CANVA TUTORIAL FOR BEGINNERS 2024 (How to start using Canva step by step)

Summary

This tutorial introduces Canva, a user-friendly and budget-friendly graphic design tool, perfect for beginners. It guides viewers through starting a project, navigating the editor, and utilizing Canva's extensive content library. The video covers editing elements, text, and accessing various design features. It also promotes an upcoming course on creating and selling digital products with Canva, and highlights the benefits of Canva Pro for advanced editing capabilities and premium content access.

Takeaways

• 🎨 Canva is a user-friendly design tool suitable for beginners, offering a wide range of design options from social media posts to digital products.
• 💡 Starting a project in Canva begins with selecting a design size and orientation, with presets available for various platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
• 📐 Custom sizes can be inputted if the desired preset isn't available, and users can also import their own files to work with in Canva.
• 🌐 Canva's editor provides access to a comprehensive content library, including graphics, illustrations, icons, photos, and videos.
• 🔍 Users can search for specific elements within Canva's content library and choose from different categories to customize their designs.
• 🖼️ Canva offers editing tools for elements and photos, such as color changes, border adjustments, and transparency sliders.
• ✨ The alignment and distribution features in Canva help users to arrange and space their design elements effectively.
• 🖋️ Text can be customized with various fonts, sizes, colors, and effects, and Canva's text tools also include a color picker for seamless design integration.
• 🔗 Canva allows for the addition of hyperlinks to text, which is useful for creating clickable links in documents or for digital products.
• 🔄 The platform provides options to duplicate, group, and align multiple design elements for efficiency and consistency.
• 📁 When the design is complete, users can download their work in various file formats, with options for different resolutions and DPI settings depending on the intended use.

Q & A

What is Canva and why is it popular among beginners in the design world?

Canva is a user-friendly design tool that is popular for its intuitive interface and beginner-friendliness. It is favored for its budget-friendliness and ease of use, making graphic design accessible to those who may not be familiar with more complex software.

What types of projects can Canva be used for?

Canva can be used for a wide range of projects including creating social media posts, digital products, flyers, planners, presentations, and more. It offers various preset sizes for different types of content, catering to various design needs.

How does one start a new project on Canva?

To start a new project on Canva, users go to the top right where it says 'Create a design'. They can either type in what they're looking for or choose from one of Canva's suggested types of canvases, which include different orientations and sizes.

What is the purpose of the 'Elements' tab in Canva?

The 'Elements' tab in Canva provides access to a content library filled with various images, fonts, graphics, and other design elements. Users can search for specific items like flowers or shapes and choose from different categories to incorporate into their designs.

How can users customize the text in Canva?

Users can customize text in Canva by selecting a text box and using the top menu to change the font, size, and color. They can also apply various effects such as shadows, outlines, and lifts to enhance the text's appearance.

What are some of the editing options available for photos in Canva?

In Canva, users can edit photos by applying effects like blur, using the background remover feature (available for Canva Pro users), and adjusting the transparency to overlay text or other elements on top of the photo.

What is the difference between JPEG and PNG file formats in Canva?

JPEG and PNG are both file formats used for images. JPEGs have smaller file sizes, making them suitable for web use and sharing online. PNGs, on the other hand, support transparency in backgrounds and are typically larger in file size.

Why would someone choose to download their design as a PDF print from Canva?

A PDF print is chosen when the design is intended for high-quality printing. It automatically downloads at a resolution of 300 DPI, which is the minimum required for printing, ensuring the best print quality.

What is the 'Frames' section in Canva and how can it be used?

The 'Frames' section in Canva offers a variety of shapes to fit photos into. Users can select a frame and then drag and drop their chosen photo into it, which automatically adjusts the photo to fit the shape of the frame.

How can Canva Pro users benefit from additional features?

Canva Pro users have access to premium content and additional features such as the background remover, higher resolution downloads for JPEGs, transparent PNGs, and the ability to change color profiles from RGB to CMYK for high-quality printables.

What is the speaker's new course about and how can interested individuals stay informed about it?

