New Favorite Tool

Have you heard about Canva?  A non-techie friend told me about this a while ago, but I hadn’t checked it out until recently.  And now it is my new favorite tool!

For graphic design, I normally use the excellent (and free) paint.net, or Photoshop for more complicated projects.  Both tools are great, but I’ve found that neither are quick.  Canva, on the other hand, is a very, very easy tool.

Start by creating a free Canva account.  You can always upgrade later to the Pro version, but the free version is quite powerful.  Next, choose a design.  The designs are organized generally by size, but labeled as Facebook Post,  Brochure, Invitation, Flyer, etc.  Hover over each design name to check the dimensions of the project.  The pro version of Canva allows you to resize your project, but the free version does not (at least not that I’m aware of), so it is important to choose the correct design (and therefore project size) first.  The social media designs are perfectly sized for posting to Instragram, Facebook, etc.

After a design is chosen, Canva displays many templates to choose from.  Some of the templates are free (hover over the template and look for the word Free in the lower right).  After choosing the template, you can change the photos, text, background, and more.  You can also upload your own photos.  When everything looks good, download the project and use it however you wish.