Are you looking for a new graphic design tool? Would you like to read a detailed review of Canva? As it is one of the tools that I love to use. I am also writing my first ebook using canva and will post it on my site soon, you can download it for free. Let’s start the review.
Canva has a web version and also a mobile app
What is canvas?
canvas is a free graphic design web application that allows you to create invitations, business letters, flyers, lesson plans, banners, and more using professionally designed templates. You can upload your own photos from your computer or from Google Drive, and add them to Canva templates using a simple drag-and-drop interface. It’s like having a basic version of Photoshop that requires no knowledge of graphic design to use. It is better for non-graphic designers.
Who is Canva best suited for?
canvas It’s a great tool for small business owners, online entrepreneurs, and marketers who don’t have time and want to edit quickly.
To create sophisticated graphics, a tool like Photoshop Can is ideal. To use it, you will need to learn its hundreds of features, get familiar with the software, and it is also better to have a good design background.
Also, to run the latest version of Photoshop, you need a high-end computer.
So here comes Canva, with Canva you can do all of that with drag and drop. It is also easier to use and free. An even more affordable paid version is also available for $12.95 per month.
Free vs Pro vs Enterprise Pricing Plan
The product is available in three plans: Free, Pro ($12.99/month per user or $119.99/year for up to 5 people), and Enterprise ($30 per user per month, minimum 25 people).
Free Plan Features
- 250,000+ free templates
- 100+ layout types (social media posts, presentations, letters, and more)
- Hundreds of thousands of free photos and graphics
- Invite members to your team
- Collaborate and comment in real time
- 5 GB cloud storage
- Attempt Canvas Pro free for 30 days
Professional Plan Features
- All Free, has more:
- Over 100 million premium and stock photos, videos, audio, and graphics
- 610,000+ free and premium templates with new designs every day
- Access to Background Remover and Magic Resize
- Create a library of colors, logos and fonts for your brand or campaign with up to 100 brand kits
- Remove backgrounds from images instantly with the background remover
- Resize designs infinitely with Magic Resize
- Save designs as templates for your team to use
- 100 GB of cloud storage
- Schedule social media content for 8 platforms
Features of the business plan
- Everything Pro has more:
- Establish your brand’s visual identity with logos, colors and fonts in multiple brand kits
- Control your team’s access to apps, graphics, logos, colors, and fonts with branding controls
- Built-in workflows to get your designs approved
- Set what elements your team can edit and stay on brand with template lock
- unlimited storage
- Log in with single sign-on (SSO) and have access to enterprise-class support 24/7.
How to use Canvas?
To start using Canva, you’ll need to create an account by providing your email address, Google, Facebook, or Apple credentials. Then, you’ll choose your account type from student, teacher, small business, large business, nonprofit, or personal. Based on your choice of account type, templates will be recommended for you.
You can sign up for a free trial of Canva Pro, or you can start with the free version to get an idea of whether it’s the right graphic design tool for your needs.
Sign up for Canva
Designing with Canva
When you sign up for an account, Canva will suggest different post types to choose from. Depending on the type of account you set up, you will be able to see templates categorized into the following categories: Social Media Posts, Documents, Presentations, Marketing, Events, Announcements, Launching Your Business, Building Your Online Brand, etc.
Start by choosing a template for your post or by searching for something more specific. Search by social network name to see a list of post types on each network.
Templates
You can then choose a template. Choose from hundreds of ready-to-use templates with customizable photos, text, and other elements.
You can start your design by choosing from a variety of ready-to-use templates, finding a template that meets your needs, or working with a blank template.
Canva has a lot to choose from, so start with a specific search. If you want to create a business card, just search for it and you’ll see plenty of templates to choose from.
Items
Within the Canva designer, the Elements tab gives you access to lines and shapes, graphics, photos, videos, audio, charts, photo frames, and photo grids. The search box on the Elements tab allows you to search everything in Canva.
For starters, Canva has a huge library of elements to choose from. To find them, be specific in your search query. You can also browse the following tabs to view multiple items separately:
Photos
The Photos tab lets you browse and choose from millions of professional stock photos for your templates.
You can replace the photos in our templates to create a new look. This can also make the template a better fit for your industry.
