Before the Saiyans, before the power levels and the planet-shaking battles, there was a kid with a monkey tail, a magic staff, and a four-star ball that belonged to his late grandfather. Dragon Ball, the original series, is a treasure hunt, a martial arts story, and a gag comic all rolled into one, and its title card is just as playful: chunky blue and red lettering with a deep black shadow, a row of little yellow circles holding the Japanese title, and Shenron, the Eternal Dragon, peeking out from a round emblem beside it.

This generator rebuilds that classic title card around your own words. You get three text boxes: one for the blue top line, one for the red bottom line, and one for the small lettering inside the yellow circles. There is also an optional Shenron icon you can switch on with a single click. The sections below explain where the logo comes from, then take it apart one layer at a time, using the generator's own drawing code, so you can see exactly how the finished piece comes together.

Where It All Began: The Original Dragon Ball

Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball began in Weekly Shōnen Jump on November 20, 1984. Toriyama was already famous for Dr. Slump, and his new series started out as a loose, comedic take on the Chinese novel Journey to the West. Its hero, Goku, is a nod to the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, complete with a tail and an extending staff called the Power Pole.

The setup is a classic quest. A teenage inventor named Bulma is searching for the seven Dragon Balls, orange crystal spheres marked with one to seven stars. Gather all seven and the dragon Shenron appears to grant a wish. Bulma runs into Goku, a super-strong and completely naive boy living alone in the mountains, and the two set off together. Along the way they pick up an unforgettable cast: Oolong the shapeshifting pig, the desert bandit Yamcha, the perverted but wise Master Roshi, and Goku's best friend and training partner, Krillin.

What starts as a road trip slowly becomes a martial arts saga. The World Martial Arts Tournament, the fight against the Red Ribbon Army, and the battle with King Piccolo all happen in this first stretch of the story. The manga ran until May 1995, reaching 519 chapters collected in 42 volumes. The anime adaptation from Toei Animation premiered on Fuji TV on February 26, 1986 and ran for 153 episodes until April 1989, covering the story up to Goku's wedding to Chi-Chi.

From there the anime continued as Dragon Ball Z, which picks up years later with a grown-up Goku and a very different, much more intense logo. If the Z era is what you are after, that generator recreates its title treatment. This page is all about the original series and its cheerful, cartoonish look.

Outside Japan, the original show had a bumpy start. An early dub was produced in 1989 but never widely released, and a 1995 attempt only covered 13 episodes. A complete English version finally began airing in 2001, after Dragon Ball Z had already become a hit on Cartoon Network's Toonami block, which meant a lot of fans met the original Goku after they had already seen him grown up.

Toriyama passed away on March 1, 2024. His last anime project, Dragon Ball Daima, premiered that October, and it went back to the spirit of the original series by turning Goku and his friends into kids again. It is a fitting tribute, since so much of Dragon Ball's charm comes from those early, lighthearted adventures.

Breaking Down the Dragon Ball Title Card

The original title card is a small masterpiece of 1980s anime design. "DRAGON" sits on top in bright blue, with "BALL" underneath in red. Both words use thick, rounded, heavy letters that are packed so tightly they overlap. Each letter casts a deep black shadow up and to the left, so the words look like solid blocks rather than flat type. To the right of "BALL," the Japanese title ドラゴンボール (Doragon Bōru) is spelled out one character at a time inside small circles, stacked in two rows. It is hard not to see those circles as a row of tiny Dragon Balls.

Bold primary colors and chunky lettering were everywhere in anime and game logos of the era. The Pokémon logo is another famous example of thick outlined letters with a strong drop shadow, built to stand out on a toy shelf or a TV screen. The generator recreates the Dragon Ball look by drawing it in layers, starting with the letters themselves and working outward.

Layer 1: Overlapping Letters

The first step is the lettering. Text 1 and text 2 are set in all capitals with very tight spacing, tight enough that neighboring letters overlap. Each letter gets a blue or red face with a thin black outline. The letters are drawn from right to left, one at a time, so each letter sits on top of the one to its right, just like the original logo. Text 2 lines up under text 1 with a slight indent, and both lines always share the same size, so they stay balanced no matter how long your words are.

Layer 2: The Deep Black Shadow

The shadow is what makes the logo feel solid. Behind the letters, the generator stacks dozens of solid black copies of each word, each one nudged a little further up and to the left. Together they form a smooth, extruded block that stretches out from the edge of every letter. The shadow is drawn behind everything, so it never covers the colored faces, and the shadow from "BALL" tucks neatly behind "DRAGON" where the two lines meet.

Layer 3: The Double L Quirk

Look closely at the two L's in the original "BALL" and you will spot a small quirk. The shadow of the first L is drawn in front of the second L, cutting a black notch into the bottom of its stem, instead of hiding behind it like every other letter's shadow. The generator copies this detail. Any time two L's appear side by side, in either text box, the first L's shadow is drawn over the second one. Compare the "BALL" below with the one above to see the difference.

Layer 4: The Yellow Circles

The third text box recreates the small Japanese title. Instead of katakana, each English letter is centered inside its own yellow circle with a black outline, and the circles sit to the right of text 2. Each word gets its own group of circles, and longer entries wrap onto extra rows, lined up along the right edge like the original. Typing "DRAGON BALL" here gives you two rows, one for each word, echoing the ドラゴン and ボール rows of the real title card.

Layer 5: Shenron Joins In

The final touch is optional. The small round button next to the first text box adds a Shenron emblem to the left of your top line, centered on it like the dragon medallion on the original title card. The emblem is sized from your text, so it grows and shrinks along with the lettering, and the whole logo is re-centered on the canvas once it is in place.

How to Use the Generator

Type your top line into the first box and your bottom line into the second. Both are set in capital letters automatically. Short words are set large, and as your text gets longer it shrinks to stay on one line, then breaks onto a new line if it needs to. The top and bottom lines always stay the same size as each other, so a long top line and a short bottom line still look like they belong together.

The third box fills the yellow circles. Keep it short for the cleanest look, since every letter gets its own circle. A single word works well, and two short words stack into two rows. Click the round Shenron button beside the first box to add or remove the dragon emblem.

Below the text boxes, the background swatches let you choose between several Dragon Ball scenes: a bright sky, a starry space title card, and mountain landscapes with and without Goku. Switching backgrounds or toggling the emblem updates your image right away once it has been generated, and the download button saves a high resolution copy when you are happy with it.

Ideas for Your Dragon Ball Logo

The two-line layout is perfect for names. Put a first name on top and a last name below, or a team name split across both lines, and use the circles for a short tagline or a year. Birthday party banners, tournament brackets, gaming clan logos, and fan art titles all fit naturally. If you are planning a Dragon Ball themed party, "HAPPY" and "BIRTHDAY" in blue and red with the guest of honor's name in the circles makes a great cake topper or invitation header.

If you enjoy classic anime and game logos, there is plenty more to explore. The My Hero Academia generator recreates another Weekly Shōnen Jump favorite, complete with its own stepped shadow and yellow lettering. For more bold 1980s design, the Akira generator captures one of the most famous anime title treatments ever made, and the Kingdom Hearts generator brings the same layered approach to the world of video games.

Four decades later, the original Dragon Ball title card still captures the fun of the series perfectly. Gather your words, summon Shenron, and make a wish of your own.