How do I make a stencil from text?

Print the word large on card, cut out the letters with a craft knife and leave the bridges standing; or cut it from stencil vinyl on a cutting machine. A stencil font puts the bridges in for you.

Why do stencil letters have gaps?

Without them, the inside of an O or an A would fall out of the sheet, and the letter would paint as a blob. The gaps are the bridges that hold those inner pieces in place.

Stencil font generator

Letters with bridges, as cut for spray paint. Type your words and see them in the fonts you pick, up to six at a time: Black Ops One, Stardos Stencil, Big Shoulders Stencil and 10 more. Download any of them as a PNG for Canva or a poster, or as an SVG that cuts on a Cricut, or open a font’s page to get the font itself.

13 free stencil fonts · PNG at 2× or 3× · SVG to cut · free for commercial use

Your text – it follows you round the site

Size72 px

Colour

Background

PNG size

Each PNG is cut to the letters with a margin. Transparent keeps only the letters. Each SVG is the letters welded, to cut on a Cricut.

Colour, background, PNG size

Colour

Background

PNG size

Each PNG is cut to the letters with a margin. Transparent keeps only the letters. Each SVG is the letters welded, to cut on a Cricut.

Your picks, 3 of 6 picked

The fonts you pick set your text: up to six, from the list below.

Stencil · Military

Black Ops One

Free for commercial use · OFL

Stencil · Classic stencil

Stardos Stencil

Free for commercial use · OFL

Stencil · Condensed

Big Shoulders Stencil

Free for commercial use · OFL

Pick up to 3 more from the list below to see your text in it.

All 13 free stencil fonts

Pick a font to set your text in it at the top, up to six.

Stencil · Military
Black Ops One
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil · Classic stencil
Stardos Stencil
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil · Condensed
Big Shoulders Stencil
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil · Clean sans
Allerta Stencil
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil
Stick No Bills
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil
Protest Guerrilla
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil
Saira Stencil
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil
Keania One
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil
Sirin Stencil
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil
Wallpoet
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil
Kenia
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil
Plaster
Free for commercial use · OFL
Stencil
Emblema One
Free for commercial use · OFL

Stencil lettering

What it is

Stencil letters are cut so they can be painted through a sheet: thin bridges keep the inner parts of A, B, D, O, P, Q and R attached, and those gaps become the look.

When to use it

Crates and shipping labels, military and industrial signs, wall art, garden markers and anything you will spray or dab paint through.

The fonts here

Black Ops One is the heaviest, military crate lettering; Stardos Stencil is a classic stencil serif, in regular and bold. Big Shoulders Stencil, condensed and new in 2025, runs from thin to black and has an optical size axis; Allerta Stencil is a clean, plain sans.

In Canva

To check the bridges before cutting anything, set the PNG on a dark background in Canva: every gap shows as a line of colour.

In Cricut Design Space

Cut a stencil font and the middles of O, A and the rest stay attached by their bridges, so the stencil holds together as one sheet. With an ordinary font they fall out and are lost.

In Word and Docs

Word sets text as large as 1,638 points, about 58 cm, so a single stencil letter can fill a page to cut out by hand with a craft knife.

The steps for any style, the PNG and the SVG into each app, what the licences allow and what happens to your words, are on the font generator.

Stencil fonts, answered

How do I make a stencil from text?: Print the word large on card, cut out the letters with a craft knife and leave the bridges standing; or cut it from stencil vinyl on a cutting machine. A stencil font puts the bridges in for you.
Why do stencil letters have gaps?: Without them, the inside of an O or an A would fall out of the sheet, and the letter would paint as a blob. The gaps are the bridges that hold those inner pieces in place.

More styles

The same words in 17 other styles, each with fonts of its own. See every style on one page.

All 17 free stencil fonts →