Hot New Canva Apps | Ep. 10 - Text Maker, Tracer, FontFrame
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of 'Hot New Canva Apps', Ronnie reviews three standout apps from the Canva Marketplace. 'Text Maker' offers a variety of text effects with extensive customization options, though with some limitations. 'Tracer' simplifies converting images to editable SVGs, perfect for logos but less precise for intricate designs. Lastly, 'Font Frame' allows for creative word art with image backgrounds, offering unique text effects but lacking in outline color customization. Each app is rated, providing viewers with a clear understanding of their utility and potential drawbacks.
Takeaways
- π The video script is a review of three new apps on the Canva marketplace by a Canva Guru named Ronnie.
- π The first app, 'Text Maker', allows users to create various text effects with a high level of customization including fonts, colors, and alignment.
- π¨ 'Text Maker' offers preset text effects categorized into styles like 3D, Gold, Comic, Graffiti, Neon, Retro, Metal, Fire, and Tattoo.
- π Users can preview text effects and customize the fill, outline, shadow, and 3D depth colors to personalize their text.
- π A downside of 'Text Maker' is that designs are lost when the user navigates away from the app, requiring re-creation from scratch.
- π The second app, 'Tracer', converts images into editable SVG files, which is useful for logos and allows for color changes and scaling.
- π’ 'Tracer' is particularly useful for graphic designers working with client logos that are not originally in vector format.
- π« 'Tracer' has limitations with intricate logos and a file size limit of 4MB, which may affect its usability with high-resolution images.
- πΌοΈ The third app, 'Font Frame', creates word art with images as the background, offering a fun and easy way to produce text with visual impact.
- π 'Font Frame' allows users to adjust the font, outline thickness, and reposition the image to focus on specific parts for creative effects.
- π‘ The reviewer wishes 'Font Frame' had the option to change the color of the outlines for additional customization.
- π The video concludes with Ronnie giving 'Text Maker' a 3.5 out of 5 stars, 'Tracer' a 4 out of 5 stars, and 'Font Frame' a 4 out of 5 stars, highlighting their usefulness and creative potential.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video script?
-The video script focuses on reviewing three new apps on the Canva app Marketplace that caught the presenter's attention: Text Maker, Tracer, and Font Frame.
What does the Text Maker app allow users to do?
-The Text Maker app allows users to create different kinds of preset text effects with a high level of customization options for colors, fonts, alignment, and line spacing.
How does the Tracer app function?
-The Tracer app converts images, most likely PNGs or JPEGs, into editable SVG files, which are vectorized and allow for more flexibility such as color changes and resizing.
What is a specific use case for the Tracer app mentioned in the script?
-A specific use case for the Tracer app is when a graphic designer needs to change the color of a client's logo that is provided in JPEG or PNG format, and does not have the original SVG file.
What limitations does the Tracer app have according to the script?
-The Tracer app has limitations when working with more intricate logos, thinner elements, or logos with very thin fonts, as the tracing may not be as precise. It also has a 4-megabyte limit for the original files.
What is the main feature of the Font Frame app?
-The main feature of the Font Frame app is to create vibrant text with an image in the background of the fonts, allowing users to upload their own images as the background for word art.
What customization options are available in the Font Frame app?
-In the Font Frame app, users can customize the text, choose a file for the background image, change the font, adjust the thickness of the outline, and modify the letter spacing and line height.
What is one thing the presenter wishes could be improved in the Font Frame app?
-The presenter wishes that the color of the outlines in the Font Frame app could be changed, as it currently remains black and does not offer customization.
What rating did the presenter give to the Text Maker app and why?
-The presenter gave the Text Maker app a 3.5 out of five rating because, while it offers easy text effects and high customization, it has downsides such as losing the design when clicking out of the app and unclear font selection.
What rating did the presenter give to the Tracer app and what are the reasons for this rating?
-The presenter gave the Tracer app a four-star rating out of five because it solves a major problem in Canva by allowing the conversion of logos into SVG files, but it has limitations with intricate logos and file size restrictions.
What rating did the presenter give to the Font Frame app and what are the reasons for this rating?
-The presenter gave the Font Frame app a four out of five star rating because it is easy to use, fun to play with, and can achieve cool results, but the inability to change the color of the outlines was seen as a missed opportunity for improvement.