The speaker's new course is about creating and selling digital products using Canva. Interested individuals can stay informed by joining the waitlist through the link provided in the video description, which will notify them when enrollment opens.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Introduction to Canva for Design Beginners

This paragraph introduces Canva as a user-friendly and budget-friendly graphic design tool, ideal for beginners. The speaker offers a comprehensive tutorial for those new to Canva, covering the basics of starting a project, using the editor, accessing Canva's content library, and editing elements and text. The tutorial aims to guide viewers step-by-step through the platform's functionalities, starting with selecting a project size and exploring preset options like social media posts and custom sizes. The speaker also mentions an upcoming digital products course with Canva, which will provide a more in-depth look into creating and selling digital products online.

05:01

📚 Exploring Canva's Content Library and Editing Features

The speaker delves into Canva's Content Library, highlighting its extensive collection of images, fonts, graphics, and more. They demonstrate how to search for and use various elements like graphics, photos, and shapes within a design project. The paragraph also covers the ease of editing these elements, such as changing colors, border weights, and transparency. Additionally, the tutorial explains alignment and centering features, photo editing options like blur effects and background removal, and the use of frames to create unique photo shapes. The speaker emphasizes the drag-and-drop editor's ease of use and the platform's helpful alignment guides for designing.

10:01

🖋 Customizing Text and Advanced Design Techniques

This section focuses on Canva's text customization options, including changing fonts, sizing, and colors, with the option to pick specific colors from a design or photo using the color picker tool. The speaker introduces various text effects like shadows, page lift, hollow, splice, and outlines to enhance text appeal. They also discuss the ability to group and ungroup elements, duplicate items for consistency, and align or evenly space multiple elements on a page. Furthermore, the paragraph covers adding hyperlinks to text for digital products and the option to duplicate entire pages or add blank ones for multi-page documents.

15:03

🔗 Finalizing Designs and Downloading Files in Canva

The final paragraph discusses the process of finalizing a design in Canva and downloading it. The speaker explains the different file types available for download, such as JPEG, PNG, PDF, and others, and the importance of choosing the right file type and resolution for the intended use, whether digital or for printing. They mention Canva Pro features like size and quality adjustments for JPEGs and PNGs, and the option to change color profiles for high-quality printables. The paragraph concludes with an invitation to join a waitlist for an upcoming course on digital products with Canva and encourages viewers to share their favorite aspects of designing on Canva.

Keywords

💡Canva

Canva is an online design platform that offers a wide range of tools for creating visual content such as social media posts, digital products, and more. It is central to the video's theme as the tutorial is focused on using Canva for beginners. The script mentions Canva's beginner-friendliness, intuitive design tools, and its extensive library of content, which makes it a go-to choice for graphic design without requiring extensive technical skills.

💡Graphic Design

Graphic design refers to the process of visual communication and problem-solving using images, typography, and spatial arrangements. In the context of the video, graphic design is the main activity that Canva facilitates. The script discusses various aspects of graphic design, such as choosing project sizes, editing elements, and using the editor to create visually appealing content.

💡Beginner-Friendly

The term 'beginner-friendly' describes something that is easy for people who are new to a particular activity to understand and use. The video emphasizes that Canva is beginner-friendly, meaning it is designed to be accessible and easy to learn for those who are not experts in graphic design, as stated in the script where the speaker shares their opinion that Canva is the most user-intuitive design tool.

💡Budget-Friendliness

Budget-friendliness pertains to the affordability of a product or service. The script highlights Canva's budget-friendliness, suggesting that it is an affordable option for those looking to create graphic designs without incurring high costs. This is an important aspect for beginners and small businesses that may not have the funds for expensive design software.

💡Editor

In the context of graphic design, an editor refers to the interface or tool used to create and modify designs. The video provides a tutorial on how to use Canva's editor, which includes adding and editing elements, text, and photos. The script walks through the process of starting a project in the editor and the various options available for customization.

💡Content Library

A content library is a collection of resources such as images, fonts, graphics, and videos that can be used in design projects. Canva's content library is praised in the script for providing a built-in selection of elements necessary for graphic design, which simplifies the design process by offering a wide array of options to choose from without needing to source materials externally.

💡Drag and Drop

Drag and drop is a user interface feature that allows users to move or position elements within a design by clicking, holding, and then dragging the item to a new location. The script mentions the ease of using Canva's drag and drop editor, which simplifies the process of arranging and resizing design elements, making it an intuitive part of the design experience.

