Banners and ribbons are the finishing touch that makes a certificate feel official. But until now, adding your own text to a curved banner meant settling for whatever was pre-baked into the clip art. With the Curved Text Arc feature in Certificate Creator v5.0.4, that limitation is gone.
What You’ll Learn
In this quick tutorial, we’ll walk through how to take a blank decorative banner from the clip art library and add your own custom arched text — complete with font selection and color matching. No design experience required.
Step-by-Step: Creating a Custom Arched Banner
1. Choose a Blank Banner Template
Open the Clip Art sidebar and navigate to Banners → Ribbon. You’ll see two types of assets:
- Pre-made banners with text already baked in (great for quick use, but not editable).
- Blank decorative banners at the bottom of the list — these are your canvas.
Select a blank banner and click Add to place it on your certificate.
2. Add Your Text
Click Add Text in the toolbar and type your message — for example, “First Place”. Then choose a font that complements your banner. Thicker fonts like Soft Slab tend to work especially well on ribbons since they fill the curved space nicely.
3. Apply the Arc Curve
With your text selected, find the Path Type control in the sidebar and select Arc. You’ll immediately see your text begin to curve.
Now fine-tune it:
- Drag upward to increase the arc and make the text bow upward along the banner’s curve.
- Drag downward to reverse the arc direction — useful for text along the bottom edge of a seal or badge.
Pro Tip: Use your arrow keys to nudge the text one pixel at a time for precise positioning. Hold Shift while pressing an arrow key to move in 10-pixel increments.
4. Center and Color
Once the arc looks right, click the Center Align button to snap the text horizontally into place on the banner. Then open the Color Picker to match your text to the banner’s color scheme — a gold tone on a dark ribbon, for example, creates an elegant, award-worthy finish.
5. Experiment and Iterate
Don’t be afraid to start over. Select everything, delete it, and try a different banner shape or font combination. The beauty of this workflow is speed — you can prototype multiple looks in seconds.
Arc vs. Circle: When to Use Each
Certificate Creator v5.0.4 introduced two curved text modes:
| Mode | Best For | Control |
|---|---|---|
| Arc | Banners, ribbons, headings | Drag to adjust curve intensity |
| Circle | Seals, badges, medallions | Set radius and start angle offset |
If you’re decorating a banner or ribbon, Arc mode is what you want — it gives you a natural, gentle curve that follows the shape of the banner. For wrapping text entirely around a circular seal or badge, check out our companion tutorial on Circle mode.
Start Creating
Every blank banner in the clip art library is now a customizable template. Pick a shape, type your message, arc it, and print. It really is that simple.