The effect of carbon on the microstructure and texture of low carbon steels was investigated in a series of 1.6 Mn-0.3Cr-0.2Mo-0.001B steels with carbon ranging from 0.021 to 0.048%. Intensity of {111} orientation increased with decreasing the carbon content, resulting in the increase in $r_m$ value. The highest $r_m$ value of 1.30 was obtained in 0.021%C steel annealed at $820{sim}850^{circ}C$ according to the typical galvannealing heat cycle. Martensite volume fraction was not substantially affected by the annealing temperature. It was found that the fine and uniformly distributed martensite particles which were present in amounts of about 5% volume fraction were desirable for the highest $r_m$ value. The other factor affecting the high $r_m$ value was the preferred epitaxial growth of retained ferrite with {111} orientation into austenite during cooling.