How To Type In a Circle In Photoshop – Text In a Circular Path Tutorial
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- 0:00 Intro
- 0:35 Document Explanation
- 1:03 Add Guides to Your Document
- 1:44 Enable Snapping
- 2:16 Create an Elliptical Path
- 3:00 Type on a Circular Path
- 4:30 How NOT to Rotate Text on a circle
- 5:05 Use the Control Points to Align, and Rotate the Text Around a Circle
- 8:37 Type on The Bottom Half of The Circle
- 9:08 Invert the Text on The Circle
- 9:48 Adjust the Baseline Shift
- 10:35 Type on a Path
Your choices stick across every tutorial on this device.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to type text in a circle in Photoshop.
These examples will teach you how you can type text in a circular path. It may seem simple, but there are a few tools and techniques that you must know to work efficiently in Photoshop.
Key Takeaways
- New Guide Layout with two columns and two rows marks the exact center of the document, so the circle and the text line up.
- The circle is a path, not a shape. Set the Ellipse tool to Path, hold Alt or Option to draw from the center, and hold Shift to keep it round.
- Rotating the text layer with Free Transform works, but the Path Selection tool gives you more control and keeps Character Styles safe.
- Text on the bottom half of the circle arrives upside down. Drag the start or end point inward to flip it.
- The Baseline setting in the Character panel lines the bottom text up with the top text.
- The same technique works on any path drawn with the Curvature Pen tool, not only a circle.
Table of contents
- What You Will Learn
- Requirements
- Tutorial Image
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Document Explanation
- Add Guides to Your Document
- Create an Elliptical Path
- Type on a Circular Path
- How NOT to Rotate Text on a circle
- Use the Control Points to Align, and Rotate the Text Around a Circle
- Type on The Bottom Half of The Circle
- Invert the Text on The Circle
- Adjust the Baseline Shift
- Type on a Path
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Type Text in a Circle in Photoshop, Your Way
- Related Links
What You Will Learn
- How to mark the center of the document with New Guide Layout
- How to draw a perfect circular path with the Ellipse tool
- How to type text along the path with the Text tool
- How to align and rotate the text with the Path Selection tool
- How to flip text on the bottom half of the circle and match its baseline
- How to type on any path drawn with the Curvature Pen tool
Requirements
Before you start
- Photoshop 2020 or the current version
- Any image or blank document to type on. The tutorial image below works too.
Tutorial Image
Practice Files
Download the tutorial image and follow along step by step.
292-Type-in-a-circle-Starter.zip (19860 downloads)Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Show or hide the rulers | Ctrl R | Command R |
| Flip a guide while dragging it | Alt | Option |
| Draw the path from the center (hold while dragging) | Alt | Option |
| Constrain the path to a perfect circle (hold while dragging) | Shift | Shift |
| Exit the active text | Esc | Esc |
| Undo | Ctrl Z | Command Z |
| Commit the text | Enter | Return |
| Free Transform | Ctrl T | Command T |
| Duplicate the layer | Ctrl J | Command J |
| Adjust the kerning between two letters | Alt Left Arrow or Alt Right Arrow | Option Left Arrow or Option Right Arrow |
| Nudge a value in an input box | Up Arrow or Down Arrow | Up Arrow or Down Arrow |
Document Explanation
On the workspace is a document with a Background layer and a circular design element. You can also work with the same files if you want to follow this tutorial step-by-step.
Add Guides to Your Document
Choose View > New Guide Layout.
On the New Guide Layout window, set the Columns and Rows’ Number value to 2 and press OK. That will help you visualize the center of the document and align the text.
For earlier versions of Photoshop, you can also use the Ruler by pressing CtrlR (Windows) or CommandR (macOS) and enable the Snap feature by choosing View > Snap.
Then, click-and-drag a vertical and horizontal ruler and bring it to the center until it snaps in place.
Tip: If you drag out a vertical guide when you meant to drag a horizontal one, hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) as you drag to flip it.
To double-check and make sure that your rulers are in the right place, right-click on the Ruler and select Percent.
Both vertical and horizontal guides should be at 50%.
Create an Elliptical Path
Note: Select the Ellipse tool from the Toolbar first, so the Path option appears in the Options bar.
On the Options bar, click on the drop-down menu and set to Path.
Hover the mouse right on the center where the guides meet and hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) as you click-and-drag to create a circle with the Ellipse tool.
Hold the Shift key to constrain the path into a perfect circle. Then, release the mouse button to complete the path.
Type on a Circular Path
On the Toolbar, select the Text tool.
On the Options bar, click on the drop-down menu and set to Path.
With your Text tool, hover it above the path until you see a curved line appear on the cursor and click to start typing your text.
Note: If the cursor shows a small circle around it instead, you are inside the path, and clicking there types inside the circle rather than around it. Press Esc, undo with CtrlZ (Windows) or CommandZ (macOS), and hover back over the path line.
From there, you should be able to type along the circular path and apply the changes by pressing the Enter (Windows) or Return (macOS) key.
How NOT to Rotate Text on a circle
Transform the Text layer by pressing CtrlT (Windows) or CommandT (macOS) and move the Reference Point to the center of the horizontal and vertical guides.
