Perspective Text Generator
Type, pick a font, then turn and tilt the text on a plane through a real lens. Extrude it toward the vanishing point if you like.
Text on a plane, through a lens
The perspective text generator treats your text as paint on a flat sign, then photographs the sign. Turn is the camera walking round it, tilt is the camera looking up or down at it, roll is the camera tilted sideways, and the lens sets how strongly the far end shrinks. Because the mapping is a true projective transform, the result behaves like a photographed sign: the letters at the far end are smaller in height as well as width, the spacing tightens, and the top and bottom edges of the text aim at a vanishing point.
Setting it up
Start from a preset that matches the surface (a wall to the left or right, the floor, a title crawl, looking up at a sign), then drag on the preview to fine-tune. A 24 mm lens (wide) makes a short line of text race away; an 85 mm keeps it dignified. Scale moves the plane nearer or further without changing the angle.
Outline puts a contrasting edge on the letters so they read on a busy photo. Extrude stacks copies of the text plane behind the front face to make block letters; the copies recede toward the vanishing point, which is the detail a hand-drawn 3D text usually gets wrong.
Matching a scene
To put a word on a building in a photo, read the photo with the vanishing point finder: it gives the turn, tilt and lens, and you can type them in here. Alternatively export the text flat and drag it into place with the perspective warp tool, which maps any image onto four corners.
In your own app
Photoshop: type, convert to a Smart Object, Edit → Transform → Perspective for a symmetrical taper or Edit → Perspective Warp for a true corner mapping (lesson). Illustrator: the Perspective Grid tool places live type on a plane (lesson). Affinity Designer: the Perspective tool works on text directly and keeps it editable. On the web, the CSS perspective generator does the same thing to a live element with transform: rotateY().
Related
Change image perspective applies the same turn, tilt and lens to any picture; the 2-point grid shows where the vanishing points of a turned plane fall; how to draw perspective explains why far letters shrink.
Questions
How do I make text in perspective?
Put the text on a plane and look at that plane from an angle through a camera. Here you type the text, then turn and tilt the plane with the sliders or by dragging; the text is mapped through a real projective transform, so the far end is smaller as well as narrower. Export the result as a transparent PNG.
Why does perspective text made with a skew look wrong?
A skew (or a shear) keeps the letters the same height along the line. In real perspective the far letters are smaller in every direction, and the spacing between them shrinks too. This tool computes a homography, the same mathematics as a camera looking at a flat sign, so the result matches a photograph.
How do I match text to a wall in a photo?
Read the photo's perspective first with the vanishing point finder, then set the same turn, tilt and lens here. Or export the text flat (all angles at zero) and place it with the perspective warp tool, dragging its four corners onto the wall in the photo.
Can I make 3D block letters?
Yes. Raise Extrude and choose a side colour. The side faces are drawn by stacking the text plane backwards along its normal, so the depth lines converge toward the vanishing point as they should, and the front face stays crisp.
Can I use my own font?
The list has the three site fonts and common system fonts. For anything else, set the text in your own app, export it as a transparent PNG and put it in perspective with the perspective warp or change-image-perspective tools, which do the same transform on any image.
What is the Star Wars crawl setting?
A plane tilted back about 55° with a wide lens and a dark background, which is how the opening titles were made: text on a flat surface photographed from a low angle. Type your paragraph, set the preset, export.