Add and style text in Lucidchart

Add text to a diagram

You can add text to:

• shapes
• lines
• images
• directly to the canvas using a text box

Add a text box to the canvas

Double-click anywhere on the canvas or drag and drop the Text shape from the Shape menu.

Add a text block to the canvas

Drag and drop the Block shape from the Shape menu. The Block shape is similar to a text box, but allows you to add a border and background color.

Add text to a shape

Drag and drop a shape from the Shape menu or double-click on an existing shape and start typing.

Add text to a line

Double-click a line to create a text box and start typing.

You can move the text along the line, or directly above, below, or to the side of the line by clicking and dragging the text into position.

Add text to an image

Add a text box to the canvas and drag it over the image. If the image covers up the text, right-click the image, hover your cursor over Arrange and select Send to Back.

You can also group a text box to an image by selecting both objects, right-clicking, and selecting Group.

Edit and format text

Select text

• Click once on a text box or shape containing text to select it.
• Double-click an object containing text to select all of the text within the object and enter text editing mode.
• Click once on the object to un-select the text and remain in text editing mode.

Set style and format

Customize the appearance of text in a diagram from the Formatting bar at the top of the workspace. From here you can:

• Change font
• Increase and decrease font size
• Bold, Italicize, and Underline text
• Change text color
  
  • From the bottom of the text color menu, you can select a preset theme style that affects text color, line color, and shape fill color.
• Adjust text alignment
• Access Text options menu
   

From the Text options menu, you can:

• Add Strike through text
• Convert text to Subscript
• Convert text to Superscript
• Rotate text 90˚ counter-clockwise
   
• Add new text or convert existing lines of text to bullet points or numbered lists
  
• Adjust the amount of space between each line of text 
  
• Adjust text padding 
  
• Adjust left, right, before, and after indent
  

You can also surround your text with the following symbols to use formatting shortcuts:

• *bold*
• _italics_
• ~strikethrough~
• `monospace font`
  
   

Add shadow to text

1. Select text on the canvas.
2. Click the Shape Options icon.
3. Select Shadow.
4. Toggle on “Shadow”.
   
    

Add color to a text block

Add more lines of text

Create new lines of text using these keyboard shortcuts.

• Add line breaks: Press “Enter” to add a break between lines of text within a text box or Command/Ctrl + Enter to add a break between lines of text within a shape.
• Add a new bullet: Press Command/Ctrl + Enter to add a new bulleted line.
• End a bulleted list: Press Shift + Enter to start a new line of text without a bullet.

Add and upload fonts

Lucidchart offers many additional fonts to the ones that initially appear in the drop-down menu of the Formatting bar at the top of the workspace. 

Add fonts

1. Select an object containing text.
2. Click the font drop-down menu.
3. Select Manage fonts at the bottom of the menu to open the font manager.
4. Toggle on fonts you want to add.
5. Click Done to add the selected fonts to the font drop-down menu.

Upload fonts

You can upload your own fonts as TTC, TTF, or OTF files. Once you are in the font manager, you can upload fonts by following these steps:

1. Click Upload font in the bottom left.
2. Select a font file from your computer.

• You can also drag and drop one or more font files onto the font list.
• Click Upload to add the fonts to the font drop-down menu.

Use brand fonts

If you are a Team or Enterprise account admin, upload brand fonts that are available to your entire account. For instructions, check out our Lucid admin panel: Security settings article.

Text editing options

Lucidchart’s text editing options can help you maintain accuracy and consistency with your diagram’s written content. To access text editing options, follow these steps:

1. Click the More menu from the top-left of the canvas.
2. Hover your cursor over “Edit”.
3. Hover your cursor over Spell check settings or click Find & replace.

From here you can:

• Enable or disable spell check.
• Change the spell check language.
• Use the find and replace functionality.
  • Select this option or press command/Ctrl + F to pull up the Find & replace window. Type the string that you want to replace in the “Find” text box and the replacement string in the “Replace with” text box, then click Replace or Replace all.

Troubleshoot text issues

If you're experiencing issues with text, check out our Troubleshooting: Text article.

Resources

To learn more about this feature, explore the additional resources below. These resources are available in English only. 

Community post 
How to add accent marks in Lucid

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