A Better Way To Place Text On A Circle In Inkscape

You may have already known about wrapping text around a circle in Inkscape using the "Put On Path" function, but the problem with that approach is that it tends to place the text at a random point on the circle. To get the text perfectly centered along the top or bottom you will have to rotate the circle and use a horizontal guide for reference.
In this tutorial though I'll be showing you an easier method that automatically places the text directly in the center of the path so that you don't have to rotate it manually.
Want to learn more about how Inkscape works? Check out the Inkscape Master Class - a comprehensive series of over 50 videos where I go over every tool, feature and function in Inkscape and explain what it is, how it works, and why it's useful: logosbynick.co...
Join my mailing list and get 200+ free design templates: join.logosbyni...
🔗 RESOURCE LINKS
Hire me to design your logo: logosbynick.com/
Get my premium logo templates: logosbynick.co...
Upgrade to the latest version of Inkscape here: inkscape.org/r...
🎓 EXPLAINER COURSES
Inkscape: logosbynick.co...
Affinity Designer: logosbynick.co...
GIMP: logosbynick.co...
Adobe Illustrator: logosbynick.co...
Take my logo design workshop: logosbynick.co...
▶️ MY OTHER CHANNELS
Adobe & Affinity tutorials: / designmadesimple
Mobile tutorials: / @make_it_mobile
💬 SOCIALS
LinkedIn: / logosbynick
Twitter/X: / logosbynick
Instagram: / itslogosbynick
🎵 MUSIC USED
In Da Mood - Combustibles

[@OOTUS]

Wow, didn't know that the "center text" option also works for text on path. I'm definitely using this method from now on, saves you a lot of hassle. Golden tip!

[@lomicwind]

If only I knew it sooner, so simple trick ! Always fiddling with guides to be close to centered text. Thanks Nick !

[@Dobbo314]

In computer graphics the starting point for angles is to the "East" (with "North" being straight up); with positive angles moving clockwise. That is why the first text you place on a circle is where it is - not a random position. When you centred the text on the circle the centre point of the text will be placed at the 180 degree point (due "West"). You then used the "Rotate by 90 Clockwise" tool on the circle to position the text at the top; so you did, in fact, rotate the circle despite claiming no rotation was required.

[@StanleyPinchak]

No precise rotation with manual guides* Your mileage may vary.

[@agerray]

So why was the text placed on the bottom right of the circle at the start of the video?

[@doctormo]

​@@agerray That because the text is left aligned against the eastern line. So starting at zero degrees (which is the right side of the circle) and keep moving clockwise. If the test started out right aligned, then your text would End at the eastern line. When it's centered, it's in the middle between the start and end, or on the oposite side of the circle. - Inkscape developer

[@doctormo]

​@@agerray That because the text is left aligned against the eastern line. So starting at zero degrees (which is the right side of the circle) and keep moving clockwise. - Inkscape developer

[@agerray]

Thank you for the explanation - but as a "simple user" is there a reason why the text couldn't always simply be put on top of the path?

[@kevinfoo8031]

You always find more things about Inkscape, that's why I'm a subscriber.

[@SuperWolfkin]

I can't wait this is one of my biggest common struggles

[@michaelsalais7393]

That is so much easier. Thanks for coming up with that, Nick. Love the mouse indicator.

[@ripudamanpandey1378]

Always the best tutorials from this guy ✨

[@henningsjlie2235]

Had an issue, but I figured it out. Explaining it here to save anyone else the headache. When I used "object flip" vertical or horizontal, the text seemed to disappear. Flip 90 deg worked fine, though. This is because when you use flip vert or hor, the text goes inside the edge of the circle. This is apparent in the video, but not pointed out. If the text and the circle are the same color, the text will appear to be gone. Just change some colors, and voila.

[@davidtrego-t1x]

I have only been working with Inkscape for a few months, but I always felt there had to be a more concrete way to do this. Thanks a lot of this post. Definitely adds to my confidence. I'm in the Philly/SJ burbs and now owe you a coffee haha.

