CANVA
BASICS
FOR BEGINNERS
CONTENTS
GETTING STARTED
MAKE A CANVA ACCOUNT.......................................... 2
LOAD A TEMPLATE YOU HAVE PURCHASED............ 3
EDITING BASICS
TEXT................................................................................... 4
PHOTOS............................................................................ 5
MOCKUPS......................................................................... 6
ELEMENTS......................................................................... 7
TRANSPARENCY............................................................. 8
LOCKING ELEMENTS...................................................... 9
CLONE + ADD PAGES................................................... 10
GRID VIEW....................................................................... 11
ADVANCED EDITING
P R O MERGING DOCUMENTS.................................... 12
1
GETTING STARTED
EDITING BASICS
HOW TO MAKE A CANVA
ACCOUNT
VISIT WWW.CANVA.COM
IN THE TOP RIGHT CORNER SELECT THE
PURPLE SIGN UP BUTTON
CHOOSE FROM THE OPTIONS TO SIGN UP WITH
GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, OR YOUR EMAIL.
IF YOU CHOSE TO SIGN UP WITH FACEBOOK OR
GOOGLE, LOG IN TO YOUR ACCOUNT TO
AUTHORIZE ACCESS.
IF YOU CHOSE TO SIGN UP WITH YOUR EMAIL,
FILL UP THE FIELDS.
CLICK GET STARTED.
SELECT FROM THE OPTIONS ON WHAT YOU’RE
PLANNING TO USE CANVA FOR.
COMPLETE THE ONBOARDING PROCESS.
CONFIRM YOUR ACCOUNT BY CLICKING ON THE
CONFIRM MY ACCOUNT BUTTON FROM AN
EMAIL YOU’LL RECEIVE.
2
GETTING STARTED
EDITING BASICS
LOAD A TEMPLATE
YOU HAVE PURCHASED
MAKE SURE YOU ARE LOGGED IN TO CANVA
IF YOU HAVE PURCHASED ONE OF OUR TEMPLATES, OR ARE
LOADING IN ONE OF OUR FREE RESOURCES, OPEN THE LINK.
IT SHOULD DISPLAY A SCREEN PREVIEWING THE TEMPLATE.
CLICK USE TEMPLATE
IT WILL OPEN THE TEMPLATE IN CANVA,
READY FOR YOU TO EDIT.
fast fact
IF YOU CLICK THE HOME SCREEN
IT SHOULD NOW LOAD
UNDER RECENT DESIGNS.
3
EDITING BASICS
EDITING BASICS
TEXT CHEATSHEET
NOTE THE LITTLE CROWN SHOWS
FONT SELECTION FONTS FOR THE PAID VERSION OF CANVA
CHOOSE YOUR FONT FROM HERE
FONT SIZE
CHOOSE YOUR FONT SIZE FROM HERE
FONT COLOUR
CHOOSE YOUR FONT COLOUR FROM HERE
FONT STYLE
BOLD, ITALICIZE OR UNDERLINE YOUR TEXT
CASE SETTING
TURN ON UPPER CASE TO AUTO CAPITALIZE ALL SELECTED TEXT
FONT ALIGNMENT
CHOOSE FROM LEFT, MIDDLE, RIGHT OR JUSTIFIED ALIGNMENT
DOT POINTS
CHOOSE FROM NONE, DOTS OR NUMBERS
LETTER SPACING + LINE HEIGHT
ADJUST THE SPACE BETWEEN LETTERS AND LINES
TRANSPARENCY
ADJUST THE OPACITY LEVEL OF THE TEXT
FONT EFFECTS
SPECIAL EFFECTS LIKE CURVED TEXT
4
EDITING BASICS
EDITING BASICS
PHOTOS
How to upload your own
UPLOADING YOUR OWN IMAGES TO CANVA IS EASY.
ON THE RIGHT HAND TOOLBAR CLICK UPLOADS.
THEN CLICK 'UPLOAD FILES'.
LOCATE THE FILE ON YOUR COMPUTER AND UPLOAD IT.
CLICK THE NEWLY UPLOADED PHOTO TO ADD TO YOUR
DOCUMENT.
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CANVA HAS AN INCREDIBLE LIBRARY
OF FREE + PAID GRAPHICS, PHOTOS AND
VIDEOS. YOU CAN ACCESS THESE VIA THE
ELEMENTS TAB.
5
EDITING BASICS
EDITING BASICS
MOCKUPS
MOCKUPS ARE PRE-DESIGNED TEMPLATES Where to find it?
OR LAYOUTS THAT ALLOW USERS TO
GO TO THE RIGHT TOOLBAR, SELECT
VISUALIZE AND PRESENT THEIR DESIGNS,
ELEMENTS AND SCROLL DOWN TO FIND
PRODUCTS, OR IDEAS IN A REALISTIC AND
'MOCKUPS'
PROFESSIONAL MANNER. WHEN PLACED IN
YOUR DOCUMENT THEY WILL INITIALLY
LOOK LIKE THIS:
DRAG AND DROP PHOTOS TO TRANSFORM
YOUR DESIGN TO SOMETHING LIKE THIS!