💡Resolution

Resolution refers to the measure of the amount of detail that can be seen in an image or display, typically measured in DPI (dots per inch). The video script discusses the importance of resolution when downloading files from Canva, especially for printable materials where a higher resolution (300 DPI) is recommended for quality printing, whereas a standard resolution (96 DPI) is sufficient for digital or web use.

💡JPEG and PNG

JPEG and PNG are file formats commonly used for images on the web. The script explains that JPEG offers smaller file sizes suitable for web use and sharing, while PNG provides higher quality images with transparency support. These formats are essential for understanding how to save and use images created on Canva for different purposes.

💡Pro Features

Pro features refer to premium or advanced capabilities that are available to users who subscribe to a paid version of a service. The script mentions Canva Pro, which includes additional features such as the background remover, higher resolution downloads, and access to premium content. These features are highlighted as beneficial for enhancing the design capabilities and output quality within Canva.

Highlights

Canva is considered the most beginner-friendly and intuitive design tool for online media and digital products.

Canva offers budget-friendly and easy-to-use graphic design software.

The video provides a full Canva tutorial for beginners, covering project start, editor usage, and library access.

Users can choose from a variety of preset canvas sizes or input custom dimensions.

Canva's editor includes tabs for elements, text, and drawing, offering a wide range of design options.

The content library within Canva provides access to images, fonts, graphics, and more for design creation.

Elements can be searched and selected from categories such as graphics, photos, videos, and shapes.

Canva's drag-and-drop editor allows for easy resizing and repositioning of design elements.

Design alignment and centering are facilitated by visual guides that appear during element movement.

Photos can be edited with effects like blur and background removal, exclusive to Canva Pro users.

Frames can be used to fit photos into various shapes, adding a creative touch to designs.

Text can be customized with different fonts, sizes, colors, and effects like shadows and outlines.

Canva offers the ability to group and ungroup elements for organized design manipulation.

Elements and text can be duplicated for quick replication across the design.

Links can be added to text for creating clickable hyperlinks in digital documents.

Designs can be aligned and spaced evenly using the tidy up feature.

Pages can be duplicated or blank pages added for multi-page design projects.

Users can upload their own elements or draw freehand directly onto the workspace.

Designs can be downloaded in various file types, with options for different resolutions and color profiles.

Canva Pro offers additional features such as high-quality image download and advanced editing options.

