Here’s how to add a taste of the logo or text from ‘Friends’ sitcom to a Word document, PowerPoint slide or other document. That includes the important dots between letters. All you need is available online plus a little Office trickery.
Note for old-timers (like Peter, our Editor-in-Chief). ‘Friends’ was a televisual entertainment shown on broadcast networks in full color. The plots revolved around six people living in improbably large Manhattan apartments. Hilarity ensued for ten seasons between 1994 and 2004. The program continues to be popular on modern streaming services and syndication.
Keep in mind that the Friends logo is trademarked, though it’s widely copied and parodied.
Friends Logo
The Friends logo is easily available as an SVG graphic.
Wikipedia has the logo as an SVG. SVG’s are supported in Office 365 Windows/Mac and the most flexible option. For earlier versions of Office, use the JPG option instead.
If you’ve been following our coverage of SVG images in Office, you’ll be wondering if it’s possible to replace the letters with your own. Sadly no, each of the letters is a separate drawn graphic not a letter with embedded font. But there’s another way to do that, see below.
Converting Icons and other SVG’s into the Office Shape format
Make simple changes to SVG graphics
Converting SVG into JPG, PNG or other raster image format
SVG Graphics coming to Office … at long last!
Insert the logo into any document or slide, just like any other image.
Friends logo variants
If you want something based on the logo, it’s possible to recreate it.
Start with one of the ‘Friends’ fonts, as shown below.
Dots between letters
Then add dots between letters. We used the standard Bullet character Unicode hex 2022.
Dot colors
The exact colors for each dot are:
- Red RGB: 233,30,35 or #e91e23
- Blue RGB: 2,178,231 or #02b2e7
- Yellow RGB: 250,188,22 or #fabc16
That’s based on the Wikipedia version of the logo, the # web color values are the ones used in the SVG code. The RGB values are equivalents that Office 365 will accept in the Color | Custom dialog.
The color order from the opening titles is Red, Blue, Yellow, Red, Yellow, Blue.
If you feel the dots are too low, try making them superscript then increasing the font size.
The one about the Friends font
Unlike some other examples like Murphy Brown, Thunderbirds or Law and Order, with Friends it’s all about the font. In the TV show, the logo and opening credits are superimposed over images or video.
In a PowerPoint slide, use the same look
We found two fonts online that are very similar to the font used in Friends.
Gabriel Weiss
The most popular option is from Gabriel Weiss which is closest to the original.
Gregor Miller
An alternative is from Gregor Miller which is thinner.
Add the Shadow effect
The acting credits include a shadow effect that can be emulated in Office.
Select the text then start with the first Shadow | Outer option.
Or jump straight to Shape Format | WordArt Styles | Shadow, scroll to the bottom and choose Shadow effects.
Preset: Outer, the first option as shown above.
Color: Black
Transparency: 30%
Size: 100%
Blur: 0% for a sharp edge to the shadow.
Angle: 45°
Distance: 6pt
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