Outlines
π± Exploring New Canva Apps: Text Maker Review
In this segment, Ronnie, the Canva Guru, introduces the viewers to the 'Text Maker' app from the Canva Marketplace. This app is designed to create a variety of preset text effects, offering customization options for typography, color, and alignment. Ronnie demonstrates the process of selecting an effect, customizing the text, and choosing a font from Canva's library. He also discusses the app's ability to adjust fill, outline, shadow, and 3D depth colors, emphasizing the high level of personalization available. However, he notes the inconvenience of losing the design when navigating away from the app and the somewhat unclear font selection process.
πΌοΈ Tracer App: Converting Images to Editable SVGs
The second app reviewed is 'Tracer,' which converts images into editable SVG files, providing flexibility for color changes and resizing. Ronnie explains the app's simple interface and its utility in graphic design, particularly when working with client logos. He showcases how to trace an image and adjust the threshold for better results. While the app excels with simple logos, Ronnie points out its limitations with intricate designs and thin fonts, which may result in a loss of detail. Despite these drawbacks, the app's ability to vectorize logos without the original SVG file is highly praised, earning it a 4-star rating.
π Font Frame App: Creating Text with Background Images
The final app discussed is 'Font Frame,' which allows users to overlay text on images, creating vibrant word art. Ronnie demonstrates how to input text, select an image from Canva's elements, and adjust the image's position and scale to fit the text. He also mentions the ability to change the font and outline thickness, though he expresses a desire for the option to alter the outline color. The app's ease of use and potential for creative results are highlighted, with Ronnie appreciating that it doesn't reset work when switching tabs. The app receives a 4-star rating for its versatility and user-friendly design.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Canva App Marketplace
π‘Text Effects
π‘Customization
π‘SVG
π‘Threshold
π‘Word Art
π‘Typography
π‘Color Palette
π‘Vectorization
π‘Design App
π‘Rating
Highlights
Introduction to the 'Hot New Canva Apps' series and the review of three new apps.
Review of the 'Text Maker' app, which offers various preset text effects.
Demonstration of how to use 'Text Maker' to create text effects with different customization options.
The ability to customize text alignment, line height, and letter spacing in 'Text Maker'.
Customization of fill, outline, shadow, and 3D depth colors in 'Text Maker'.
The issue of losing design progress when switching tabs in 'Text Maker'.
Rating 'Text Maker' with 3.5 out of 5 stars for its pros and cons.
Introduction of 'Tracer', an app that converts images into editable SVG files.
Use case of 'Tracer' for changing the color of client logos in different formats.
Limitations of 'Tracer' when dealing with intricate logos or thin fonts.
The creative potential of 'Tracer' for artistic effects with images.
Rating 'Tracer' with 4 out of 5 stars for its usefulness in specific scenarios.
Overview of 'Font Frame', an app for creating text with image backgrounds.
How to use 'Font Frame' to overlay images on text for unique word art.
The flexibility of 'Font Frame' in terms of font choice and text customization.
The limitation of 'Font Frame' in changing the color of the text outline.
Rating 'Font Frame' with 4 out of 5 stars for its creative possibilities and user-friendly interface.
Conclusion of the episode with a summary of the three reviewed apps and their ratings.
Transcripts
I explored all the latest apps published
on the canva app Marketplace and this
month only three caught my attention
let's check them
out hey what's up guys Ronnie here your
goto canva Guru welcome back to our
Channel and our series hot new canva
apps this is episode 10 already woo
double digit and today I have three apps
to review this is the best ones for this
batch for this month of July or almost
July August so what we are going to do
is to jump straight into the first
app the first one is called text maker
and the promise is to help you create
all kinds of different text effects so
after finding text maker and connecting
it to my canva apps right here you
should land on this menu right here so
basically this is an app to create
different kinds of preset text effects
Okay so you have two tabs you have
typography and color all right and you
have your effects right here so that's
the first thing the first setting you
should set click on see all to see all
of the effect categories so you will
have the first one is all the effects so
if you click on see all right here you
just see all of them listed as one long
list okay or you can use the categories
that have been created for you you have
your 3D gold comic graffiti Neon retro
metal fire and tattoo I'm going to go
with all the effects to have a bird's
eye view of what I'm working with here
let's find one that is pretty cool I
really like the Retro One it's really
cool landscape kind of gives me the vibe
of like old video games I like the white
it's kind of shiny and I can see some
applications for this I like the wow as
well highness is great golden is pretty
cool bright also ninja is quite cool I
could see this four Like Comics or Manga
kind of design so you have a bunch like
greeny is also cool I like the greeny
let's use greeny so I clicked on one and
I should get a preview of my text effect
right here so the second thing you
should do really is to customize your
text the text you're going to use and
I'm going to make sure I'm inputting all
caps text for a better render here so
I'm just going to say something fun like
thanks for watching exclamation Point
thanks for watching because yeah thank
you guys for watching our tutorials we
really appreciate you learning with us
all right so that's the first thing
customizing your text okay thanks for
