press the 1 key on the keyboard let's click and drag over the whole thing and let's bring the opacity all the way to the right and let's turn it black or whatever color you want you could now make this look like whatever you want it to look like and we're done that's how you can create a curved ribbon with curved text going over it on Inkscape so if you have any questions just let me know and thank you for watching I really appreciate it

Channel: Logos By Nick

Views: 92,718

Keywords: Inkscape (Software), Tutorial (Media Genre), Graphic Design (Industry), Graphic Designer (Profession), inkscape tutorial, vector, vector design, vector graphics, vector logo, vector tutorial, vector icons, inkscape text, inkscape type

Id: wQHC38-6phs

Length: 18min 46sec (1126 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 04 2015