Creating a sliced text effect in Canva is a great way to make eye-catching designs for social media posts, ads, flyers, and more. The sliced text effect separates letters or words into pieces that look like they have been cut apart. This beginner’s guide will teach you how to easily slice text in Canva, even with the free version.
Select a Bold Font and Customize the Text
The first step is to add text and customize it to your liking before slicing it. Here’s how:
- Go to the Text tool in Canva and click Add a Heading to spell out the word or phrase you want to slice.
- Change the font to something bold and attention-grabbing like League Spartan.
- Drag the corners to resize the text and make it bigger.
- Pick an exciting color like orange or pink to really make the text pop.
- Once you have the text styled, download it as an image file by clicking the download icon.
Re-Upload the Image and Duplicate It
Now you’ll bring the text back into Canva as an image and duplicate it:
- Drag and drop the downloaded text image file back into your Canva workspace.
- Duplicate the text image by copying and pasting it.
Having two copies of the text image will allow you to slice each one in half.

Slice Each Image in Half
This next step creates the sliced effect by separating the two text images:
- On one text image, drag the top and bottom handles to crop away the bottom half.
- On the other text image, drag the handles to crop away the top half.
- You’ll be left with the top and bottom halves of the text.
- Slightly overlap the two pieces to make the slice look natural.
Add a Shadow for Dimension
The finishing touch is adding a shadow behind the sliced area:
- Search for “shadow frames” in Canva’s elements and find a thin shadow strip.
- Crop the shadow by dragging the top and bottom handles to make it skinnier.
- Position the shadow in between the two text halves.
The shadow separates the pieces and adds depth to complete the 3D sliced text effect!
Design Tips for Sliced Text
Follow these tips to make compelling sliced text designs:
- Pick short words or phrases so they are easy to slice. Long text won’t work as well.
- Use thick, bold fonts so the letters hold their shape when sliced. Avoid thin scripts.
- Make the text big so it’s easy to see the sliced effect. Size it to fill much of the image.
- Try different colors like neon hues to make the text pop off the page.
- Overlap the slices slightly and add strong shadows for extra dimension.
- Experiment with diagonal slices across letters for a dramatic look.

Alternative Text Effects in Canva
If you want to try other text effects, Canva has many options:
- Layered text with different colors peeking through
- Abstract backgrounds blending into text
- Liquid or watercolor textures behind text
- Glitch effects distorting letters
- Vintage styles like stamped or typewriter text
So get creative with all of Canva’s fonts, graphics, and editing tools! Sliced text is just one unique option for eye-catching text designs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is sliced text?
Sliced text is a text effect where letters or words are cut into pieces that separate from each other, creating a fragmented 3D look.
Can you slice text in Canva?
Yes, it’s easy to slice text in Canva! Just customize the text, duplicate it, crop each copy into halves, then overlap them and add a shadow.
Does Canva have a slice text tool?
No, Canva doesn’t have a specific slice tool. But you can use Canva’s cropping and layering tools on text images to manually create the sliced effect.
What apps let you slice text?
In addition to Canva, other graphic design apps like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and GIMP have tools to slice text and images.
Is the sliced text effect possible in Canva’s free version?
Yes! All the features needed to slice text in Canva are available in the free basic version. No paid subscription is required.
Conclusion
Slicing text is an impressive yet easy effect you can quickly create in Canva to level up your designs. With bold fonts, strategic cropping, overlapping layers, and shadows, anyone can slice text in Canva for free. Use this unique text effect to grab attention and give your images a 3D style.