Canva Review: What is it, Pros and Cons, and a Lot More
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Canva is one of the best tools that small businesses and entrepreneurs can use to create, manage, and share branded content. Canva is probably the most popular online graphic design software, with over 30 million users and a $6 billion valuation.it is more like a combination of Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop.
Canva empowers users to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, and other visual content. Featuring a simple drag-and-drop user interface and a vast library of templates and design ingredients such as fonts, illustrations, stock photography, video, and audio content, and the power to include content from the web such as Giphy and Google Maps, anyone can take an idea and create something beautiful. Canva is available on the web, iOS, and Android. Learn more about your secret design weapon for social media, print materials, and beyond with Canva.
Who is Canva best suited for?
Canva is best suited for small business owners, online entrepreneurs, and marketers who want to design things quickly.
To design sophisticated visuals, a tool such as Photoshop is ideal. But to use it well can take a lot of time to learn its hundreds of features and get familiar with the software, and it’s best to have a good background in design, too.
Free vs. Pro vs. Enterprise Plans
There are three plans: Free, Pro ($9.95 per user per month, billed yearly), and Enterprise ($30 per user per month, billed yearly).
The free version suits freelancers who create 10 to 15 designs per month. You get access to 100+ design types, 8,000+ free templates, and thousands of free photos and graphics.
If you create more images for yourself or your clients, the Pro plan will suit you better. You get access to 420,000+ templates, 75+ million graphics, photos, stock images and videos, and several other features. A standout feature is Brand Kit for storing brand assets (color palette, logo, etc.).
The Enterprise plan is best suited for agencies and corporations with multiple team members. You get access to multiple Brand Kits, design workflows, and unlimited storage.
Note: There are free programs for nonprofits and education
Canva’s Top Features
1. Photo effects to improve photos
Canva has several effects to enhance photos. You can add effects to photos that Canva provides and photos you upload. There’s also an effects tab that lets you add effects such as Duotone, Background Remover, Liquify, and more.
Most effects are accessible with the free plan, though some features, including Background Remover, require a subscription plan.
2. Access to photos, videos, and templates
You can access 75+ million photos and videos and 420,000+ templates with the Canva Pro plan; a fraction of these are available with the free plan. To use the templates, click the Templates tab when you’re on the editor. Canva will automatically find templates based on the design type you selected. You can scroll through or search the templates by color or language.
To find photos, click the Photos tab and choose photos in a similar way to the filters. You can also upload photos using the Upload tab.
3. Access to icons, shapes, and stickers
Canva has an Elements tab to find icons, shapes, stickers, charts, grids, gradients, and more.
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.
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.
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.
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, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn profiles, LinkedIn pages, Slack, and Tumblr.
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.
10. Brand Kit
The Band Kit is a storage area for your brand assets, including fonts, brand colors, and logos.
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 your creations.
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.
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.