[@myshamey]

Aaaaaaaaabsolutely fantastic film!!! Short, but full of useful tricks! Thanks a lot Nick!!! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@richiepyke1380]

Nick is the GOAT of Inkscape

[@ralphnuame7337]

Honestly

[@phillipschmidtpottery]

sweet! that is a much better way, and so obvious but still hidden until you brought it to light. Thanks a million!

[@chuckmoney1688]

Short and concise, excellent tutorial

[@mmmmmm2979]

Thank you so much Nick, this is the video that i was waiting for

[@dannydotb]

Ah, Nick! I don't believe it, dude! I was working on something similar to this only yesterday! I just eyeballed the text by manually rotating it. If only you had this out two days earlier... Excellent video, by the way!

[@carpmanfishhead7063]

Fantastic alternative Nick!

[@Vancittyy]

This could not have come at a better time! I’m using this technique to design my own tattoo ❄️

[@J.Severin]

wow, what a great video. short and on point. thank you, good job.

[@milicamaksic4414]

You're amazing Nick!

[@VelowomanAZ]

You are the best...

[@KirkWitmer]

Absolutely brilliant, Nick! Now, if we could just get you to do a tutorial on how to highlight our cursor, like you did for this lesson. ;)

[@Qthekat1984]

There are 3rd party Apps for your OS. Such as Cursor Highlight for Windows. Just do a web search...

[@StephenBoyd21]

Brilliant tip Nick.

[@cloud-forge]

Great one ! Thanks a lot Nick

[@8bitevolushroom312]

Thanks very much friends for all video tutorials very helpful. Cheers

[@ChrisKewl]

Thank you so much for this, it has made my life so much easier!

[@davidbolding8598]

Magic, Truely Magic, Thank you Nick

[@UXDlozi]

You have a new subscriber! Love your work!❤

[@Inkscape-tutorial-pl]

Clever, really clever and simple! Thanks Nick.

[@laracoa]

Awesome, this was extremely helpful! Thank you!

[@brad5015]

Thank you Nick!

[@bobbylewis2006]

Great tutorial

[@el2themeck]

Amazing thanks Nick

[@alidapretorius5890]

Perfect! Thank you!

[@GraphicDesignStudio]

This is so nice tips.

[@el2themeck]

Let's go this is the bane of my inkscape existence

[@jasonethegreat]

I love this channel.

[@rlocatellidigital]

Wonderful! Thanks!

[@johnfogg7858]

Thank you!! That was very helpful. Can you explain how to place text at the top and bottom of the INSIDE of a circle?

[@onepercentile]

Great howto Nick. I'm not sure I'd have a use for putting text outside top and inside bottom of a circle unless the bottom circle was made larger and would be on two different paths. Both would be outside, or both would be inside, no? It seems I read some howto somewhere about Inkscape having controls for the text alignments and offsets from path, but I've forgotten how I did it previously. Maybe it was a dialog help, but the acrobatics involved with putting text on path is a load of guess-work and seems rather a hack than an official approach. I guess they say, "If you don't use it you lose it." Finding information in any official Inkscape manual is a whole other chore unlike Krita unfortunately. I'd love to have an offline PDF manual for the up2date Inkscape tools and even better if it came loaded with the program at install. Nonetheless your videos are an inspiration to achieving more with Inkscape. Cheers.

[@Reinavera73]

Gracias Nick.

[@margaretball8835]

Thank you!😊

[@alexg3905]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! Yes, those caps are on purpose!

[@THAILANDCANUCK]

Very good info, but how can you get the text on the outside of the circle on the bottom?

[@anderummel]

Could you hold "shift" as you rotate to jump every 45°. I just saw this. Super awesome. Not near my inkscape to test.

[@HoundDogHats]

Thank you for this.

[@danober4624]

Nick, your videos are amazingly helpful! Thanks. Are you able to convert text to Hershey text if it's on a path? It's not working for me.

[@Beyond_the_drift]

So when you delete the circle though, the path disappears and the text straightens out, how do you go about fixing that?

