Best Canva Tips and Tricks Every Designer Should Know

Canva is a powerful and user-friendly design tool that has revolutionized graphic designing for both beginners and professionals. Whether you are creating social media posts, presentations, business cards or marketing materials, you can use Canva tips and tricks to make your designs look professional. Canva makes the process extremely easy with its drag-and-drop interface and vast template collection.
Here, we will explain what is Canva?, learn the best tips and tricks about Canva that every designer should know to create stunning visual designs easily.

What is Canva?

Canva is the most popular graphic design platform that allows users to create stunning visuals without the need for advanced design skills. It offers a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to design social media graphics, logos, posters, and more.
Launched in 2013, Canva has become the most widely used design, it offers a free version along with Pro and Enterprise plans for users.

What are the best Canva tips and tricks?

10 Canva tips and tricks for better design that every designer should know. These powerful Canva tips and tricks will help you create better designs easily, let’s know about Canva tips and tricks:

1. Master Canva’s Keyboard Shortcuts for Faster Designing

Using keyboard shortcuts while using Canva can save you time. Canva offers a lot of keyboard shortcuts, some of the useful ones are given below:

Ctrl + D – Use it to quickly duplicate an element
Ctrl + Shift + K – Use it to convert text to uppercase/lowercase
Ctrl + G – Group selected elements
Ctrl + Shift + G – This shortcut is to ungroup elements
L – It instantly inserts a line
R – Use it to insert a rectangle
C – Insert a circle
T – Insert a text box

Pro Tips: Remembering these shortcuts can help you create designs faster.

2. Use Canva’s Custom Templates for Consistent Branding

If you often create Canva designs, saving your own template can help you maintain a consistent brand identity. You can do this by following the steps below:

First design your layout with your brand colors, fonts, and elements.
Then click “File” > “Save as Template” (Canva Pro users only).
You can now reuse this template and modify it for future projects!

Pro Tips: This tip is especially useful for social media managers and business owners who need a similar look across a lot of posts.

3. How to use Canva's Magic Resize tool (Canva Pro feature)

If you need the same design for multiple platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, resizing manually can be tedious. So Canva Pro’s Magic Resize tool makes it super easy:

Design your graphic in a single size.
Then click on the “Resize” option from the top menu.
Then choose a format like Instagram post, Facebook cover, YouTube thumbnail and click Resize.
Canva will now automatically adjust the design to the chosen sizes.

Pro Tips: You should always review and fine-tune the elements after resizing, as some adjustments may be needed.

4. How to enhance your photos with Canva's built-in photo editor?

Canva has a built-in photo editor that lets you enhance your photos. Canva photo editor has the following main features:

Filters – Apply Instagram-like filters for quick editing.
Adjustments – Allows you to modify brightness, contrast, saturation, and blur.
Background Remover (Pro Feature) – Remove background from images with just one click.

Pro Tips: If you don’t have Canva Pro, you can use remove.bg to remove background and then upload the edited image to Canva.

5. How to Add Professional Look with Canva’s Grid & Alignment Tools

Proper alignment is very important for professional design. To add a professional look with Canva’s Grid and Alignment tools, Canva offers the following tools as below:

Rulers and Guides – Enables the “View Settings” to align elements.
Smart Guides – It helps to auto-align objects.
Positioning Tools – Use the position tool to arrange elements precisely.

Pro Tips: You can use the spacing and alignment tools to make your design look clean and professional.

6. How to Explore Canva’s Free and Premium Elements?

How to Explore Canva’s Free and Premium Elements Canva has a large library of:

Icons and Illustrations – These are great elements for infographics and presentations.
Stock Photos and Videos – Set up high-quality visuals for professional use.
Shapes and Frames – Use creative shapes and frames to make your design look good and stand out.

Pro Tip: If you don’t want to use the pro elements, filter by “Free” option and use Canva’s free tools to find 100% free resources.

7. Make Your Text Stand Out with Canva’s Typography Tricks

Typography tricks play a vital role in design. Here’s how to effectively use Canva’s text features to help you enhance your design:

Text Effects:

Shadow and Glow – This lets you add depth to your text.
Curved Text – This lets you create creative typography.
Spaced Letters – Adjust the spacing of letters for perfect readability.

Font Pairing:

Choosing the right combination of fonts is very important. Canva suggests a “font pairing” option to help you match fonts that look good together and make your design look better.

Pro Tip: Use no more than 2 to 3 fonts to keep your design clean and readable.

8. Use Canva’s Animation Feature for Engaging Content

For more engaging content, you must use Canva’s animation feature. Canva offers you a lot of features to animate your design with just a single click. It is a perfect choice for creating social media posts and presentations.

How to add animation:

Click on any text or image.
Then select the “Animate” option from the toolbar.
Then choose from options like Fade, Rise, Pan, and Tumble.
Now export your design as MP4 or GIF.

Pro Tips: Keep any kind of animation subtle, its excessive use can make the design look unprofessional.

9. Save and Export in the Right Format

Choosing the right export format is essential for good quality:

PNG – This is the best option for high-quality images.
JPG – This is a compressed file for faster loading.
PDF Print – This is the best option for printable designs.
MP4/GIF – Use this for animated designs.

Pro Tip: If you need a transparent background, use the PNG option with transparency option (Canva Pro feature).

10. Collaborate with Teams in Canva

Canva enables real-time collaboration with your team, allowing you to:

Share designs via links for editing or viewing.
Leave comments on specific elements.
Assign roles with multiple permission levels (editor/viewer)

Pro Tip: This is the perfect choice for marketing teams, educators, and businesses working together on designs.

Final Thoughts

Canva is an all-in-one design tool that makes graphic designing simple, fast and professional. Canva is an incredible tool for both beginners and professionals, and these 10 powerful Canva tips and tricks will help you create better designs easily. Whether you are creating social media posts, designing for business or presentations, you can use these tricks to improve your workflow and design quality.

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