Guides / Ribbon Banner
How to make a ribbon banner in Illustrator
Draw a rectangle for the ribbon, add notched tails behind it with a Minus Front cut or the Pen tool, and place the text on top with Type on a Path if the ribbon curves. JuicyType's Ribbon Banner draws the banner from the text and bends the type onto it, all live.
JuicyType Ribbon Banner · screen recording goes hereSkip to JuicyType ↓
The manual way, in Illustrator
- Draw a rectangle (M) slightly wider than the text.
- Add two smaller rectangles behind it for the tails. For each notch, draw a triangle over the tail's outer end and use Pathfinder › Minus Front, or draw the notched tail with the Pen tool as one closed shape.
- Darken the tails, add a small darker triangle where each tail meets the body as the fold, and keep the tails behind the front rectangle.
- Place the live text on the ribbon and group them. For a curved banner, apply Effect › Warp › Arc to the group.
The ribbon and the text are separate objects, so a longer word means resizing every piece.
Menu paths checked against Adobe's current Illustrator documentation; hands-on verification and screenshots are still to come.
Or, with JuicyType
Ribbon Banner with JuicyType
Select the text, open the JuicyType panel, choose Ribbon Banner, and drag. It is a live effect, so the text stays editable and every control can be changed later.
- 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)
Common questions
Can the ribbon bend with the text?
Group them and apply a Warp effect. JuicyType's Curve type with banner keeps them together.