watching then you can choose your font
okay here we are with luckiest guy I
like this name but you can find other
fonts right here so I don't think these
are all of the canva fonts very hard for
me to say you can search for a specific
font for example if you want to go with
impact for example just type in impact
it should be here no it's not there so
it's definitely not all of the canva
fonts Monster Rat is my monster rat in
the house mon yeah monserat is here so
you could really change that monserat is
not a great looking font for this kind
of effect so I will go back to luckiest
guy which I actually liked better so
luckiest search for that luckiest guy
this works perfect for this design all
right so that's the second thing you
change the font all right next you have
your text alignment center left or right
going to leave that to Center you have
your line height okay maybe a little bit
less would be great something like that
okay so you can adjust the line height
and the letter spacing I think letter
spacing is completely fine at zero here
so that's pretty much it for the text
options but next I will obviously want
to customize my colors what I like about
this app it's very complete it gives you
a full array of customization options so
you have your fill colors and you have
your outline colors and then you have
Shadow and 3D depth colors so bunch of
different colors that you can tweak in
order to make this text effect really
personalized so let me explain to you
what are these different options for
your colors The Fill colors is the
colors that are going to be filling the
inside of your letters of your font so
that's the inside here so the t h a etc
so this one is usually a gradient that
goes from white to slightly gray so you
could have more or less dark of a gray
usually that's what you will see as the
preset coming out of the box for most of
the effects so kind of like almost full
white right here like FFF you see and
then you have these three different
bubbles here like for creating the
gradient so here it was about so you
don't need to have three you could work
with two and that will be completely
fine as well but if you want to add
another point you can double click you
see double click on the gradient to add
a point so I'm going to double click
here and make that different like I can
bring up the slider here on my Spectrum
on the line here between black and white
I'm going to just have some light gray
so I have this nice kind of like subtle
effect so it's almost white but because
you have this gradient between white and
light gray it looks kind of cool so I'm
going to leave it like so so that's the
fill colors okay moving down to see and
you can also play with the gradient
Direction okay so you see when you move
this slider the light is moving on your
gradient which is interesting as well
next you have your outline colors so the
outline colors is what's around your
text right here so you can play with
that as well not going to change it
because it actually looks nice like so
okay so I'm going to close that I'm
going to close this one as well shadow
colors so the shadow color is what's
underneath your outline so you see from
white to black so I could customize this
like I just want to show you that it's
this shadow that you see right there
used to be black so I think it looks
better in Black indeed going to leave it
on black and then the last one you have
is the 3D depth Shadow so that's what's
underneath the letters here I believe so
you want to change that feel free to
customize that as well so I feel like
this is pretty good I'm going to go with
the green and add this to my design all
right once it's added to your design you
can stretch it the quality is going to
remain very good in my opinion thanks
for watching so you could insert that
into your design and you are good to go
that's actually how it works now let me
quickly show you some of the other text
effects that I liked so for that I'm
going to come back to my typography
click on see all all effects and I just
want to show you one last one that I
really like the Retro one right here so
this one will work best with a single
word so maybe we go with subscribe sub
subscribe yes and I'm going to change
the font from sale to something kind of
like bold and big I know I'm going to go
with lobster Lobster is a nice font for
this kind of retro effects yes Lobster
this subscribe Lobster colors I'm going
to change this so one two three four
five six colors okay actually oh yeah I
know why I think this word with this
kind of effect will work best yes
subscribe it will work best if it's not
all caps okay so subscribe there you go
with lobster I'm going to change the
color right here all right so I need six
colors 2 4 six and I have this color
palette that I have created inspired by
one of the combinations right here okay
so back to my text maker oh no I lost my
design so be careful I decided to leave
this fail in the final version of the
video because if you click out of the
app to do something else on another tab
you will lose your design just so you
know this is not an ideal kind of like
situation when you do lose it but okay I
can simply subscribe go back very quick
and then find my retro effect again
right here okay subscribe I need to
change it back to Lobster so you see all
of the steps that I lost simply because
I clicked on the other tab like to show
you something all right so this is where
I kind of left it I have all of my six
colors now I can start filling them up
with these colors right here from this
palette okay I'm going to speed up the
video but basically you can do that and
simply copy the codes and paste them
here there you go I have pasted
everything how does it look okay it
looks okay but I could probably change
the fill color I'm going to change the
fill for this Orange right right here or
I could go with the beige this could
look nice let's try that okay so going
with the beige okay and I need a
different outline so this outline should
probably this dark gray okay subscribe
