curve text in cricut design space app

Today I'll show you how to easily curve text in Cricut Design Space using your iPhone, iPad, or Android devices. This is my preferred method when I'm not using my desktop computer with Cricut Design Space.

I love how easy it is to curve text when you are using the Desktop version of Cricut Design Space. But there may be multiple reasons why at some point in time you will not have access to use the desktop version of Cricut Design Space.

Please note, if you are a new Cricut Design Space Friend, I made a very popular free e-book and video to quickly learn Cricut Design Space!

By the way, this was a viewer special request. If you have a suggestion tutorial or video, be sure to leave me a comment in the comments section down below or on my YouTube channel. 🙌

If you missed my post on How to Curve Text using Fonts & Symbols, click here.

When this happens, I use the free application called "Phonto" It is available on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. This is a very awesome free app and does quite a bit more than just curve text! Ever wonder how someone can quickly and easily add words to a photo? One way is to use the Phonto app.

Today though, I am only going to show you how to curve text using the Phonto app. Please note, however you are also able to add a Stroke/Outline to your text which is also a game-changer!

Just added post and video to "How to Offset Text using iPhone, iPad & Android using Phonto App"

How to Curve Text using Phonto App

First download the app depending on which version you need. My tutorial today is based on my Apple iPad but the directions are the same for iPhone & Android.

Video: How to Curve Text using iPhone, iPad, and Android

If you prefer to watch a video instead, you can!

iPad showing the App Store and Phonto app

Once you download the app, tap or click to open Phonto. It will show an ad at the top of the app. This you can just ignore as it won't be in your way while designing.

graph screen prior to the curve text options

Next, tap on the camera icon and choose "Plain Images"

This brings up your canvas choices. I like the plain white one which is to the right of the plain black one. So for this tutorial tap the white one.

Tap here where the arrow is to choose white blank canvas

Next, click on the rectangle with the arrow icon and choose "use"

Now, here is your plain white canvas ready to add text. Tap anywhere on the plain white canvas and an "Add Text" option will appear. Tap on Add Text.

showing the blank white canvas to add your text prior to curving

Next, type your sentiment. I like to then tap on the box that shows "Align: Left" and change it to "Align: Center". Then tap on Font and choose which font you want. Today I am using the font "Baskerville SemiBold" then tap on done.

Type sentiment
Tap Align Left to change to Align Center
Tap font and choose your font
Tap done

shows steps 1-4 to proceed in adding text

Next, you'll want to change the color of the text so you can see it better. Today I chose black by tapping on "Style" and then tap the black square. Then tap on "Done" in the upper right-hand corner.

showing menu for choices of what you can do with the text

Now you can use put your finger or apple pencil on the text itself and drag the text to the middle of your canvas

the words "welcome to our" was typed onto the canvas

If your text choices go away, not to worry, just tap on your text again.

Next, you can change the size of your text by tapping on size and then using the slider bar to adjust.

shows option slider to make text bigger or smaller

There are other options such as changing stroke color, adding background color etc. Feel free to play with the options. Again, today I want to focus on the curve text feature.

To add another line of text tap anywhere there is no text on the white canvas. This will give you the same option as before. Go through the same steps to add the rest of your sentiment.

Now let the curving begin! Tap on the text your want to curve. Then place your finger or pen and slide the black options box to the left. This exposes the "Curve" Option.

Simply either move the slider to the right or left and you will see the curve happen. Or you can use the + & – button for the same effect.

shows curve option on menu with a slider to curve up or down

When I'm happy with my curve, I can now tap on the other line of text and curve it. Yay! So easy isn't it?

both lines of text were curved to be in a circle shape

When you are done curving text it is time to save it as a PNG file so you can upload it into Cricut Design Space.

Tap on the rectangle box with the little arrow in it and choose "Save image as PNG"

showing where to tap to upload your file to share or save

selected option to save image as PNG file

You will then get a message that it saved successfully. It will then start up a silly ad video, shortly after you will see a little X in the upper right side of app where you can close out of the ad.

Message showing the file saved successfully

How to Upload your PNG file into Design Space

Open up Cricut Design Space App
Click on "New Project"
Click on "Upload"

opened up Cricut Design Space to choose "upload" file

4. Tap "Select from Photo Library"

5. Locate your photo and tap on it.

Now it's time to "Clean Up" image and prepare it for Cricut Design Space. We first need to remove the back ground and make it transparent. You do this by selecting the wand in the lower left hand corner.

shows 1 & 2 steps to remove background to create a transparent image of curved text

Tap on the wand and then tap in the middle of the curved text sentiment. Notice how the black square in the right corner turned white and the main square where the text is turned into a background with a bunch of squares (this means it's now transparent)

Notice how the letters in the small square on the upper right (O O O P P P A) all look funny? It is because we still need to tap in the middle of each one of those letters to make them transparent too.

shows a few letters that still need to have their background removed.

If you need to, you can use our fingers to pinch out to enlarge an area to be able to tap better.

Honestly it's better to "watch" me do it in the video if you've never done this process before.

Don't worry if you accidently tap on the actual letter itself, it will go away but you can simply tap on the "Undo" button at the bottom of your screen and the letter will come back, Yay!

Bonus Tip: When you hold your finger or your Apple pencil right in the middle of a letter an enlarged picture will show if you are in the middle or if your finger is on the line of the letter allowing you to adjust your finger placement as seen below:

when you tap your finger on the screen it gives a zoomed up image of where you are tapping

Do this process with each of the letters so the text in the small square to the right look perfect. Then tap on "Next" in the upper right hand corner.

You will see another screen to clean up image more, but we don't need to, so just tap on "Next" again.

Now you can type a name for your project. Then select to use as a "Cut Image" or a "Print then Cut". Then tap on "Save"

name and save your project as a cut file or print then cut file

This brings your design fully onto your Design Space canvas. My design always comes in huge, so I edit the size of my design in Design Space and then you can continue designing or adding images, etc. For this design, I easily chose a pumpkin from Design Space Images and placed it in the middle of my curved text.