6
EDITING BASICS
EDITING BASICS
ELEMENTS
CANVA COMES STOCKED WITH A HUGE NUMBER OF
FREE AND PAID ELEMENTS.
ELEMENTS CAN BE FOUND IN THE
RIGHT HAND TOOLBAR. USE THE
SEARCH BAR TO FIND ELEMENTS IN
THE THEME YOU NEED.
NOTE THE LITTLE CROWN WHEN YOU HOVER OVER
AN ELEMENT. IT INDICATES WHEN THE PRO / PAID
VERSION OF CANVA IS REQUIRED TO ACCESS
fast fact
A LOT OF ELEMENTS ARE IN VECTOR FORMAT, WHICH
MEANS YOU CAN EASILY ADJUST THE COLOURS.
7
EDITING BASICS
EDITING BASICS
TRANSPARENCY
TRANSPARENCY AFFECTS HOW SEE THROUGH
SOMETHING IS, AND CAN BE APPLIED TO IMAGES,
ELEMENTS, TEXT AND SOLID SHAPES.
How to adjust transparency
CLICK THE ITEM YOU WOULD LIKE TO
ADJUST THE TRANSPARENCY.
A MENU WILL APPEAR IN THE TOP RIGHT OF TRANSPARENCY AT 100%
THE SCREEN.
CLICK THE SMALL, CHESS PATTERN ICON.
A SLIDER WILL APPEAR, SLIDE UP AND DOWN
FOR THE REQUIRED EFFECT.
TRANSPARENCY AT 30%
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WHEN TEXT IS PLACED OVER AN IMAGE,
USE TRANSPARENCY TO IMPROVE
LEGIBILITY.
8
EDITING BASICS
EDITING BASICS
LOCKING ELEMENTS
LOCKING ELEMENTS IS A GREAT WAY TO
KEEP YOUR DOCUMENT ORGANISED,
ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE BRINGING THINGS
LIKE BACKGROUNDS AND LAYERED IMAGES
INTO PLAY.
To lock something
CLICK THE ITEM YOU WOULD LIKE TO LOCK.
A MENU WILL APPEAR IN THE TOP RIGHT OF
THE SCREEN.
CLICK THE SMALL, LOCK ICON.
To unlock something
fast fact CLICK THE ITEM YOU WOULD LIKE TO
UNLOCK.
YOU CAN ALSO LOCK MULTIPLE
THINGS AT ONCE BY HOLDING SHIFT, A MENU WILL APPEAR IN THE TOP RIGHT OF
DRAGGING YOUR MOUSE ACROSS THE SCREEN.
THE ITEMS AND THEN CLICKING
THE LOCK BUTTON CLICK THE SMALL, LOCK ICON.
9
EDITING BASICS
EDITING BASICS
CLONE AND ADD PAGES
CANVA HAS THE AMAZING CAPABILITY TO
ADD MULTIPLE PAGES. YOU CAN DO THIS
FROM THE CLONE AND ADD PAGES MENU.
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CANVA NOW SUPPORTS A HUGE
100 PAGES PER DOCUMENT
YOU CAN ACCESS THE CLONE AND ADD PAGES MENU FROM
DIRECTLY ABOVE YOUR TEMPLATES TOP RIGHT CORNER.
DUPLICATE PAGE
MAKES AN EXACT COPY OF YOUR CURRENT PAGE
DELETE PAGE
DELETES YOUR CURRENT PAGE
ADD PAGE
CREATES A NEW, BLANK PAGE
10
EDITING BASICS
EDITING BASICS
GRID VIEW
GRID VIEW ALLOWS YOU TO LOOK AT MULTIPLE
PAGES IN YOUR DOCUMENT AT ONCE. IT'S FANTASTIC
FOR THINGS LIKE EBOOKS AND LARGER MULTI-PAGED
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FILES.
TO ACCESS GRID VIEW, LOOK
TO THE BOTTOM RIGHT
CORNER OF THE SCREEN AND TO REARRANGE PAGES, DRAG AND
CLICK THE 4 SQUARE ICON. DROP THEM INTO A NEW ORDER.
GRID VIEW APPEARS LIKE THIS:
11
ADVANCED
ADVANCED EDITING
MERGING TEMPLATES P R O
*
PLEASE NOTE THAT 'FOLDERS' WHICH ALLOWS YOU TO MERGE TWO TEMPLATES IS A PRO ADD
ON, BUT IS AN AMAZING TOOL SO WE WANTED TO INCLUDE IT WITH OUR GUIDE
TO INSERT A DESIGN, FIRST ADD A NEW PAGE IN
YOUR DOCUMENT.
ACCESS FOLDERS SELECT 'FOLDERS' FROM
THE RIGHT HAND TOOLBAR.
THEN SELECT 'ALL YOUR DESIGNS' - THIS IS
SHOW ALL OTHER CURRENT DESIGNS IN YOUR
ACCOUNT.
THEN CLICK ON THE THUMBNAIL OF THE
DOCUMENT YOU WOULD LIKE TO INSERT - THIS
WORKS VERY SIMILARLY TO INSERTING A
PHOTO.
fast fact
THE FILE YOU ARE INSERTING WILL
AUTOMATICALLY RESIZE TO THE
DIMENSIONS OF YOUR CURRENT DOCUMENT.
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