How to Create a Neon Text Effect in Affinity Designer

In this tutorial, we will create a realistic neon text effect in Affinity Designer. With this tutorial, you’ll be able to add some glow to plain text.

Before you start:

• Go to Pinspiry to download the Neon One font.
• Scroll down to the Download button and click it. Click ok when the popup appears, the font will start downloading.
• When the font finishes downloading, go to your Downloads folder & click on the font name to open the file.
• Double click on the Neon One file (which is an OpenType font file).
• Then, click Install.

Now, let’s begin the neon text effect tutorial.

Step 1

First, go to File > New to create a new document with the following properties.

Step 2

Second, grab the Rectangle tool and cover the artboard with it. Fill the rectangle with black. Lock the rectangle layer in the Layers Panel.

Step 3

Third, select the Artistic Text tool from the Tools Panel. Click on the document to type your text.

Step 4

Next, type the first word “Don’t” (or whatever your first word is). You won’t be able to see it at first. Go to the Swatches Panel and select a light color of your choosing. I chose the Fill Color A0B7FE for the tutorial.

*** If your quote/phrase is between 1 – 3 words, you can type out all your words (press enter after each word if you want your words to be on different lines).

Step 5

Now, select the stroke color for the text and give it a light shade too (make the shade like the Fill Color but not as light). I chose to use 1049FB.

Step 6

Go to the Stroke Panel and increase the width of your stroke to about 13 pt. Also go to Order and select Draw Stroke Behind.

Step 7

Now, grab the Move tool. Hold CTRL + Shift on the keyboard while you click and drag a copy of the text.

Step 8

Double click the duplicate of the text and write your next word.

Step 9

Do these same steps until you finish completing your quote/phrase.

Step 10

Next, select all your text. Go to the Font Family. Type in Neon One (the font you downloaded) and select it when it appears. Align your text to the center of the document.

Step 11

With the text still selected, align your text itself to the center by pressing Align Center on the Context toolbar. (You might need to group your text first. Press CTRL + G. Then, press CTRL + Shift + G to ungroup it.)

Step 12

Right click on the text (make sure all your text is selected) and select Convert to Curves.

Step 13

Go to the Layers Panel. Select all the text. Right click on the selection and select ungroup (or press CTRL + Shift + G).

Step 14

With all the letters still selected, go to Layers and select Expand Stroke. In the Layers Panel you should see a copy of each of the letters. One is the fill of the letters. The other is the stroke of the letters.

Step 15

Group the letters that are already selected (the letters that have the darker color) by pressing CTRL + G.

Step 16

Now, go to the Layers Panel. Select all the other letters and group them together.

Step 17

In the Layers Panel, select the first group, and then select the fx for Layer Effect.

Step 18

Select the Gaussian Blur. Increase the Radius (to about 10 px) by sliding it to the right. Then close the Layer Effect box.

Step 19

After that, select the second group. Then select the fx again and select Gaussian Blur. Increase the Radius of this group slightly by .5px or 1px.

Step 20

In the Layers Panel, select the first group and duplicate it by pressing CTRL + J.

Step 21

Select fx (from the Layers Panel) that’s on the duplicated group to open the Layer Effect. Set the Radius of this to 100px.

Step 22

In the Layers Panel, lower the Opacity of the duplicated group to 75%.

*** If you want to change the color of your text, make sure nothing is selected on the layers panel. Then, select the Adjustments and select HSL (Hue, Shift, and Luminosity).

Congratulations! This tutorial is complete. You now know how to create a neon text effect in Affinity Designer. If you’re looking for more Affinity Designer tutorials, check out this tutorial on how to create a sliced text effect.

Bonus Steps

Step 1

To make your neon effect even more realistic, go to Pexels. Search for Dark Room or Dark Brick Wall pictures. Here’s the image used in the tutorial.

Step 2

Select a picture that is somewhat dark or very dark and download it.

Step 3

In Affinity Designer, select the Place Tool and select your image.

Step 4

Hold Shift and drag the image across the document to cover up the artboard.

Step 5

In the Layers Panel, select your image and drag it inside of the rectangle layer.