Then, rotate the Text layer.
However, this may not be the most efficient way of rotating your texts as this can obstruct the way a Character Style is applied if you plan on integrating it into your work. Click here to learn more about why you shouldn’t scale your texts.
Use the Control Points to Align, and Rotate the Text Around a Circle
On the Toolbar, select the Path Selection tool and hover over your text until you see the cursor switches to a Text cursor with a right-pointing black arrow.
Then, you can click anywhere on the path to set your new starting point.
You can also click-and-drag to see the text adjust along as you move around the path and set the starting point. By clicking-and-dragging on the opposite end is also a way for you to set the endpoint of your text.
If you wish to have the text above the horizontal guide, set the starting point by clicking on the center-left horizontal guide to set it as your starting point.
Then, set the starting point by clicking on the center-left horizontal guide to set it as your starting point.
Tip: If your text is too long or too big, the text may be cut off. Then, reduce the font size to fit everything between the starting and endpoints.
Type on The Bottom Half of The Circle
Duplicate the original Text layer by pressing CtrlJ (Windows) or CommandJ (macOS).
Then, click on the Eye icon to hide the original Text layer.
On the Toolbar, select the Path Selection tool.
Click-and-drag the starting point to the opposite side of the circle.
Then, click-and-drag the endpoint to the opposite left side.
The recent steps may place your text upside down but flip it by clicking on either of the start or the endpoint and dragging it inward.
Invert the Text on The Circle
Create a copy of the layer and disable the original text layer.
With the duplicate layer, select the Path Selection tool then click-and-drag your starting point towards the center-right horizontal guide and click-and-drag the endpoint towards the center-left horizontal guide.
Your text will appear upside down, but you can flip it by clicking the starting or the endpoint and dragging it inwards.
Adjust the Baseline Shift
Enable the original Text layer.
Then, double-click on the bottom text to highlight it and open the Character panel by choosing Window > Character.
Go to the Baseline input box and match the baseline of the Text layer above by pressing the up or down arrow key on your keyboard to adjust it.
Note: In Photoshop 2020 and newer, the same Baseline setting also lives in the Properties panel.
Type on a Path
Create a path of any shape with the Curvature Pen tool.
Then, select the Horizontal Type tool and click on the path.
Always watch out for the endpoint icon and place it at the end of the path so it doesn’t cut the rest of your text.
To set the text above or below the baseline, go back to the Character panel, and adjust the Baseline value.
Set it at default by setting the value as 0 and press the Enter (Windows) or Return (macOS) key to apply the change.
Tip: If the curved path causes the letters in your text to be too close to each other, just select the space in between the letters and hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) as you press the left or right arrow keys to adjust the kerning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Draw a circle with the Ellipse tool set to Path, then select the Horizontal Type tool. Hover over the path until the cursor shows a curved line, click, and type. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (macOS) to commit the text.
You clicked inside the path, where the Type tool cursor shows a small circle around it. That fills the shape with paragraph text. Hover on the path line itself until the cursor shows a curved line, then click.
Select the Path Selection tool and hover over the text until the cursor shows a small arrow. Click or drag along the path to move the starting point, and drag the opposite end to move the endpoint. This keeps the text layer untouched by Free Transform.
Moving the start and end points to the bottom half flips the text along the outside of the path. With the Path Selection tool, click the start or end point and drag it inward. The text flips to read the right way up.
Highlight the bottom text and open the Character panel. Click in the Baseline input box and tap the up or down arrow key until the bottom text sits on the same line as the top text.
The text is longer than the space between the start and end points. Reduce the font size, or drag the endpoint further along the path with the Path Selection tool. On a freeform path, place the endpoint at the very end of the path.
Yes. Draw a path of any shape with the Curvature Pen tool, then click on it with the Horizontal Type tool. If the text sits below the line, set the Baseline value back to 0 in the Character panel.
Type Text in a Circle in Photoshop, Your Way
That is everything you need to type text in a circle in Photoshop with full control. The Path Selection tool sets where the text starts and ends, and the Baseline setting lines the bottom half up with the top.
The same path skills carry into other text effects, like placing text behind anything in Photoshop or cutting see-through text out of a photo. Watch the full video above to see every step in real time, and comment on the video if you get stuck.
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Keep going
Next, learn how to crop a photo in a circle in Photoshop with the Frame tool.
Hello,
I am a graphic design teacher at a high school and I love to use your tutorials but I always have to make my own example documents and find my own images to work on Is there someplace I can download the documents you work on in your tutorials? I can’t find anyplace to do that on your site but it would make a huge difference in my students learning if they could work along with you on the same images and documents that you are working on in the video tutorials.
Thanks!
Tim
Thank you. I spent days trying to get the lower text in a circle.
Yeah right where is the download image file?
Visual pollution. You made the download button so big that everyone will think its an image or a CSS 3.0 declaration markup language file.
Video – 2:28 time line – click the dropdown and select path — There isn’t a dropdown – if I click the arrow next to the tool it says No Tool presets… help… 🙂
Why not change cursor on path for typing ?