it's not too bad but I feel maybe my f
should be the orange to have a more
impactful visual effect yeah this is
good and the outline then could be my
beige okay so it's just really up to you
to play around with different things
right here to really see what works for
you what works for this specific text
effect all right I think I'm going to
leave it here for this first app text
maker there is some very good about this
app I love that you can create easy text
effects with these presets I like the
high level of customization that you get
with all the colors the fonts the
alignment the line spacing and all that
so really really good some effects are
quite nice I showed you a list of maybe
10 effects that I found really well done
in the app now on the negative side I
think that some of the effects are not
really that nice when you click out of
the app you lose all of your design your
text effect so it could be a little bit
conversome to go back and recreate it
from scratch and also choosing the font
is not super obvious like I'm not sure
which fonts are part of the package so
that was a little bit of a downside for
me so for all of these Reasons I'm
giving text maker a 3.5 out of five
rating the second app that caught my
attention this month is called Tracer
and the promise of Tracer is to convert
images into editable SVG easily okay so
SVG are vectorized type of files so this
app is interesting it has a very narrow
use case to convert an image most likely
a PNG or maybe a jpeg into an SVG file
because SVG file are more flexible you
can change their colors you can stretch
them you can do a few things that you
cannot really do with a JPEG or PNG so
let's have a look Tracer this is how it
looks a couple of images right here you
see you can convert this into this etc
etc so it's already installed in my apps
and the way it looks is very simple it's
actually a one button interface that
says upload or select an image in your
design to create a SVG so you can choose
to upload a file and you'll have a
maximum file size of 4 megabyte which is
not that big for an image but you can
work with that or you can select one in
your design so I can immediately see a
use case for this a very specific use
case the use case of you are a graphic
designer and you work for clients and
the client gives you their logo in jpeg
or in a PNG format if you're lucky right
and so you have that logo let's say you
have have the logo in black and white
but you wish you could change the color
of that logo so let's use a logo that I
have created based on the template okay
so this one right here so Chef logo okay
it has no background let me show that to
you by adding a solid color behind Okay
so my chef logo right here has no
background it's a PNG with a transparent
background and I cannot do much with
this so if I want to change the color of
this traditionally you could do that in
canva by using a hack using the duone
app okay so the Doone right here you can
change the color with the DU tone and
just play around like so okay that's
kind of like the old way let me go back
a couple of times here now this new app
Tracer kind of saves you the hassle of
going through the duone app okay for
this particular use case like changing
the color of a PNG logo so all you have
to do you select your logo your image
you go to Tracer to the app and you can
trace the selected image you see when
you select an image that is eligible for
being vectorized the logo choose file we
change to trace selected image so I'm
going to do that I'm going to trace that
selected image the image has been traced
right here and I can see that everything
is correctly filled up if not you could
play around with the threshold and I'm
going to show you how that works in a
minute but for now I'm happy with this I
can just add this to my design it will
be added a little caveat here is that it
does doesn't add it at the exact same
size so I kind of have to manually
resize this logo so I want to have the
exact same size so I'm going to pay
attention to the marks right here and
now if I have both of these yeah they
are exactly the same size so I have my
vectorize one right here and I have the
original here so you see if I click on
the original there's no color button now
if I click on this one a color button
just appeared that's the magic of Tracer
and the vectorized new file so now I can
change that log go to whatever color I
wish and I fancy now that is a great
hack if you are working for clients and
you don't have all of the I would say
vectorized files of their logos but you
still want to show them their own logo
applied to different packaging for
example or put in different branding
situation that is a great workaround all
right so that is the first use case in
my opinion just for that it deserves my
5 Minute review on hot new canva apps
now I tried this with a few other things
like other logos you see this one logo
right here the spark agency logo it
created this one right here so let me
show you how I got there okay so I'm
going to start over so go back I select
my original logo which is spark and then
the word agency right underneath it has
three things text box a spark and
another text box but the second text box
with very thin fonts okay that's
important now I'm going to trace the
selected image and you see what you see
here is that the word agency has kind of
lost in quality because the tracing has
been done I mean not so well but the
word was written with very thin font so
I could play around with the threshold
here and try to see if I can get back
part of that word like if it could come
back if I could maybe augment the
threshold not really so as far as I know
this is as close to the original logo I
could get so I'm going to stretch it
again I wish I could have the image
reproduced at the exact same size so for
the thicker fonts no real problem though
you see here the dot like is not as
perfect as the original and the word
agency also kind of problematic so I
would say this app is good as long as
you're working with logos that are not
