As an Amazon Affiliate, we will earn commission from qualifying sales

How To Make Spiral Text in Illustrator in 5 Easy Steps

Spiral text in Illustrator offers a unique style to play around with typography and text effects. Whether you want to create an eye-catching T-shirt, Flier, poster, social media graphics, or even a logo, mastering the spiral text effect can elevate your design skills.

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through each step to craft a spiral text effect in Illustrator, using straightforward techniques and tips. If you just need the template to edit your desired text, we have provided the Ai source file in editable text format.

You will get many free editable typography designs we have previously made. You can join our newsletter to be updated when we create new tutorials. Important Links: Get a free template, My Portfolio

Spiral Text in Illustrator is not very complicated to create. Below is a sample of the kind of design we will make.

How To Make Spiral Text in Illustrator

Steps to Make Spiral Text in Illustrator

  1. Set up page specifications
  2. Create and Format the text
  3. Group and Outline Design
  4. Distort and Transform
  5. Rearranging Text Order

Set up page specifications

Open Illustrator then Go to File>New or shortcut Control+N or Command+N on PC and  MAC respectively. This will open new page options.

Set the page as below: your desired nameNumber of artboards to 1, Size to custom, and 1080 x 1080 pixels width and height.

Set the unit of measure to the Pixels you are comfortable with. Many artists use Pixels or Mm. I will leave the bleed to 0 Pixels all around. Leave the advanced area as default settings. Choose OK once done to accept the changes.

Create a Page in Illustrator

Create and Format the text

Choose the Type tool displayed s T on the menu, then click once on the artboard to set your cursor. Type the text you want to design.

From the menu bar, set the font to Gotham Black and set the font size.

Create and Format the text

Select the text you just created and drag it down when holding the ALT key. This duplicates the text. Do this 4 times and organize it to form a box as below.

Duplicate text in illustrator

Group and Outline Design

With the move tool selected, or shortcut V, click and drag over the text and choose Control+G to group. Set the fill color to white and the outline to black as below.

Group and Outline Design

Distort and Transform for Spiral Text in Illustrator

With the group selected, go to Effect>Distort and Transform and choose Transform. Set the menu that Pops up to get the effect.

Set 90% for both vertical and Horizontal but leave the move as 0 for both vertical and horizontal.

Toggle the preview on the bottom right to view your changes in real time. Set the angle to 3 degrees and number of copies to 15 for a start. If you increase the angle, you will notice a larger spiral effect.

Distort and Transform for Spiral Text in Illustrator

Rearranging Text Order

You will notice the text seems cramped and hard to read. You can solve this by changing the arrangement of words. The first step is to ungroup the text and then arrange for a better effect.

We noticed the square text order had better design output due to proportionality. 

Repeat the effect, by going to Effect>Distort and Transform then setting the options as below.

Create spiral text effect

Accept the changes by choosing OK at the bottom of the pop-up.

How to change colours on Spiral Text in Illustrator

Click and drag on the design to duplicate it. Go to Window> Colour to get the color options. I will change the Cyan to 100% in this example. The design color is changed.

change colours on the Design Text in Illustrator

Alternatively, you can go to Edit>Edit colors, then invert colors with the blue design selected.

How to Spiral Text in Illustrator

Editing the text

To change the template to your custom text, go to type tool shortcut T on the Menu. Click on the text and a cursor appears prompting you to edit it. When you change the text, the new text has the effects added already. Arrange it properly.

Make Spiral Text in Illustrator

Conclusion

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. How can I edit the spiral text template you provided?

    Go to the link provided and Download the typography template and Illustrator source file. Double-click on the Ai file to open it. Once open, select the Type Tool shortcut T. Click on the text to edit while retaining the spiral effect.

  2. Can I use the spiral text effect for printed designs like T-shirts and posters?

    Yes, you can, just make sure the size, resolution, and quality are set for print purposes. Resolution should be 300 dpi and above while size depends on what you are printing.