I have been using Canva for three months now, and this is the first time I fell in love with an online graphics creator. Below, let me share with you the things I came to love about this website.
1) The Interface
The homepage itself looks very professional. Also, I love that the cursor is interactive so that when you move it in the background, there’s a brush-like effect that clears the path of the cursor when you move it. Aside from that, the site is pretty simple and is very user-friendly.2) Sign-up Process
With Canva, you do not have to fill up a form to sign up. You can just enter your email address, desired password and you’re in! If you don’t like that, you can sign up with Google+ or Facebook instead.3) Different Pre-set Canvases
As a Social Media Manager, it is important to squeeze different tasks in a short span of time. Because creating graphics and visuals for social media contents often take a lot of time for me, I find Canva a really helpful tool in this area.When you sign up, you will be redirected to the “Your Designs” page where you are presented with a preset canvas in different sizes (posters, presentation, Facebook post or cover, Twitter post or header, and much more!). I love this feature because it just takes one click to start creating a graphics for a certain social media profile.
With these pre-set sizes, Canva has provided layout designs that you can use, or give you an idea for a new design.
4) Pre-made Graphics
When you start designing, you will be re-directed to a page I call “workspace”. On this page, you can make your unique graphics with ease, given the number of pre-made graphics available to use. Most of these graphics are free (who doesn’t love free?), and with “free”, I don’t mean a lousy graphics you can use because you have no choice. Their graphics are high quality. You can also customize them to your satisfaction and make them your own. My website’s logo is actually made with Canva.These graphics work well with infographics as well as professional presentations.
5) Amazing Fonts
Canva is the place where I met new awesome fonts. There are about less than a hundred fonts on the website, but that doesn’t mean you cannot find good ones. They’re actually well-chosen so that you are not overwhelmed when you’re deciding what font to choose.6) Free Space
On Canva, you can save all your works and you can be assured that your hard work will still be waiting for you when you need to go back to them or re-download. You don't have to worry about losing your designs because Canva saves them on "the cloud". This means, you can also save space on your computer, considering these high quality images are pretty big on size.7) Auto-Save Functionality
You have probably worked hours on Photoshop and forgot to hit Ctrl+S, not expecting that your computer will die later on (your cat probably found a magical place beside the outlet and accidentally pulled the plug, don’t ask me how).How you wish there was an auto-save on Photoshop, right?
Breaking NEWS: I heard CS6 has auto-save?
8) The Upload and Save Function
Not only can you upload on Canva. You can also use it to store images and graphics for future use. I love being able to open my Canva on different computers and continue my work with ease. Your past works will also be saved on your profile, so you have the ability to edit your works, in case your boss changes their mind on a design you submitted months earlier.This feature saves me a lot of time, especially when I designed something before and want to reuse it for another project. You can easily duplicate a saved design and then work on the duplicate as a new project.
9) “Copy this Page” Function
This is one of the features I love best! This feature allows you to duplicate a slide within a workspace. It is great for making presentations, when you are using one template for multiple slides. You can save time recreating the design by simply copying the page and then working on the duplicated slide as a new page.I also use this feature when we have a social media campaign, or is using a single template for many images.
10) Public and Private Toggle
This enables you to make your work Public or Private. One time, I needed to design a sample magazine cover and collaborate with a Layout Artist. The “Public” feature lets us work on a single workspace together virtually. So if you need to work as a team, you can just make your work Public and send a link to your partner. Don’t worry, your personal files (saved designs and uploads) will not be shared with others, even if you send them your public designs.11) Download As Image, As PDF, and Pages in Range
When you have a design with many pages, you can download it as an image (in a .ZIP format), as a single PDF file, or you can download them in pages. For example, you only need the pages 1 and 5 of the design you created, you can specify it on the download panel.There. I never realized I have 11 things I love in Canva until I finished this blog. I hope you find my list helpful. By the way, I worked with PicMonkey as well but it does not have the features found on Canva.
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