Inkscape is also free and open-source just like GIMP, so you don’t need to worry about paying for new software. By comparison, Inkscape has much better text handling and allows you to type along a path while still leaving the text editable in case you need to revise it in the future. If you’re creating a lot of curved text, GIMP will quickly become a source of frustration thanks to its limited text options. Let’s look forwards to GIMP 3! A Better Option for Curved Text In my experience, this can get frustrating fairly quickly, but perhaps you’ve got more patience than I do 😉Īll of this automatic path creation makes me wonder why GIMP doesn’t have support for vector shapes or more effective path and text handling overall, but I suppose that’s partly the legacy of previous versions that relied upon now-outdated technology.

If you want to change the content of your curved text, you’ll have to go back to the very beginning of the process and do it all over again. At this point, your text won’t be editable anymore, but you can apply any other edits or transforms just the way you would with any normal pixel layer.

Click the Fill button, and GIMP will use the curved text path as a stencil for filling with your chosen foreground color.

Firealpaca text on a curve