Transcripts

if you're in the world of Designing

online whether it be creating social

media posts or selling digital products

or anything in between you've likely

heard of canva canva is absolutely in my

opinion the most beginner friendly and

user inuitive design tool out there

there are a lot of options out there

when it comes to software to use for

graphic design but none come close to

canva in terms of budget friendliness

and ease of use so in this video I'm

giving a full canva tutorial for

beginners for those who may not be super

familiar with using it yet we're going

to be walking through how to start a

project how to use the editor what kind

of content canva has in their library

and how to access it how to edit

elements text and more so if you're

somewhat new to canva and just need the

basics and a stepbystep walkthr then

this video is for you okay so we're here

on canva and when you want to start a

new project you'll come here to the top

right where it says create a design and

you can either type in what you're

looking for or choose from one of canvas

suggested types of canvases so this is

just talking about what orientation and

what size the canvas or the workspace is

going to be so you're basically choosing

your project size here so these

suggestions are everything from

Instagram post to Facebook post flyer

planner presentation there are so many

different ones that canva has as presets

and you can see what size it's

referencing if you look to the right

where it says the size so for an

Instagram story we're looking at a

canvas that's 1080 by 1920 pixels

whereas something like a flyer is going

to be 8 1/2 by 11 in so you can just

select one of these or if you're

thinking of something specific you can

type it in so let's say I'm looking to

make a Pinterest pen I could start

typing Pinterest and it'll populate all

of the different Pinterest preset so

then I can choose the one I'd like I can

also come down here to custom size if I

don't see the preset I'm looking for I

can input a custom width and height in

pixels inches millimeters or centim or I

can also come here to import a file so

let's say I have a photo that I want to

bring into canva to edit and create a

design with I can import files here so

for this tutorial let's just choose CH

Instagram post and start with that

before we go any further I want to let

you know about my brand new digital

products with canva course it's going to

be opening up for enrollment very soon

it's my full comprehensive course that

walks you step by step through creating

digital products using canva and selling

them online so if you've been interested

in the idea of selling digital products

online to make passive income but feel

like you've needed a deeper dive and a

more comprehensive walkthrough and group

of tutorials for creating different

digital products then this course might

be just what you need to take that next

step at the time of this filming it's

not quite launched yet but we do have a

weit list going so definitely click on

the link in the description box below to

hop on that weight list that way you'll

be the first to know when the doors do

open for enrollment and you may get an

extra perk or two from being on that

weight list but like I said if you've

needed just an extra hand to hold to

walk through this whole process of

learning how to create digital products

using canva and selling them online then

hop on that list and keep an eye on your

inbox for more details to come okay so

here we are inside of the canva editor

this this is what it looks like here's

my workspace so because I chose

Instagram post it gave me a square size

that is the right size for an Instagram

post and I've got all of my design menu

tools here on the left so I can choose

the elements tab to find things like

graphic illustrations icons photographs

I can choose the text tab if I'd like to

add a text box I can choose the draw tab

if I want a freehand draw so let's just

go through some of these because there's

so many great options so here under

elements we can access all of the

content that's with within canvas

Content Library so that's one reason I

love canvas because it's not only an

editor but it also has a built-in

library of tons of different images

fonts Graphics everything that I would

need to create a stunning graphic design

so here under elements I can search for

something I'm looking for so let's say I

want a flower I might type in flower and

then it'll populate results for me in

all of these different categories so

I've got graphics photos videos shapes

so let's just click on graphics and here

it's giving me all of the different

results for flower Graphics so Graphics

are pretty much any element that is not

text or photos these are things like

icons stickers graphic illustrations

drawings then I could click over to

photos if I wanted an actual photograph

of flowers and so on now if I come back

to where it says all I can see the

different categories here under the

elements tab like shapes Graphics

stickers photos videos so let's look at

shapes if I click see all this is going

to give me the entire shapes section so

I've got lines and shapes here and if I

choose one to put on my design it'll

bring it over into my workspace and then

I can click and drag to enlarge this or

to make it smaller I can click and drag

to move it around which is another

reason I love canvas so much is for the

ease of this drag and drop editor then

once I have an element in my design I

can see all of my options for editing

that element up here in the top menu so

here when I have this element or this

shape selected I can come to the color

to change out the color of the shape I

can change the Border weight so if I

want a border around my shape I can do

that I can also make my shape more

transparent so if I come to this

transparency slider I can bring the

transparency down to make it more

see-through so let's say I had this

photo in the background and this element

or shape on top then I could make it as

transparent as I want so here it's a

solid color but I might want to make it

a little transparent to be able to see

through to the background photo now as

I'm moving this element around I'll see

some different lines appear on the

workspace so I can see when the element

is completely centered because this

solid pink line going from top to bottom

will appear that tells me it's centered

and the same if I continue moving it

down I'll see one going left to right

and that means this is completely in the

