Be A Canva Expert: Basics of Canva

Getting Started with Canva:

Canva is a web design tool that has been designed for you to use both professionally and personally. As a first-time designer, it may surprise you that your designs are not as smoothly and professionally arranged as they should be. 

Don’t worry, we’re here for you. We will share step-by-step guidelines for your first design using Canva.

Opening Canva for the First Time

Step 1:  Sign up for Canva Account  (if you don’t have one).

After opening Canva for the first time, look for the “Sign up” option, which is in the upper right corner of the website, and click it to create a new account. You can sign up using Google, Facebook, or your email address.

You can use Canva even if you don’t sign up, but we advise that you do so in order to save your projects and use all of the features provided by Canva.

Step 2: Exploring the Dashboard and Interface

It will immediately send you to Canva’s homepage when you log in. Familiarize yourself with the various options available in the left corner, you’ll see the “hamburger” option, which will show you the main menu. It’s where you’ll find your home, your magic studio, your projects, templates, brands, and apps.

Working with Templates:

Canva templates are fully customizable and editable. Adding and modifying elements like text, image, or shape can be done using the user-friendly drag-and-drop editor. To improve the look of your designs, you can also apply Canva’s substantial library of design elements such as icons, illustrations, and photographs.

Canva’s templates offer a wide range of options for business, social media, education purposes, video, marketing, pin products, and cards, and invitations.

Canva’s templates are customizable so that you can easily change them to meet your specific needs and brand identity. It is therefore an effective tool for anyone who wishes to produce professional, high-quality designs fast and easily.

Navigating the Editor:

One of the biggest benefits of Canva is that you have a library of design templates to choose from. You will be able to choose a template just by clicking on the design you want. Hover over the design and look for FREE designation in the lower right-hand corner to see if a template is free.

Adding and Editing Elements:

You can now customize or modify your choice of template as soon as you search for what kind of template you want to make.

On the right side of your screen, you will see the edits or additional elements in your design. You can draw, change your template design, add elements like shapes, lines, etc. and there’s text, and uploads for the pictures you want to insert in your design.

For uploading and editing your images or videos, you can see tools you can use to adjust in the top middle part of the page, where you can animate, adjust the position of the elements, change the color of the typographies and image, crop and flip it.

Text and Typography:

It’s time to modify your text now that your design is in good condition.

Now that your design is in a good place, it’s time to edit your text. As for the text, there are even more ways to edit it. Besides the options we have already covered with regard to editing a design element, some additional possibilities are also available.

You can search what kind of typography you want, change, specify, and select your fonts, font size, style, and alignment, you can insert a list in bullet format, and modify spacing and effects for the typography of your design.

Sharing and Collaboration:

Canva will automatically save your work, allowing you to access it later in the “All your designs” section on the homepage. You can share your designs directly on social media, or you can create a shareable link to collaborate with others. 

Click on the Share button to invite team members and friends to edit or comment on your designs, so that you can collaborate in real time.

You can save progress by clicking on the “save” button at the upper toolbar when you’re happy with your design. You can save your designs in a variety of formats, like JPEG, PNG, PDF, and so on, by clicking the “Download” button at the top toolbar.

Tips and Tricks:

In order to create graphics and presentations on social media, you can really cut hours out of your day if you memorize a couple of keyboard shortcuts. Below, I have compiled keyboard shortcuts and Canva hacks that will make it a lot easier to create your designs.

• Copy: Cmd/Ctrl + C
• Paste: Cmd/Ctrl + V
• Quick Copy: Alt/Option + Drag
• Add a text box: T key
• Bold text: Cmd/ctrl + B
• Italicized text: Cmd/ctrl + I
• Underline text: Cmd/Ctrl + U
• Increase font size: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + >
• Decrease font size: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + <
• Copy text style: Cmd/Ctrl + Option/Alt + C
• Paste text style: Cmd/Ctrl + Option/Alt + V
• Convert text to uppercase: Cmd/ctrl + Shift + K
• Align text to the left: Cmd/ctrl + shift + L
• Align text to the right: Cmd/ctrl + shift + R
• Align text in the center: Cmd/ctrl + shift + C
• Group elements: Cmd/Ctrl + G
• Ungroup elements: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + G
• Duplicate elements: Cmd/ctrl + D
• Select all elements: Cmd/ctrl + A
• Deselect element: ESC key
• Delete element: Delete key
• Send elements backward: Cmd/ctrl + [
• Send elements forward: Cmd/ctrl + ]
• Send elements to back: Cmd/ctrl +Option/Alt + [
• Send elements to front: Cmd/ctrl + Option/Alt + ]
• Add a line to your template: L key
• Add a rectangle to your template: R key
• Add a circle to your template: C key
• Constrain proportions while resizing: Shift + Drag Corners
• Scale element relative to its center point: Alt + Drag Side Handles
• Zoom in on your template: Cmd/ctrl + “+”
• Zoom out of your template: Cmd/ctrl + “-”
• Zoom 100%: Cmd/ctrl + 0
• Zoom to fit: Cmd/ctrl + Option/Alt + 0
• Undo an action: Cmd/ctrl + Z
• Redo an action: Cmd/ctrl + Shift + Z
• Add a new page: Cmd/Ctrl + Return key
• Delete empty page: Cmd/Ctrl + Delete key
• Add a comment: Cmd/Ctrl + Option/Alt + M
• Select multiple elements: Shift + Click

Once you are proficient with the basics of your design, Adobe will also be able to help you explore more tools for correcting subtle flaws in your design before they are printed or published on your website. Specific adjustments of brightness, contrast, color, and many typographies for you to choose from are the most efficient tools.

Size of Arts for Social Media

There’s a real problem with posting pictures with the wrong aspect ratio. You can make mistakes with the ratio of post aspects during publication even after you know the right image size. In order to achieve the allowed aspect ratio, you may adjust your image to appropriate dimensions or crop it. 

Below are the main Social Media Platforms and their corresponding sizes for images you should follow.