3. Access to icons, shapes, and stickers
Canva has an Elements tab to find icons, shapes, stickers, charts, grids, gradients, and more.
Canva Elements -Access to icons, shapes, and stickers
You can add them to your images and adjust color, transparency, and size.
4. Font library
Canva has a font library under Text where you can find dozens of fonts, ranging from simple to sophisticated fonts, with individual fonts and font pairs.
Canva font library
If you search a font, Canva will find the individual font and fonts that pair with it. You can choose a pair and add your text.
If you have a Pro account, you can upload fonts, provided you have a license to use that font; you cannot upload any font you want.
5. Drag-and-drop editor
The drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to work with the photos, videos, templates, elements, and fonts. Choose what you want to create, and Canva will display all the relevant items. You can add them by the drag-and-drop method and make changes. You should be able to create your visuals in minutes. If you have used the templates before, you can probably make them in seconds.
Canva review - Drag-and-drop editor
6. Creates more than images
Most people think of Canva as only for creating images. But you can create invitations, planners, business cards, blog banners, newsletters, menus, certificates, workbooks, websites, flyers, and more. There are many resources for online education, too.
Canva review- Creates more than images
You can use the drag-and-drop editor again. Choose the creation type and Canva will suggest templates. You can either go with the available templates or start from scratch.
7. Animate images
Canva lets you apply animation effects. Just click Animate. This shows all the effects you can use. Free ones include Block, Breathe, Fade, Pan, and Rise; paid animations are also available.
Canva review- Animate images
I recommend that you play around with these effects. They will help you create beautiful images, especially for social media.
8. Publish to social media or schedule
Like most online photo editors, Canva lets you share your images directly to some top social networks. A convenient feature they added recently is scheduling your posts to social media, including Facebook pages, Facebook groups, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn profiles, LinkedIn pages, Slack, and Tumblr.
Canva review - Publish to social media or schedule
9. Content planner
Another new feature is the content planner. Here you can view all the images you have scheduled. If you find gaps in the calendar, click the ‘+’ sign to add a design you created earlier, or create one immediately.
Canva Content planner
10. Brand Kit
The Band Kit is a storage area for your brand assets, including fonts, brand colors, and logos.
Canva Brand Kit
The main benefit is that you can easily access the assets while designing. It saves time and helps you maintain a consistent look across all your designs.
The Brand Kit is only available in Pro and Enterprise accounts. You can create one Brand Kit with a Pro account. To create more, you must upgrade to Enterprise. It’s better suited for agencies that design for multiple clients or corporations that house several brands.
Cons of Canva
As discussed, Canva offers so many pros. But there are also a few cons. Here they are.
You cannot create unique elements
Canva doesn’t let you conjure elements. These are prebuilt designs and design enhancing items such as lines, frames, icons, shapes, and stickers you can add to creations.
Canva fix elements
You can only use those they give you. You can change colors and sizes, rotate them and move them around, but that’s about it.
If you were using Photoshop or Illustrator, you could create these items from scratch, like in this comic I drew.
Create comic by design tools
It’s a combination of hand drawing and vectors.
Photos and templates appear generic
Canva has hundreds of thousands of templates and millions of photos. They look great and appear better than many of the ubiquitous free stuff. But they can look a bit generic. It’s again because of the rigid nature of Canva.
Creating something distinctive is a challenge. You might find more unique templates and photos on design resource sites such as Freepik and Adobe Stock.
But you get a lot of quality free images and premium ones for a small price of $12.95 per month (less when paid annually), so Canva is more affordable.
Not the best photo editor
Canva has photo editor features, but it can’t do heavy-duty stuff that tools such as Photoshop can. If you work with more photos, you should either get Photoshop or combine Canva with Lightroom.
Hard to use on small screens
There’s a mobile app, but it is harder to use. The experience on the computer is much better.
How to Use Canva
Now that you know some of Canva’s prominent features, let’s use that knowledge to create an image.
We’ll create an Instagram quote image; they are easy to make and drive good engagement. Th3. Access to icons, shapes, and stickers
Canva has an Elements tab to find icons, shapes, stickers, charts, grids, gradients, and more.
Canva Elements -Access to icons, shapes, and stickers
You can add them to your images and adjust color, transparency, and size.
4. Font library
Canva has a font library under Text where you can find dozens of fonts, ranging from simple to sophisticated fonts, with individual fonts and font pairs.
Canva font library
If you search a font, Canva will find the individual font and fonts that pair with it. You can choose a pair and add your text.
If you have a Pro account, you can upload fonts, provided you have a license to use that font; you cannot upload any font you want.
5. Drag-and-drop editor
The drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to work with the photos, videos, templates, elements, and fonts. Choose what you want to create, and Canva will display all the relevant items. You can add them by the drag-and-drop method and make changes. You should be able to create your visuals in minutes. If you have used the templates before, you can probably make them in seconds.
6. Creates more than images
Most people think of Canva as only for creating images. But you can create invitations, planners, business cards, blog banners, newsletters, menus, certificates, workbooks, websites, flyers, and more. There are many resources for online education, too.
Canva review- Creates more than images
You can use the drag-and-drop editor again. Choose the creation type and Canva will suggest templates. You can either go with the available templates or start from scratch.
7. Animate images
Canva lets you apply animation effects. Just click Animate. This shows all the effects you can use. Free ones include Block, Breathe, Fade, Pan, and Rise; paid animations are also available.
Canva review- Animate images
I recommend that you play around with these effects. They will help you create beautiful images, especially for social media.
8. Publish to social media or schedule
Like most online photo editors, Canva lets you share your images directly to some top social networks. A convenient feature they added recently is scheduling your posts to social media, including Facebook pages, Facebook groups, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn profiles, LinkedIn pages, Slack, and Tumblr.
Canva review - Publish to social media or schedule
9. Content planner
Another new feature is the content planner. Here you can view all the images you have scheduled. If you find gaps in the calendar, click the ‘+’ sign to add a design you created earlier, or create one immediately.
Canva Content planner
10. Brand Kit
The Band Kit is a storage area for your brand assets, including fonts, brand colors, and logos.
Canva Brand Kit
The main benefit is that you can easily access the assets while designing. It saves time and helps you maintain a consistent look across all your designs.
The Brand Kit is only available in Pro and Enterprise accounts. You can create one Brand Kit with a Pro account. To create more, you must upgrade to Enterprise. It’s better suited for agencies that design for multiple clients or corporations that house several brands.
Cons of Canva
As discussed, Canva offers so many pros. But there are also a few cons. Here they are.
You cannot create unique elements
Canva doesn’t let you conjure elements. These are prebuilt designs and design enhancing items such as lines, frames, icons, shapes, and stickers you can add to creations.
Canva fix elements
You can only use those they give you. You can change colors and sizes, rotate them and move them around, but that’s about it.
If you were using Photoshop or Illustrator, you could create these items from scratch, like in this comic I drew.