You can find photos on other stock photography sites like pexel, pixabay and many more, or simply upload your own photos.
When you choose an image, Canva’s photo editing features let you adjust the photo’s settings (brightness, contrast, saturation, etc.), crop it, or animate it.
When you subscribe to Canva Pro, you get access to a number of premium features, including the background remover. This feature allows you to remove the background from any stock photo in your library or any image you upload.
Text
The Text tab allows you to add headers, normal text, and graphic text to your design.
When you click on the text, you’ll see options to adjust the font, font size, color, formatting, spacing, and text effects (such as shadows).
Canva Pro subscribers can choose from a large library of fonts in the Brand Kit or the Styles tab. Enterprise-grade controls ensure that visual content stays on brand, no matter how many people are working on it.
Audio
Create an animated image or video by adding audio to grab user attention on social media feeds.
If you want to use audio from another stock site or your own audio tracks, you can upload them in the Uploads tab or from the more option.
Video
Do you want to create your own videos? Choose from thousands of stock video clips. You will find videos that go up to 2 minutes
You can upload your own videos as well as videos from other stock sites in the Uploads tab.
Once you’ve chosen a video, you can use the editing features in Canva to crop the video, flip it, and adjust its transparency.
Background
In the Background tab, you’ll find free stock photos to serve as backgrounds in your designs. Change the background of a template to give it a more personal touch.
styles
The Styles tab allows you to quickly change the look of your template with just one click. And if you have a Canva Pro subscription, you can upload your brand’s custom colors and fonts to make sure designs stay on-brand.
logos
If you have a Canva Pro subscription, you will have a Logos tab. Here, you can upload variations of your brand logo to use in your designs.
With Canva, you can also create your own logos. Please note that you cannot register a logo with stock content.
Publish with Canva
With Canva, free users can download and share designs on multiple platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack, and Tumblr.
Canva Pro subscribers can create multiple post formats from one design. For example, you can start by designing an Instagram post and Canva’s Magic Resizer can resize it for other networks, stories, Reels, and other formats.
Canva Pro subscribers can also use Canva’s Content Planner to post content to eight different accounts across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slack, and Tumblr.
Team Canva
Canva Pro allows you to work with your team on visual content. Designs can be created within Canva and then sent to your team members for approval. Everyone can comment, edit, review and track through version history.
Canvas
When it comes to printing your designs, Canva has you covered. With a wide selection of printing options, they can turn their designs into anything from banners and wall art to mugs and t-shirts.
Canva Print is perfect for any business looking to make a lasting impression. Create inspiring designs that people will want to use, keep, and share. Distribute personalized business cards that leave a lasting impression on customers’ minds.
Canva Apps
The Canva app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The Canva app earned a 4.9 out of five star rating from over 946,300 Apple users and a 4.5 out of five star rating from over 6,996,708 Google users.
In addition to mobile apps, you can use Canva’s integration with other internet services to add images and text from sources like Google Maps, Emojis, photos from Google Drive and Dropbox, YouTube videos, photos from Flickr, Bitmojis and other elements of popular visual content.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Canva
Advantages:
- An easy to use interface
- Canva is a great tool for people who want to create professional graphics but don’t have graphic design skills.
- Hundreds of templates, so you never have to start from scratch.
- Wide variety of templates to suit multiple uses
- Brand kits to keep your team in line with brand colors and fonts
- Create visual content on the go
- You can find royalty-free images, audio, and video without having to subscribe to another service.
Cons:
- Some professional templates are only available for Pro users
- It is missing advanced photo editing features like blurring or erasing a specific area.
- Some elements that are left out of a design are difficult to recover.
- Features (like Canva presentations) could use some improvement.
- If you are a regular user of Adobe products, Canva’s functionality may be limited.
- He prefers to work with vectors. Especially logos.
- Expensive business prices
Conclusion
Overall, Canva is a great tool for those who need simple images for projects. If you’re an experienced graphic designer, you’ll find the Canva platform lacking in customization and advanced features, particularly vectors. But if you have little design experience, you’ll find Canva easier to use than advanced graphic design tools like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator for most projects. If you have any queries let me know in the comment section.