middle now if I have another element on

the page in a different area then I can

be sure that I'm lining them up if I'm

moving this one and I want it to line up

on the side because the dotted pink line

will appear down for instance the right

side here this is telling me that these

two elements are lined up along that

line you can see it if we move this one

this way we can see that dott line

appear as soon as we've anchored them to

the same spot so those little lines that

appear as you're moving things around

are super helpful when you're designing

in canva all right so let's talk about

photographs if I find a photo I'd like

to use I can bring it into my workspace

and I can edit this photo in a lot of

different ways so while I have the photo

selected I can come up here to the top

menu where it says edit photo and I can

come down to effects so let's say I want

to add a blur effect to this photo I can

click blur and use my intensity slider

to make this photo photo more blurry so

this is really handy if I'm wanting to

use this photo let's say as a background

to put some text on

top I can make my text a contrasting

color and the blurriness of the image

behind helps to make the text on top

stand out and be more readable so that's

one fun thing I can do with a photo I

can also use the background remover if I

have canva Pro the background remover is

available for cana pro users and it

automatically removes any background so

then I can use this with a different

background if I like so let's say I just

want to click on this background and

make it a different color then this is

an amazing tool for creating an ad with

a photograph that I didn't necessarily

need the original background of also on

my elements tab I can come down to where

it says frames this is one of my

favorite sections on canva a frame is

basically just a specific shape that you

want to fit a photo into so we've got

all different fun shapes here let's try

out this little squiggly scratch shape

so I might have this frame in my

workspace and then I can click on the

phot I want to drag and hover over it

and it automatically places it into the

frame making it the shape of the frame

there are a lot of different Fun frames

we've got a computer mockup so if I

wanted to bring that photo over and make

it appear as if it's on the computer I

could do that I could also do a letter

shape so here I have the letter K and I

could bring my photo over and into the

frame and now I've got my photo in the

shape of a k all right let's move down

to our text tab here on the left we can

click to add a text box now we can do

this and make it our own custom text or

we can come down here here to Canvas

font combinations that are already

available if we like one of these we can

just click to add that and edit it as

well and some of these are pro and some

are free so any element or text that you

see with the little crown symbol means

that that is a pro element or text that

means that if you're on the free plan

and you use a pro element or font you're

going to have to pay a dollar to remove

the watermark from it before you can

download it but if you are a cana pro

user which means you're paying monthly

for canva pro you can use any of the pro

content for free so we just want to be

aware of that as we're choosing elements

and text to use looking for the little

Pro symbol now we've added our text box

here to make a completely custom text

box so let's just put in some example

text let's say have a great day and now

when we have this selected we can come

up here again to our top menu we can

change the font so this is another place

where you'll see some free fonts and

some Pro fonts so you'll want to choose

if you're on the free plan mainly just

the free fonts that don't have a little

Crown next to them so let's say we like

this font then we can also size it up or

down by clicking and dragging the corner

out or down you can also size it using

the plus or minus on the size here and

then you can change the color of the

font so I can choose any of the default

colors or I can come up to this little

plus sign and choose any color that's

here if I know the specific hex code of

a color that I like I can enter that and

if I have a photo that I'm using in the

design already let's say it's this photo

then I can come back to that color area

and pick the eye dropper tool which is

the Color Picker so once I select that I

can hover over my photograph and choose

a color for my text right from the

photograph so let's say I want it to be

this nice yellow color can hover over

that and click and it automatically

brings my text to that color when you

have a photo in your design already as

well canva will also bring up this photo

colors section which automatically pull

colors from your photo so if you want to

just switch through these to see which

color you like the best for your text

you can do that and ensure that

everything that you're choosing

color-wise is cohesive and works

together now canva also offers a lot of

fun effects for text so when I have my

text selected I can come up here to

effects and there are so many different

fun things you can do to level up your

text so you can add a shadow you can add

a page lift effect which is basically

just kind of a blurry subtle Shadow

underneath to lift it up off the page a

little bit I can make my text Hollow I

can use the splice effect which is a

combination of hollow and Shadow

underneath I can do an outline now

another thing I can do if I have more

than one element or text on the page is

I can select them both and when I select

more than one item this little menu

automatically appears and one option is

group so if I click group that makes

both of the elements appear as one layer

that I can move around then together and

they stay positioned together wherever I

move them then I can also ungroup to

bring them back to two separate elements

and move them around separately when I

have something selected I'm also able to

duplicate that specific element with

this little plus symbol that says

duplicate so there I've got a duplicate

cheex can also do this with photographs

and elements as many times as I'd like

to duplicate that and I can come up to

this little more symbol to have more

options like copying and pasting

duplicating deleting I can add a link to

this text by clicking link so this is

like if I wanted to give my buyer of my

digital product a PDF it has a clickable

hyperlink in it to take them to a

