---
title: "Motto Banner Maker: Scroll & Ribbon SVG | Crest Lantern"
description: "Set a motto on a heraldic scroll: curve the ribbon up or down, pick forked or pointed tails and heraldic colours, then download the banner as SVG or PNG."
url: https://crestlantern.top/motto-banner-maker/
---

# 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](https://crestlantern.top/) 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](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41617)

## 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.