CANVA

USER GUIDE
WHAT IS CANVA
Canva is an easy-to-use graphic design platform that allows you to create Carleton-branded
visual content, including social media graphics, posters, flyers and more. And, it’s available to
use in your browser. After creating your piece, it can be downloaded as an image file or PDF
and immediately shared or is ready to print.

FREE VS. PRO ACCOUNT

The free version of Canva has plenty to offer including fonts and elements for your designs.
But if you can pay for Canva Pro, I highly recommend it! Here are some details on using Canva
Pro vs a free account.

Canva Pro is a premium subscription version of Canva that offers advanced design capabilities
and additional resources.

With Canva Pro, users can access thousands of premium templates, fonts, and stock photos.
They can also collaborate with team members more efficiently by utilizing unlimited shared
folders and real-time collaboration features.

Canva Pro also allows users to resize their designs quickly, saving valuable time and effort.
CREATING A CANVA ACCOUNT
Go to www.canva.com and click Sign Up in the upper right-hand corner

Create an account through a Google account, Facebook, or with your work email

Select the method you would like to use and then enter in your personal information. Canva will
ask for the following:
Email Address
Full Name
Code (sent to the email used to sign-up)
If someone from your office has an account, you can ask to join and access all designs
CREATING A BRAND KIT
Canva offers a Brand Kit feature within its Pro subscription. This was designed to help
you maintain brand consistency. Within the Brand Kit, you can store your logo, colors,
and fonts in one central location. These will pop-up whenever you create new designs.

If you have other team members who are using Canva, this ensure that all individuals
have access to the same elements, supporting cohesive and professionally-styled
content.
 TOOLBAR
At the top of your workspace, when you have clicked on an element or text, the toolbar
will appear. This provides various options and tools for editing and customizing your
design. Some of the main features available in the toolbar include:

Uploading images from your device

Adding custom fonts and text formatting
Selecting pre-made elements, such as shapes and icons
Adjusting images with filters and cropping tools

Utilizing the toolbar effectively will streamline your experience and provide you with
easy access to many popular features and tools that Canva offers.

Below is an overview of all the capabilities of the toolbar:

Bold Alignment
Italicize List Copy Style
Underline Spacing Lock

Font Font Size Capitalize Effects Layers

Font Color Animation

Transparency
TOOLBAR - EFFECTS
The Effects tool lets you upgrade the simplest of text designs. Below are samples of the
various styles. Effects can be added to any font!

SHADOW ECHO
Independent Agent Independent Agent
LIFT GLITCH
Independent Agent
HOLLOW NEON
Independent Agent
SPLICE BACKGROUND
Independent Agent Independent Agent
OUTLINE
Independent Agent

With some of the styles, you can change

the color, direction, transparency, and
offset of the effect.

For example, with the Shadow effect, you

can update the direction of the shadow,
if you want it blurred, how transparent it
should be, and the color.

With other effects, you're able to change

the thickness or intensity of the colors
for any text.

Under Effects, you can also change the shape of the text. You can edit the style AND
shape of any font in your document! You can also change the span of the curve
depending on the spacing of your document

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PANELS
On the left side of the Canva workspace is a series of panels that provide quick access
to various tools and elements. These panels are:

DESIGN
A wide variety of professionally designed templates to get started on
your design.

ELEMENTS
Various graphic elements including shapes, icons, stickers, moving
images, and more to add to your design.

BRAND HUB - CANVA PRO ONLY

Any logos, colors, fonts, photos, and icons that have been added to your
workspace that represent your organization.

UPLOADS
Photo, video, and audio files that have been uploaded by the user

TEXT
Add and customize text with various font styles, sizes, and text effects.
Choose a pre-designed template or create your own!

DRAW
Draw your own image, add a signature, or highlight elements with this
free-hand feature.

PROJECTS
View previous designs, folders, and content that you have created in
your Canva account.

