In This article we will share step by step guidance for How to Use Canva For Graphic Design, Canva is a free and Paid graphic design web and mobile app, in case you aren’t already familiar with it. For any online and offline marketing project or business, you may choose from a wide range of templates to personalize, including Instagram stories, Facebook posts, posters, menus, infographics, etc.
My go-to design programs are often InDesign, PhotoShop, and Illustrator. I decided to use Canva partly to keep up with emerging technologies and partly due to the need for professional creatives to learn how to use DIY marketing tools. mainly because they remain stationary.
Use Canva For Graphic Design
I’m going to share with you How to Use Canva For Graphic Design tips and tricks to help you speed up and improve your designs, in 2022 Canva has added many new features since the updated version stay tuned to the end and I’ll share some complimentary resources you can use in conjunction with canva to make your designs even better.
How to Use Canva For Graphic Design
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Single Key Shortcuts
So let’s get straight into it my number one trick to save tons of time is single-key shortcuts
- Simply tap ‘R’ on your keyboard to generate a Rectangle.
- You can generate a Circle by tapping ‘C’.
- Tap ‘T’ to generate Text.
- Tap ‘L’ to create a Line.
New Line Styles
New line styles while we have a line on screen another new feature canva recently added is the line styles all you need to do is select the line then go up to the top and you’ll see these new menu options on the top you have weight you have line styles where you can adjust what the line looks like then you can adjust what displays at the start of the line or at the end of the line that looks pretty good
New Text Effects
Text Effects now that we have some text on the page canva have now added some text effects, i’ll just make the font slightly different so you can see it easier let’s go monster extra bold.
Click on effects now you have shadow lift hollow splice echo glitch neon and curve by selecting one of these new menu options that appear underneath and you can simply adjust them.
Quickly Add Images
Quickly add an image something you may not know is that you can drag an image directly onto the page from a folder this will save you from having to upload the image select it and then dragging onto the page this will save you tons of time
Image Back Drop Effect
Drop shadow effects for images this is another new feature that canva recently added the ability to add shadow effects to images.
Firstly make sure your image is selected then select Edit Image in the top left hand corner once it’s loaded scroll down to the bottom and you’ll see two new boxes shadows and frames.
So if you click on glow you can add a glow effect to your item they also have a drop shadow.
Outline Effect
Outline effect as well as adding a cool and realistic backdrop effect you can also add an outline to images you might have seen this used by many youtubers in their thumbnails to add a white border around their image.
Click Edit Emage scroll down to where we had shadows and click on the first one called glow now click on it again to access the settings firstly change the color to white drop the blur to zero increase the transparency to 100 now increase the size to whatever you want and as you can see it’s an outline effect.
Precisely Move Elements
Precisely move elements if I wanted to move this I’d click on it now I can use the arrow keys (←, ↑, →, ↓) to move it one pixel left one pixel to the right or up or down alternatively you could click shift and up which moves it 10 pixels in any direction as you can see.
Add Gridlines
If you want even finer control of the elements you could add grid lines so go to file and go, show rulers, this creates a ruler at the top you can now hover over the ruler and these double-ended arrows appear to click on it and pull it down you can then create a grid line you can create as many grid lines as you want.
Select Hidden Elements
Select hidden elements you often find yourself in a situation where you’ve got multiple elements on top of each other or some underneath sometimes you want to select the element underneath but it’s really difficult because you can’t find the edge this resizing option appears.
So what you can do is if you hold down control and then control + click it selects the element behind it as you can see it went to the second one and the third one clicking on it again makes it disappear if I click on the first one second one or third one.
Grouping Elements
Grouping elements if you wanted to group these elements you can highlight all those elements they’re all highlighted then click the group and now you can move them as one
Resize Groups Proportionally
Once they’re grouped together you can then resize them like that alternatively if I delete these and highlight these I can move them as one or increase them proportionally as you can see the text and image increases proportionally
New Canva Frames For Photos
New canvas frames for photos this is a new feature that allows you to add a wide range of frames and borders two images you can find it in Edit Image under frames and select a frame and it will be automatically applied they have these device frames.
Lock Background Elements
Lock background elements this is useful if you are creating templates to be used over and over again. you Select the element and click the padlock symbol in the top right-hand menu.
Now I don’t have to worry about accidentally selecting it or moving it and it won’t get in the way I can do the same thing with the text the padlock symbol will appear in the bottom right of the element to show that it has been locked you can undo it by selecting the locked item and clicking the padlock symbol again in the top right.
How to Share a Canva Design as a Template
Share templates and designs this is useful if you are sending templates to clients or work in a team, Just click Share in the top menu then there are Click More Then Click Template link and share Tamplates and Designs.
Create A Team
Create a team on the home page click Create a team in the sidebar enter your team name you can add a logo if you wish then click continue now you can invite people to your team just by entering their email addresses
The team is a very useful feature if you collaborate with others to create designs or if you run a small business
Save Brand Colours, Logos & Fonts
Save brand colors logos and fonts another useful feature is the ability to save your Brand kit for quick access on the home page click on Brand in the left-hand menu here you can add your brand logo your brand colors and your brand font the brand logo and brand fonts require the canvas pro version however.
You can add up to three brand colors in the free version you can do that simply by clicking the plus sign and then select your color or you can enter the color code underneath once that’s done you can go back into any design you’re creating click on colors and your color should appear
Find Company Logos
Find company logos a little known feature canva has is the ability to add company logos you can find a range of these logos from large corporations in the Elements section some of these are paid a lot of these are free.
All the big tech companies will be there and a lot of the social media companies will be there so that’s good if you want to promote your social media channels.
Add Hyperlinks
Add hyperlinks if you’re creating pdfs to distribute to people a useful feature is to add links you can do this quickly by highlighting the text then clicking the link button at the top then entering your URL and clicking apply it will underline the text.
So if you don’t want that then you can just remove the underline in the font settings now when you download it as a pdf the links will be clickable.
Create Device Mockups
Create device mockups you can find them by clicking on Element then typing in frames then scrolling down and you will see frames for various devices add them to the page this green and blue background.
Must Reade: How to make vision Board on your phone in Canva
Duplicate Images Quickly
tip 20 duplicate images quickly Alt+click & drag it to a new position and this will duplicate the image if you’re on a mac use Option+Click & drag and this will duplicate the image as well
Create Animated Video Intros
Create video intros and outros I created this logo animation in canva
LEARN | CREATE | GROW
Background remover
Remove Subject and Image Backgroud
- Add your image to the design
- Click on your image
- Click “Edit image” in the edit panel
- Click “Background Remover”
- Click “Apply”
Conclusion –
It’s time to start making some of your own designs now that you understand How to Use Canva For Graphic Design, Canva is a useful free marketing tool to have in your toolbox since it can assist you in creating social media posts that will go viral, excellent presentations, and more while maintaining a consistent and recognisable corporate identity.
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