Motto banner maker
Your motto on a ribbon scroll, the way it sits beneath a coat of arms: curved, with folded tails, in the colours of your arms.
Setting a motto
Type the motto, up to 60 characters. Two to five words read best; long mottos make a long, thin scroll. Many old mottos are Latin or French, but any language written in the Latin alphabet works.
Curve bends the ribbon: positive values turn the ends up, the usual shape under a shield; negative values arch it over the top. Letter spacing opens the letters out, which suits capitals. Tails change the cut of the ends that fold behind the ribbon.
Pick a colour scheme to start, then fine-tune the ribbon, the fold (the underside showing where the ribbon turns), the outline and the letters. A common choice is the main metal and colour of your arms.
In English heraldry the motto usually sits on a scroll below the shield; in Scottish heraldry it is usually placed above the crest. Download the SVG to place the scroll under a shield from the coat of arms designer in any drawing program. The letters are outlines, so the file needs no fonts.
Sources
- A. C. Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry (1909), chapter on mottoes. Project Gutenberg
Questions
Can I edit the text in the SVG later?
Not as text: each letter is a shape, which keeps the scroll identical everywhere. Change the motto here and download it again.
Why do some letters not appear?
The lettering covers the Latin alphabet with common Western European accents. Letters outside it are left out and listed under the motto box.
How big is the PNG?
1,600 pixels wide with a transparent background; the height follows the shape of the scroll.