so intricated as soon as you start going
into like finer Works detail like
thinner elements on your logo or even
thinner fonts then it becomes
problematic it becomes not as precise
and then you could work with images here
what I've done I have two things here I
have an image of Diana right here I
believe it was one of these images right
here I think it's this one right here so
I worked with that okay I'm going to
move that to the side just want to show
you briefly what I did here again the
tracer app it's going to trace the image
to convert it into an SVG this is an
original PNG I believe so what's going
to happen here is that I'm going to have
an image which is not completely blacked
out so you see you can play with the
threshold and the higher the number the
more your image is going to be covered I
would say but if you lower the threshold
then some parts of Di's face are going
to start showing here so you see for
example here I reduced the threshold to
203 and we can see some of Diana face
kind of attributes showing so it's
always better to go higher to make sure
everything is covered unless that's the
desire effect you are after okay so you
know what let's go for something quite
funky and artistic by lowering the
threshold to 114 okay let's try that add
that to my design okay I'm going to
stretch it there you go so you can
easily create some cool kind of effect
like so and then you can group
everything so yeah this is my two sense
about Tracer great for working with
logos especially for clients can save
your butt if you don't have the original
SVG file it's kind of limited for more
intricate logos and also it's limited to
4 megabytes original files which could
be problematic when you work with higher
resolution photos so for all of these
reasons and because it solves a major
problem in canva working with logos I
give Tracer a four star out of five and
now let's move on to the last of the
three apps for this week the last app
I'm going to review today is called font
frame all right and the promise here is
to create vibrant text with image in the
background of these fonts okay so this
one is pretty fun I have played around
with it for about half an hour and let
me show you what I learned okay so this
is how it starts okay so you can
customize your text all right you can
write anything you like here so for
example let's go all caps
love. YouTube channel okay love that
YouTube channel you can split that on
three pages if we want if we do going to
delete the spaces in between everything
okay so I'm going to go for that and
again you have two tabs you have your
image and text settings and then you
have other kinds of settings let's focus
on the first one so first you need a
text okay so that's what I have here
love that YouTube channel next you need
to choose a file okay so again you can
upload a file a photo from your computer
or you can select one from your page
Okay so so what I'm going to do I'm
going to search for a sunset so let me
go to my elements right here under
photos I'm going to click here and let's
go oh let's go for Jungle so let's go
for lush jungle okay lush jungle I need
something like lushy nice yeah let's go
for this one right here this looks like
a great Forest okay now coming back to
font frame and you see I left the tab
came back to it and I didn't lose all of
my work so so it's definitely possible
to do these kind of things and I
appreciate that this app doesn't waste
your time by just resetting all of the
settings if you switch to another tab so
that is highly appreciated okay so I'm
going to use a selected image okay this
option is now available since I uploaded
the image to my page and you see what I
have here is my photo and I can
reposition it by clicking and dragging
basically on the image right here also I
can scale the image up or down to really
focus on one part of the image if I want
to I could have like the tree in this Ag
and O of the YouTube for example so that
is in a nutshell what the app does it
creates a word art and it allows you to
upload an image as the background of
these word Arts so that's pretty cool
but that's not all you can tweak more
things so for example you can change the
font okay so from popins we could go to
something else like Railway for example
or any kind of fonts really that you
have here in the list so let's go for an
interesting one maybe prompt okay so
prompt is good you can reduce the
thickness of the outline okay which is
good I wish we could change the color of
this outline but I don't see an option
to do so so I guess it will just remain
black and then you have your traditional
letter spacing which I wouldn't change
and then line height line spacing they
call it here so once you do have the
desired outcome you can add this to your
design okay so this is what it looks
like now this app can do better than
this I mean this was just quickly put
together so let me show you a few other
things I have done so starting from this
image I created this very cool textured
gradient right here join our live
sessions and from this Sunset right here
I have created this equally cool
word art with the sunset right here and
the gradient coming from here so again
this app is called font frame it's super
easy to use it's quite fun to play
around with and you could get some
really interesting results I just wish
we could change the color of the
outlines that would really add I would
say to this app all right so that's my
two cents about font frame my verdict is
that I'm giving font frame a four out of
five star rating because you can achieve
some really cool results with it and
yeah everyone can use that I haven't
bumped into a limit like a daily limit
like many other apps do nowadays which
is pretty boring so there you go three
apps worth checking out this month of
July almost August and I'm going to
leave you with the other episodes of hot
new canva apps this was episode 10
already which means you have nine more
episodes to watch right here
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