Canva Tips & Tricks to Nail The Perfect Design
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Canva, an all-in-one tool for creators, is one of the most popular graphic design websites around today.
The simple to use interface, done for you templates, and access to millions of graphic elements, stock photos, and fonts makes it my go-to for creating almost everything!
From basic image design to social media videos, Canva is such a powerful tool to help you create great looking graphics for a multitude of projects.
As someone who spends a ton of time using Canva, I have learned quite a few tricks that help me create beautiful looking pins, templates, or labels for my Etsy shop. And I want to share them with you!
Canva Tips to Make Designing Easier
Select or Move an Object Behind Other Objects
If you have a design with lots of elements, it can be annoying to locate and select the element at the bottom of the pile. Trying to move things out of the way just to access it gets really annoying.
THE FIX: Select the top element, then hold down COMMAND on a MAC (CTRL on a PC) and arrow up or down. This allows you to scroll through the elements and select the one you want.
Quickly Copy and Paste From One Design to Another
Let’s say you created a fantastic design, but want to duplicate it to another design to save a ton of time). On the surface, it appears that there is no way to copy from one Canva design to another.
THE FIX: Select the elements you want to copy (either group select by clicking and holding the left mouse button, then dragging all the elements you want, or select each individually while holding the SHIFT key), then select COMMAND on a MAC (CTRL on a PC) + C. Move to the design where you want to copy to, and select COMMAND on a MAC (CTRL on a PC) + V.
Curving Your Text
Want to create that super trendy wavy text look or text in a circle?
THE FIX: Select the text you want to curve, then select EFFECTS in the top toolbar. From here, choose CURVE shape and then use the slider to control the amount of curve you want.
Move An Element With More Control
Have you ever tried to move an element a little, but every time you do it moves way more than you intended? Yep, me too!
THE FIX: Hold down COMMAND (CTRL on a PC) as you move the element. This disconnects the ‘snap-to-guidelines’ and the element will move freely. This is really helpful when trying to move something just a smidge. Other helpful tips for moving with more control:
To move the element 1 pixel- Use the ARROW KEYS
To move the element 10 pixels – SHIFT + ARROW KEY
To move an element very precisely – CTRL + LEFT CLICK and DRAG
Filter Elements or Photos
Do you get sick of scrolling through what seems like a never-ending list of elements and seeing way too many that don’t match what you are looking for?
THE FIX: You can easily filter the elements or photos by clicking the “filter” button next to the search box and then selecting your options.
Constrain Proportions
When creating a shape or cropping an image, it can be difficult to make sure you are keeping things square or proportional. Having control is great, but sometimes you need a helping hand to guide you along the way.
THE FIX: Hold down shift when resizing an element. No more wonky or uneven shapes again!
Viewing All of Your Pages At Once
Not sure about you, but I really like to look at a multi-page design as a whole just to make sure each individual page fits the vibe I am going for. This next tip also makes it super easy to swap or rearrange the order of your pages.
THE FIX: Next to the zoom control in the lower right corner, there is a page view button that will have a number in it corresponding to the number of pages in your design. Select that button to open a grid-view layout and be able to look at your pages on one screen!
To rearrange pages in the grid view, just drag and drop the page or pages where you want them.
BONUS TIP: you can multi-select pages in the grid view by holding SHIFT and selecting the pages you want. Then you can move, duplicate, or delete entire groups of pages.
Creating a Shadow
Some things just look better with a drop shadow to make them stand out from the other elements on the page.
THE FIX: This one only works with images, not elements. Select the image, then select “Edit Image”. Now navigate to the Shadows section and choose “Drop Shadow”. Viola!
Quick Key Shortcuts
If you are like me, or just someone who loves to save time when designing, it can be just easier to have keyboard shortcuts. It can be cumbersome to reach over to the mouse, then navigate to the tool on Canva you want, click, then return back to the keyboard.
THE FIX: Canva has created some super useful keyboard shortcuts.
R = Rectangle
T = New Text Box
C = Circle
ESC = Deselect an Element
L = Line
Change Text Kerning (Space Between Letters)
One of the things that can make any design look more professional is by adding kerning to your text. You can create so many cute-looking designs this way!
THE FIX: Select the text, then select the “aA” button. From here, use the Letter Spacing slider to adjust the amount of space between the letters.
BONUS TIP: You can also adjust the line height from here. To add or remove the space between lines of text, adjust the Line Spacing slider.
There you go! You now have all of my tricks for designing in Canva much faster and easier. Ready to learn more? Check out my article here on even more useful design tips using Canva.
If you want to save even more time, check out my shop for ready-to-use templates to help boost your sales and grow your handmade business.
Are there any hacks that you use often to make your Canva life easier? Comment below!
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