Text basics in Affinity Designer

In this Affinity Designer text tutorial, we will guide you on how to better understand text basics. Text plays an important role in relaying information, whether it's to your customers, on websites, about your products and so on. How it is presented will depend on font, sizing, spacing and a few other factors. We will show you how to add and edit your text to get you quickly started on your next project.



The font we will be using today is a lovely script font called Adelia Rehan. If you would like to use another font, be sure to check out our modern calligraphy fonts on Font Bundles.

You will need to download and install your font before opening Affinity Designer. If you want to use Affinity Photo instead, we have a great tutorial on how to add text.

Step 1 - Use the Artistic Text Tool

Open Affinity Designer and create a new document. Today we will be using the Artistic Text Tool to create our text. The tool can be found on the left side toolbar.

Once you have selected the tool, type out your text in the document.

The text size can be adjusted either by dragging out a corner handle or typing in the value at the top toolbar.

To use the sizing handles, click on the text to select and activate them. We want to keep the aspect ratio, so hold Shift and click + drag a corner handle in or out.

When you type out the text, you will enter Text Edit mode. While in this mode you can edit the text wording as needed. When you click away from the text you will leave this mode. Double click the text to access this mode again.

Step 2 - Use Character Panel to Edit Text

There is more than one way to change the font and color of your text. You can use the Font Family top left corner by clicking the drop down menu or typing in the name.

The fill and stroke can be adjusted under the Color panel on the right hand side. The Fill is shown as a full color circle while the Stroke is an outline.

Instead, we are going to use the Character Panel to quickly access all of these options. If you don’t see the Character Panel top right of the screen go to Text > Show Character

Change the Font

In the Character Panel, right near the top, is the Font Family. You can click on the drop down arrow to access the fonts on your system or type in the name of the font. You can also change the size by entering a value in the sizing box.

Apply a Fill and Stroke

The color can also be changed in the Character Panel box. Click on the Font Color box, which will bring up a color window. Here you can choose the color you want. If you find that nothing changes when choosing a color, make sure that the Saturation (S) slider is set to 100.

The Stroke is adjusted by changing the Outline Color. This is just below the heading Decorations in the Character Panel. Click on the color box to open, then change the stroke color to what you want.

The Stroke width can also be adjusted. It is just to the left of the color box. Click to open the Stroke menu and adjust the width as needed.

Adjust Vertically and Horizontally

The text angle can be changed with Shear, as well as be adjusted Horizontally and Vertically. With the text still selected, we changed our settings as follows:

• Shear: -20
• Horizontal Scale:74%
• Vertical Scale: 72%

Edit Character Distance

You can change the distance between characters and lines for better readability. While out of Text Edit mode, you are able to edit the spacing between characters. This will space out the letters evenly.

Editing the spacing between lines of text, or the Baseline, seems to work best when in Text Edit mode. Double click the text to enter the mode, then highlight the text you want shifted.

Now, this works mainly for text that is on more than one line. However, it can be used creatively as well. We kept our text on the same line and chose a value of -50 for the Baseline option.

Add a Background Color

A background color can be added, but this is an optional choice. It can be used to frame the text and bring attention to it. To add a background color, click on the box next to the text color box. Select from Swatches or the color palette.

For the final result, we adjusted our text to and added a glyph using the Character Map.

If you want to create eye-catching text, you can take it a step further byusing text layer effects.

Step 3 - Convert to Curves

When you are done editing your text, you will need to convert text to a path. This will allow you to edit your text further with nodes. However, once you complete this action, you will no longer be able to enter Text Edit mode and change the text.

So before doing this step, be sure to check that your spelling is correct and your text looks the way you want it to.

Select the text and either click on Layer > Convert to Curves or click on the Convert to Curves button on the top right of the toolbar.

Once converted to curves, the text will be broken up into individual letters. These letters will be grouped together and each one can be edited.

Here is the final result of editing our text.

We hope that you enjoyed this Affinity Designer text tutorial. Editing text is more than just changing fonts and colors. It’s about changing the entire look of your text to make it more appealing. With this knowledge, you will be able to create professional looking projects in no time.