[@FIRNVS]

Have u figure it out?

[@MohamedSalah-cz6ft]

You have to un groupe before deleting

[@Beyond_the_drift]

@@MohamedSalah-cz6ft Awesome thank you I’ll give that a try

[@felipecaian1]

You saved me, Bro!!!!

[@thierryleriche1196]

That will save so much time

[@International72521]

When text is on the top, it places the text outside the circle. When text is on the bottom, it's on the inside of the circle.

[@doctormo]

The text baseline is always at the bottom of the text. There's no way (yet) to have the text hang off the top.

[@greasyfingergarage]

Well. That certainly would have saved me tons of time in the past.

[@sl5154]

MAGIC!

[@HelmetVanga]

This is a cool feature to be able to have a text rounded. Now, what if I get rid of the circle since I no longer want it or need it there?

[@batchrocketproject4720]

nice tip, thanks

[@WhitbyStuff]

Can you do this for a different shape?

[@redguitar6062]

And along the outside of the circle when aligned to the bottom?

[@mudasirhussainbhat6157]

Hi , I have learnt lot from your videos . I was wondering that if Mailmerge like feature is available in Inkscape for windows version , there is plugin for Linux based version but doesn’t for windows or any workaround for the same .

[@jetc4332]

AWESOME!!

[@CTRL_SMarcos]

Nice tip, thanks for the video. One thing, you wouldn't need to select all the text, would you? Just having the text tool active would make its properties work. Always thinking about saving mouse clicks 🙂

[@owntor1]

How do you put text on the bottom of the circle where it's on the outside of the circle?

[@vincebaker3384]

how do I make the text at the bottom of the circle be on the outside of the circle like the text at the top?

[@elsonfernand]

Just do the final trick of the video and increase de size of the circle.

[@davescustommakes]

Duplicate the circle, select the duplicated circle and move it a little so you can tell them apart. Select the original circle and press CTRL+Z to undo the move. Your selection will stay on the original circle. Then hold CTRL and Shift and drag out from a corner until the top of the text is aligned with the bottom of the duplicated circle.

[@DETAILINGONCAR]

thanks sir

[@FolklorCaduco]

Nice. What about paths tho? I've tried the 'Pattern along path' effect, but it looks very distorted.

[@Jazmin303]

select all - test _ put on path (words in semi)

[@voyageruk2002]

Nick I've watched nearly every video you've ever made, but you no longer make the more complex tutorials with multiple parts and gradients. Any chance you could make those logo videos you used to do back in the day?

[@LogosByNick]

Yes, I've been wanting to do more of that. I'll hopefully have something for you soon.

[@defeatcobra3193]

Is there a way to add additional text to the upper inside of the circle without undoing everything that is in this video?

[@harryrabin4841]

How come when you placed the text at the bottom of the circle, it also went inside the circle.

[@christophercooper6731]

Because the circle is where the baseline is.

[@stevensheldon9271]

How do I put text on the top and bottom of the circle, but both pieces of text being to the outside of the circle?

[@jamiewatkins7623]

So, how do I get the top of text to align with the bottom outside of the circle?

[@CodlFaaic]

I want to place another text also on the top of the same circle. How to do it? Thank you.

[@diceyDM]

So how do you go about this without a circle - such as a oval - only thing I've got is using the space tool to adjust it till it's where you want it, but seems like there should be a better way.

[@thewalkingjuju]

I found a quicker way! *Make your Circle, and select it* (My button is set to F1, for Selection Tool) *Ctrl+Shift+c* - convert selection to object (Path) *Ctrl+]* - Rotate selection 90° *Put text on path* (My Text is set to Centered by default, but I tested it, and it still bugs slightly off center, in some cases) *Fine tune, because of Centered Text Bug!* 👀

[@olymoon2008]

Thank you for the explanation, but when I select the text and click on 90 degree rotate, it just rotates on itself where it is, instead of moving to the top... Any tip to do it like you exactly, please?

[@BaronB]

what is selectors and css in Inkscape?

