Canva
What is Canva And Is It Free?
According to Wikipedia:
Canva is a graphic design platform that allows users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters and other visual content. It is available on web and mobile, and integrates millions of images, fonts, templates and illustrations.
Canva solves a huge problem for online businesses like mine. I struggle at times to find a suitable image for my articles. I’m no photographer so have to look for royalty free images on the free websites. These are great but there are times when you need an infographic with specific details on and those are simply not around.
We all know that images work exceptionally well on our websites, giving our readers an image rather than a long text to read. It has more impact on the reader and encourages them to stay on the website longer and in doing so are more likely to follow through with the call to action you have on the page.
Canva opens up this option to us all with a free plan. It is more restricted than the standard and enterprise but nonetheless. its a very useful tool !
When you search for a specific photo, I searched for London, to see what would come up. It brings up a selection and I chose this one, but even once you have gotten onto the page, it offers you more images that are very relevant. Hundreds of thousands of free images … that alone is spectacular.
What Exactly Does Canva Do?
On the free version, Canva gives you:
- 8,000+ free templates
- 100+ design types (social media posts, presentations, letters, and more)
- Hundreds of thousands of free photos and graphic
Every photo is super crisp and fresh – great quality to use on a website.. giving you the authority and caring appearance you want your readers to feel.
Saying Canva has 8,000 free templates doesn’t really tell you anything, so this is just a snapshot of what they have. All of them are totally customisable for you and your specific business. There are templates for presentations/cards/business cards/invitations/brochures/logos/posters and most importantly – infographics!
Facebook Posts
Instagram Posts
Instagram Stories
Flyers
How It Works
In the free version ( some obvious restrictions) you are presented with all the various templates, grouped in their sections, showing the choice you have in design.
Choose A Template
Choose the template from the different sections for the type of material you want to produce. It will open in the dashboard.
Customise In The Dashboard
You can customise your material here using all the tools available in Canva. Ill show you below what this looks like.
Share The Document
There are dozens of ways to share your document, all are available to you from the dashboard.
Relax
Easy as that ! You can embed the document into any article, print off, share it.
Canva Dashboard
Dashboard
The dashboard is the heart of Canva. Your document, whether its a flyer, or invitation or infographic will have the same dashbouard to chose from.
Photos
The dashboard has various tabs down the side that offer the variations of templates, photos, adding text, adding video, backgrounds. It allows for uploads of your own photos, images etc,
Elements
This is just a very small example of what the elements tab has to offer. I typed in medical and it has brought up a huge choice of icons, so many that I cant get them all on the screen.
Text
Great texts, headings, subheadings… so many choices of fonts ad expressions to use however you want to create your documents.
Video
Great videos to embed and tons of choice.
Backgrounds
Amazing backgrounds, with so much choice, there will be one that will suit the occasion. And if you have one that you desperately want to use, you can import it and use as a background. Want no background – you can do that too.
Apps and Integrations
Canva offers various apps and integrations you can use along with a ton of places to share to/upload/email etc.
Pricing
Canva Offers Three Plans
Conclusion
Canva offers a comprehensive platform for the creation of a multitude of designs, for almost any occaision beit creating a logo for your new online business or an infographic for inclusion into your latest blog. Canva is robust and intuitive, which I found straightforward and a pleasure to use. Try it out for free here – Canva.com
Glad to see such a comprehensive discussion of Canva. I have been reading about it and it seems all the rage these days and comes highly recommended by many. My question is something I have never really seen addressed and can’t figuure out how it works. Do you actually post from Canva or do you just design your stuff on Canva and then post it the regular way. I am pretty good at using graphic design programs and thus far I am very comfortable creating content with the programs I use. If that is true, is there an advantage to signing up for Canva? Is there something about Canva that makes it better to switch from what I already use to Canva? Also, once I create something on Canva, is it mine? In other words, do I download it on my computer and then I can continue to use it whenever I want or does it “live” on Canva and I can only use it from there. I have studied the site several times, but I can’t figure out the answers to the questions and would really appreciate your insight. Thanks!!!!
Well Janice, you don’t download it but use it online, so it doesnt sit on your computer blocking memory. You can download Canva to all sorts of places, from your own email to Facebook etc, dozens of places that you use and I think the biggest pull for Canva is that it has tons of images, photos, that most folks have difficulty finding royalty free images so this is a huge help to the beginner on their website.
I just recently heard of Canvas, but have not had the time to look into it. This was very informative, and I have a better understanding of how it works. I also go out and find generic photos sometimes to insert into my blogs, and would hate to grab one with a copywriter. I am going to go download it now, and start creating! Thank you for making this easy to understand!
This is a huge advantage to the beginner at online business, that we know that Canva will allow us to use royalty free images. I hope you find it a huge benefit to you,
I think that the free version of Canva would do it for me. I’m wondering, though, if it provides templates in different aspect ratios so that they would be good for Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube thumbnails, and such? I don’t have those memorized so it there a simple area to go to in order to specify which social media you are using the template for?
Canva offer the templates you need for each of the platforms so you can make your images and presentations suitable for every platform.
Thanks for sharing some insight into this really valuable free online tool for online marketers. I’ve had a free plan for a while and find that it has amazing, professional looking designs to help make my websites look great. The interface is intuitive enough to figure out pretty quickly and the large library of free photos has something for almost every occasion. I can definitely recommend giving this tool a try!
I like Canva very much, i use it frequently even though I can use illustrator too, it gives me some design ideas when Im having a bit of brain fade.
This topic is requested by a lot of people. You have covered it in great detail, the free version is very extensive with 8,000 choices. If you cannot do what you want with that then the next choice is only 8.99 cheap at half the price. Canva is a brilliant site that you can do so much on, your imagination is the limit.
Thankyou for your comments Lisa. Its definitely a great tool to have in your business toolbox.
I love Canva and I use it often for the featured images on my own blog posts. It’s easy to use as well and there’s hardly a learning curve that one needs to go through. The free version definitely gives you a lot to work with so if you’re on a budget, you’re in luck.
What are some tips you can give some first-time users that will help them create the best-looking images for their websites and social media posts?
It is a great tool and I would definitely recommend following some of their tutorials to learn how to get the best from canva. It is very intuitive which I love as I hate having to learn how to do something, so this was great for me.
Hello Helen! This is awesome. This will actually help me improve my blog as a newbie in blogging business especially the images it provides and also the fact that it offers free plan is intriguing for me.
Moreover, I’m still finding it difficult to select the appropriate images for my articles, pls can you tell me more of how you achieved yours?
Images are always difficult for online marketers, they seen to have us over a barrel but not anymore. The graphics that I used in this article all came from Canva, They are put together from various different sections to make the finished images. Have a play around with the free version, you will be surprised what you can do!
Thanks for such an educational article. Can one save unfinished work in canva .The 8000 template can one access it without registering or subscribing to the platform.To sign up does it require payment at first,if it does what’s the cost price for it.Is there any referral bonus? .with the answers to these questions,I will be satisfy.
Thanks,do hope to see more of your works.
Hello and thanks for your comments, Yes you can save unfinished work in Canva but you need to register to access their material but no credit card is requested and no payment is asked for, to access the basic plan. They do also have an affiliate programme. Hope this helps you !