certain URL or even another page in a

multi-page document this is where I can

do that so I can add my link in here or

choose another page in the document that

I want to add the link to and it will

actually add a clickable link to this

text so that when I download the final

PDF file the person looking at it can

actually click on this text and be taken

to that link now let's say I have two

different elements on the page that are

sort of scattered around if I select

both of them and click on the three dots

and I'll have aligning options so I

could align these both to the left I

could align them both to the right or

whatever I'd like to do let's duplicate

this text for this next example so let's

say I have several different elements I

can highlight them all click on the

Three Dots and then I have this space

evenly option so if I click tidy up

that's going to automatically bring them

into alignment so that they have equal

spacing between them all and they're

centered now if I want to duplicate

everything on this page into a new page

I can click this little button for

duplicate page and that gives me a

second page with everything the same on

it I can also just add a blank page if I

don't want all of my elements that I've

added to this but I do want to add a

page to my workspace I can click down

here to add an extra blank page I can

always delete with the trash can and

then I can also upload my own elements

so let's say I want to use a photograph

that I've sourced outside of canva or

it's my own photo that I want to bring

in to work with I can come to uploads

and this is where I can click to upload

a file into canva so canva has an

awesome Content Library but there are

times you may want to bring something

into canva from somewhere else and this

is where you would do that you can also

click this draw symbol on the left to be

able to freehand draw on an element or

on your workspace so if for instance we

have this photo as our background we

might want to put some little Doodle

marks on there we can change the color

that we're drawing with but we might

want to just freehand something really

nice on there this is great if you want

to do these little cute doodle marks you

can choose the thickness of the pen as

well so you can make it Bolder and you

can also erase by clicking the Eraser

and then just clicking on the mark so

there are so many fun features there are

a lot more than this as well we could

spend all day literally going through

everything that you can do on canva but

once you have your design ready and

finalized and you're ready to download

it you're going to come up to the top

right hand corner and click share and

then you have sharing and downloading

options so most of the time if you're

wanting to just download the file you'll

just come to download and the first

thing you'll need to do is select your

file type so here on canva you can

choose a JPEG a PNG a PDF standard PDF

print SVG MP4 video or GIF most of the

time when we're working with digital

products that we're creating in canva to

sell online we're going to be looking at

jpeg PNG and PDF most likely so a couple

things you'll need to know about the

differences between these JPEG and PNG

are smaller file sizes so it makes them

really great for web use and sharing

online PDFs naturally are larger file

sizes because they are better quality

files which make them better for

printing so PDF print is the highest

quality out of all of these it

automatically downloads at a DPI or

resolution of 300 DPI which is the

minimum that you want for printing so if

you're creating something that's meant

to be a printable you definitely want to

download it as a PDF print which will

give you that 300 DPI the rest of these

default to supporting at 96 DPI which is

not very high resolution but it's more

than enough for anything that is only

for web usage so really if you're

creating things just for digital or web

use 96 DPI is fine it's only when you're

creating something that's intended to be

printed out that you'll need to start

making sure that you have at least 300

DPI again this is something that we dive

deep into inside of my digital products

with canva course so if you're

interested in learning the nitty-gritty

of all these technical details including

sizing options resolution and even a

workaround for if you're not using canva

Pro but you need a high quality jpeg or

PNG then definitely hop on the wait list

for that with the link in this video

description and you'll be the first to

know when the doors open for enrollment

for that so once you choose your file

type then you'll need to look at

whatever other options there are for the

download settings here if we have canva

Pro we can use these size and quality

sliders for jpegs to increase the size

and the resolution again those are only

canva Pro features if you want a PNG

you've got a size slider as well and you

can Al choose a transparent background

so PNG is the only one besides SVG that

offers the ability for a transparent

background now you can do that on an SVG

but SVG is also a canva pro only option

so then you've got your PDF standard and

PDF print remember standard is just fine

for anything that's digital or web usage

print would be for anything that needs

to be printed out and then on PDF print

you can also choose to change your color

profile from RGB to cmk if you're

wanting to make your printable really

high high quality then you would want to

choose CMYK again that's mainly just for

printables and that is a canva pro only

feature as well if you don't currently

have canva Pro I do have a free canva

Pro 30-day trial Linked In the

description box as well feel free to

click on that and sign up to check out

canva Pro for 30 days to try out the

different Pro features and get access to

the premium content to see if canva Pro

might be something that you'd enjoy

using so once you've got your design

finalized and all of your download

settings chosen then you're going to

click download to grabb your final file

so hopefully that was helpful for you

friend like I said there is so much more

that you can do on canva and I would

love to show you and walk you through

every single step inside of my digital

products with canva course you can check

that out with a link in the description

box below or sign up for canva Pro with

that link as well to get your free Pro

trial but in the meantime I'd love for

you to comment and let me know what your

favorite part of Designing on canva is

Happy selling

[Music]

friends