APPS
Connect to other platforms to enhance your Canva designs. Apps include
QR Code generator, Bitmoji, YouTube, social media sites, and many more.
IMAGES
UPLOADS
Select the Uploads tab on the left panel.

Click Upload files and select a file from your computer/device. If you hit the three dots
on the far right, you can select uploads from Facebook, Google Drive, Dropbox, or
Instagram.

You can also drag and drop files directly into the uploads area. If you copy/paste an
image into a design, it will automatically populate in the Uploads panel.

EDITING IMAGE PROPERTIES

Edit various properties of the image, such as size, rotation, and cropping. To resize, click
on the image and drag the corners or edges to adjust the dimensions.

To rotate, hover over the circular arrow icon near the image’s top-right corner and drag
in either direction.

To crop, double-click the image and adjust the cropping handles until you achieve the
desired result. Confirm the crop by clicking Done (in the toolbar) or by pressing Enter.

ADDING EFFECTS TO AN IMAGE

Enhance your images by applying filters and adjustments. Select the image you want to
edit and then click Edit Image in the toolbar. Adjustments you can make to any image
include:
Brightness Blur Clarity
Contrast X-Process Vibrance
Saturation Vignette Highlights
Tint Warmth Shadows
IMAGES CONTINUED
ADDING EFFECTS TO AN IMAGE
Canva has recently upgraded the effects you can use on photos in your designs. The
three most popular are listed below:
Smartmockups
Add a specific design/element to a smartmockup that will showcase your
design.

Duotone
Change the color and tint of an image with this feature. You can also customize
the color tint. Select the color, then hit the three line display, and a color menu
will pop-up where you can change the highlight, shadow, and intensity.

Photogenic
This effect will add filters to your images. There are multiple filter options to
choose from including:
Natural Soft
Warm Vintage
Cool Mono
Vivid Color Pop
COLLABORATION & SHARING
Collaborating and sharing your Canva designs with others is a key feature that
enhances your design process and fosters teamwork.

INVITING TEAM MEMBERS

With Canva for Teams, it’s easy to invite your colleagues to work together on your
designs. To begin, create a team or several teams, depending on the size and structure
of your organization.

Once you have a team set up, you can invite others by sending them team-specific
links, design folders, or sending invitations through email. Having different teams in
place allows for better organization and collaboration across multiple projects.

SHARING DESIGNS
Once you have a design you'd like to share with others, follow these simple steps.
In the upper right-hand corner of the Canva workspace, click the Share button

Under Share this design, you can add specific names or include an entire team to have
access to a design you have created. You will need email addresses to use this feature.

Under Collaboration Link, you can choose

to send a link of your design for someone to
view. When creating a link, you can
determine the level of access someone has
to the design.

Links do not require email addresses and can

be sent to anyone, even if they are not on
your Canva team.
PUBLISHING OPTIONS
After completing your design, Canva makes
publishing and sharing your work in different
formats easy. When you’re ready to share
your design, select the Share button in the
upper-right corner, then select Download
from the dropdown.

Once you've selected Download, a dropdown

of different file options will appear. Select
how you would like to export your design.

The most common formats are PNG (for

designs uploaded to social media) and PDF
Print (for documents and reports).

With a Canva Pro account, you can download

SVG files (web design and animation). This
feature is not available with a free account.

After selecting the file type, you have a few

exporting options available:
Size: You can change the size of the file
for best resolution when exporting
Transparency: If it's a PNG, you can
make the background transparent
Compress file: This is a lower quality file,
but might be necessary when sending to
someone for review
Select pages: You can choose a specific
number of pages to download (if you
don't need the full design)

Once your download settings are reviewed,

you can click Download and the design will
start. Exported designs will appear in your
Downloads folder.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Below are links to resources that can support your Canva journey!
How to Use Canva: A Beginner's Guide

How to Get the Most Out of Canva

How to Enhance Images in Canva to Achieve Brand Consistency

5 Lessons on Effective Design Processes from Teams who use Canva

Ultimate Guide to Social Media Marketing