[@healthfitness1383]

I hope the team of Inkscape will do another option like the path in the half of text like what CorelDRAW has (sorry for my English)

[@HrafnNordhri]

When you flipped the circle the text when inside the circle boundary. How do we get this same text position on the outside like it was on the top?

[@qnsboromerch]

How do you get the text both on the bottom and top line up together. When you flip the text to go to the bottom, it doesn’t line up with the top text. Thank you

[@biplabmandi2140]

How to put text in wave line path in inkscape ? Please.

[@narciliocosta]

Great!

[@shaunhable]

How does one control if the text is INSIDE the circle or on the OUTSIDE of the circle?

[@ironhandstudio6612]

Nickscape, yes.

[@jackkirby5287]

When it's on the top, it's outside the circle. When it's on the bottom, it's inside the circle. Is there anyway to keep it outside the circle? Also, can I control the distance between the circle and the text?

[@RAMIRELLI-Art]

What if you no longer want the circle because lets say I want to put a design. I am assuming the round text remains as long as the circle is in place?

[@radionut4422]

I am putting text on a circular path. Before putting onpath I am vertically stretching the text to make letters tall without changing their width. When I put them on the path they revert back to normal proportions. Other than trying to find a different Roman font that has tall letters, is there a way to do this?

[@stevensheldon9271]

Unfortunately this does not seem to work for me. I have selected the text and centered it, but when I place it on the path, it still goes to a random position on the circle.

[@NaviaDaddyIssuee]

What if you want to have two text? one one but one at top one at bottom

[@TarkynSharples2]

Good tutorial. However, Inkscape really needs some context sensitive options for putting text on paths. So much so, that I tend to switch to Affinity Designer for this functionality, even though I prefer Inkscape. That said, I'm grateful for all the hard work the Inkscape devs have put in thus far.

[@doctormo]

It's something that the developers want to add. And by developers, I mean me, it's something I want to add. I dislike our text on path tools, so clunky. Also flowed text, that needs to be fixed up too. It's just sitting behind a monstrous number of other things.

[@lmaoroflcopter]

Great so you still have to rotate the circle. Is there no way of specifying where along the path the text is applied? I wish to have text bottom and top of my circle, using this method I need two duplicated circles and map text to each path, then rotate them individually.

[@teddy2271]

Thank u thank u thank u

[@stumblebuscuits]

When i alter the height of my letters to be taller it resets to the original font size when it transfers to the circle. Im not seeing a way to readjust just the text height once in this position. When i alter the size of the text it just gets huge & wraps around the whole circle or when stretched upwards it doesnt follow the shape of the circle. Im needing to keep the postion & overall width of the text while on the circle just stretch the letters taller. Anyone?

[@sl5154]

JUST MAGIC! THANK YOU. MY PROBLEM IS THAT I NEED TO PUT A TEXT ON AN ARC, LIKE A DOOR. REALLY HARD.

[@sl5154]

I just found your put a text on a heart video. Solved. Thank you again!

[@jpt3640]

So, how can I put text on the bottom so it is not backwards?

[@99loops]

My 'fill' has become two boxes instead of one and it no longer fills with colour. One side is chequered. I haven't knowingly changed any settings and I'm stumped. Appreciate any suggestions from fellow Inkscape users!

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

I'm trying to make this same thing around an oval path. ...man, it's just a mess...

[@iam_abdullah2]

I'm having trouble exporting my logo as a stack of PNGs so i can animate them in other software. Is there any possible way?

[@LogosByNick]

Have you tried using the Batch Export setting in the Export menu?

[@GHILLIESARCADEANDMORE]

Cool

[@michaelfrisch5963]

somtimes i ask me, when i have transfer grafik to path.

[@michelkotoff-rizzo3112]

Why doesn't the the put on path button do anything for me?

[@rupankarkarar7436]

Same here for me😢😢😢 Which version is this???

[@juliemc5528]

HOW DO I GET RID OF THE CIRCLE THOUGH AFTER IVE CURVED MY DESIGN? THEY STICK TOGETHER NOW

[@doktorbalaban]

🎉