Effects / Ribbon Banner

RIBBON BANNER

Watch it being adjusted

Screen recording of the Ribbon Banner sliders in Illustrator (placeholder)

How it works

A ribbon is drawn behind the word, sized from the type: height as a percentage of the glyph height, length from the word plus margins. Direction bends the body into waves, Curviness sets their amplitude, and the fold controls shape the ends and tails. With Curve type with banner on, the letters are bent onto the ribbon's centreline before any other effect, so the whole word rides the banner and 3D, strokes and shadows follow.

What you can adjust

  • Fold curve0–100%
  • DirectionStraight / Down / Up / Up-Down / Down-Up / Up-Down-Up / Down-Up-Down
  • Curviness1–10, default 3
  • Curve type with banneron/off, default on
  • Fold length / Fold depth0–200%, 0–100%
  • Tail length / amount / droop0–300%, 0–10, 0–10
  • ShadingFlat / Gradient / Comic, with comic density
  • Coloursribbon, back fold, fold side, stroke
  • HeightRelative % (default 170) or Static pt
  • LengthFixed pt or Margins per side (default 24 pt)

Still live text

Ribbon Banner is applied as an Illustrator live effect, so the text stays editable. Change the word, the font, or any slider afterwards, and save the result as a Graphic Style to reuse it.

Prefer to do it by hand?

How to make a ribbon banner in Illustrator → walks through the manual Illustrator steps, then shows the one-click version.