Google Drawings

Google Drawings is a powerful tool that you can use to create graphic organizers. Students can also use it to create infographics and presentations.

Quick facts about Google Drawings:

  • It’s free.

  • Your creation starts with a blank canvas of any size.

  • You access Google Drawings through the web or via a Chrome app that can be used offline (works best on a computer).

  • Multiple users can open and edit drawings simultaneously in real time. They can also engage in chat.

  • You can make a Drawing with many components. You can add images to your canvas as well as shapes, arrows, scribbles, text, and more.

  • There are many sharing options for your Google Drawing. It can be private, you can share it with select people, or you can share it publicly on the web. You can choose whether people can view or edit your Drawing.

  • Your Drawing is automatically saved as you work on it.

  • Google Drawings can be embedded in blogs and websites. They can also be downloaded as a JPEG, PNG, PDF etc.

  • You can insert a Google Drawing into a Google Doc as explained here by Jake Miller.


How To Make And Save A Google Drawing

1) Open Google Drawings

Access drawings via your Google Drive or the Chrome App. Alternatively, just type https://docs.google.com/drawings into your browser. Click on the +New and Google Drawings will be one of the choices under More

2) Change your image size (optional)

If you want your image to be a certain size (e.g. the size of your blog header), you can change this in File > Page Setup > Custom. You can enter the dimensions you’re after in inches, centimeters, points, or pixels.

3) Consider your background color

By default, the background of your Google Drawing will be transparent. That means there will be no background when you download your image as PNG or JPEG.

If you want your image to have a different color background (or even solid white), right-click on your canvas and select background.

Then you can play around with solid backgrounds or gradients.

4) Create your design

Add the text, images, shapes, lines, charts and more that you’d like on your design by navigating the options under Insert.

5) Save your design as an image

When you’re ready, go to File > Download as > JPEG image or PNG image. Save your image to your device.

You can also save your image as a PDF if it’s something you’d like to print or distribute.

You’ll then have an image file that you can print or use in your digital creations.

Ideas For Using Google Drawings In The Classroom

Google Drawings is an ideal tool for students and teachers to make images that they can print or use digitally.

Creations can be downloaded as JPEGs and PNGs. Drawings can also be embedded straight into a blog post or page (as demonstrated above).

Examples of images you could create in Google Drawings:

  • Blog headers

  • Other blog images (e.g. see the example of the promotional graphic at the start of this post. These are great to share on social media).

  • Certificates

  • Comics

  • Photos with captions

  • Flowcharts, mindmaps, or other graphic organizers

  • How-to tutorials

  • Classroom labels


Basics on Google Drawing

8 minutes 11 seconds

How to Use Google Drawings

6 minutes 19 seconds

Using Google Drawings*