Kendra Schaefer

Creating vector grunge text in Inkscape is indeed super simple. In this tutorial, we’ll start with the basic Arial Black font, and turn it into a gritty vector in seconds.

This tutorial is suitable for complete beginners. All you need is Inkscape , a free, open source vector graphics editor.

Step 1: Type some text

Select your Type tool , choose a nice bold font, and type out any phrase. I’m using Arial Black 72pt font.

In the Windows build of Inkscape version 0.46, there is a well-documented bug that prevents some users from changing the font of any text using the main font drop-down menu. Hopefully this will be fixed in the next edition of Inkscape, but for the time being, this can be circumvented by selecting your font through the Text > Text and Font… menu item.

Step 2: Convert your text to a path

What you’re going to do here is take your font and turn it into a picture. Right now, your font is behaving like type. You want to get it to behave like a graphic. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to do.

TIP: This would be the time to double-check your spelling and make sure your text says what you want it to say. After you convert your text to a path, you will no longer be able to edit it using the text tool. After this, if you need to re-type your text, you’ll have to start over.

Make sure your text is selected, and in the Path menu, click on Object to Path.

It will appear that nothing has happened after you click this, but rest assured, your type has been converted to a path. If you want to double-check and make sure the conversion took place, just click on your Edit Path by Nodes tool, and you should see all of the new anchor points (nodes) appear around your font:

Step 3: Jitter those nodes

With your text selected, go to Effects > Modify Path > Jitter Nodes…

In the Jitter Nodes options window, input the following settings: Maximum displacement, px 4.0, and check all of the check boxes. I’ve got my settings displayed in the screenshot to the left, but you can set yours any way that you see fit.

If you have the “Live Preview” checkbox checked, you can see how the text will look as you change the settings. Feel free to play around with the pixel displacement until you get exactly the look you want. When you’re satisfied, click Apply, and close the window.

With the settings input as above, here are my results:

You can add a larger maximum displacement in your jitter nodes options to get a more dramatic effect, or lower the displacement to get a slight distortion.

Enjoy!