CANVA, A FREE WEB DESIGN TOOL
Design is an essential part of any project. For some, the design is the first step that every company must take to forge and start their project on the Internet. There are many others, who believe that design is very important but that it must go hand in hand with the business strategy, and with this that the corporate identity is created that will reflect the foundations of the future company. Both for the first and for the second, today we come to talk about a design tool that is very easy to use and with which you can achieve beautiful and elegant designs. If you are thinking of creating an online store, or you already have it and want to improve it, without a doubt design is something very important to keep in mind in order to gain or increase sales. Whether you have a defined marketing strategy or not, the design is a good basis to make yourself known. And for this, Canva can help you achieve a great design. In today's article we are going to explain what this web design tool consists of and what we can achieve with its use, types of formats and files that we can create, the options we have to download the designs, advantages, and disadvantages of the application, as well as tutorials and tips that we find on their website. Ready to get to know Canva step by step?
WHAT IS CANVA?
How do I create an account in Canva?
To start creating our own designs we first have to create an account to access the application and take advantage of all the possibilities offered by this simple tool. If we want to access the Canva tool, we can do it in two ways. On the one hand, by accessing ourselves from their page or on the contrary, through an invitation from someone they know who is already using their ingenuity in the designs or if we are within a group that uses the tool. Once we have accessed Canva, in the upper left we will find a “create a design” button with which we can start our little adventure as designers, either by customizing the measurements of our creations or choosing from the suggestions that Canva offers us.
Types of designs that we can do in canva
If or what we need are different options to choose from, in the "Home" section, we will see all the options and design prototypes that we can use with the Canva tool. Browsing this section, we will see a large number of different options from which we can choose, but do not forget the search engine located at the top. This search engine will greatly simplify the task of choosing the dimensions of our creation, even so, since we are here, I am going to mention some designs that you can find:
Basic formats
As we navigate through the "Home" section of Canva, we will find formats for logos, resumes, cards, infographics, posters, or publications for social networks among others. We can also choose between creating elegant presentations for possible meetings with customers, magazine covers or different types of documents with which we can create an innovative design in them, or you can create striking and striking and creative designs to get traffic to your store online, blog or website. Due to the great importance that social networks have acquired in recent times, below, I will mention different formats that you have at your disposal if you decide to use this tool.Publications for social networks
As we mentioned, social networks have a very important position today, so Canva offers us different formats for different applications. In this option, we can create different content to publish it in the different profiles that we have on social media. Pinterest, Facebook (ad, story, cover, post, etc.), Instagram (story, post, ads, etc.), Youtube (icon, thumbnail, header, etc.) or Tumblr (Banner, graphic).
Marketing materials
It is very likely that some of the options that we have been discussing in the previous points could also be found in this section, but and if we tell you that Canva also gives you the possibility of creating personalized restaurant menus, triptychs, flyers, business cards, newsletters, book covers, and even labels!More creatives
With everything we have seen in Canva, there is no doubt that we could create even designs for events, ceremonies, and special occasions such as future weddings, communions, baptisms, or birthdays, but also much more. We can find many more creatives such as recipe cards, magazine covers, certificates, organization charts, school and work schedules, calendars, etc. There are many options available!
Canva, how does it work?
Once we choose the template we want to create or we have incorporated the dimensions of our project, we will arrive at a tab like this: As you can see in the photograph, all the options that we can use in our designs will appear in the upper left of the screen, such as, graphic elements where we can find lines, shapes, icons or original illustrations that will help us to create creative designs. In addition, we will also have the option of incorporating and uploading the images that we have on our computer, as well as changing the text or the background that our design will carry. At the bottom of the image, a horizontal tab appears with which we can create infinite designs under the measures of the main design. To get the most out of all your designs, do not forget one of the options that are probably less used but for which it will surely add a touch of style and differentiation to your design. We are talking about Canva filters, which allow us to edit the images as if we were using the image editing format of Instagram.
Why use Canva?
Canva Advantages
One of the advantages of this application is that it makes images and different formats available to everyone to create the design you want at any time. It's free. Another strong point of this online tool is that it is free and does not, therefore, fall short in benefits. It is true that we can pay monthly for it and that we can choose among many other options such as being able to choose more images for our projects or ways to incorporate it into the designs. Didactic tool and simple to use. No design knowledge is needed to create a beautiful and elegant web or print designs. Another great advantage that we found with the use of Canva is the custom dimensions of all its designs. We do not need to know in detail the exact dimension we will need in case of creating facebook headers for events, banners for advertisements, or infographics. The application itself shows us each format with its measurements and it is we who will add our style to the design unless we create custom designs from the beginning. 5 options to choose from to download our file. We can choose to download our designs in PNG, JPG, PDF, and PDF format for printing. And also the option to create the famous animation GIFs or MP4 although these options are still in trial format. Colours is another of its advantages. Depending on the colours you use in your design, they are automatically saved without having to remember the exact hexadecimal code on the colour palette.
Disadvantages of Canva
Once the design in Canva has been created, the dimensions generated for our documents can be slightly modified. There are no lines or guides that allow us to know with certainty that our design is centred and adjusted with the rest of the project. Not for that reason we must take our hands to the head, for them there is ingenuity and we can add lines that act as guides and erase them at the end of the design.
Conclusions
An attractive design can help us attract new customers, and thereby increase sales. It is not necessary to be a great expert to get great designs that help us offer a quality image. We have tools like Canva that are undoubtedly a great ally to create your own designs offering the image you need for your online store. If you didn't decide to add new creatives to your business, don't think twice! Enter Canva and you will see how it is a possibility at your fingertips. Before dismissing this article, we had to tell you about the Canva Blog and all the tutorials that you can find on its website as the "essential tools you need to know in Canva". They will be of great help to you in your beginnings. To finish, we leave you an introductory video to Canva in English, where you can see some of the applications that you can give to your designs.
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