7 Canva Features, Tips & Tricks You Wish You Knew Earlier
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Canva is constantly rolling out new design features to help online business owners create beautiful graphics in a fraction of the time.
But if you’re new to design, it can be overwhelming to try and navigate the seemingly endless features Canva has to offer.
So that’s why I decided to create a roundup of some of my favorite time-saving Canva design features that will save you countless hours each week.
Let’s get to it!
Try Canva Pro free for 30 Days
If you don’t have one already, make sure you sign up for a Canva account. You can create amazing designs with the free version, but I personally recommend opting for Canva Pro if you plan on batch creating graphics for your blog, Instagram page or business website.
Canva Pro is incredibly affordable and you get unlimited access to over a million elements, premium stock photos, graphics, the ability to upload custom fonts and other design features. The subscription cost is truly such a small price to pay for all that you get in return!
And if you click that little image below, you can take Canva Pro for a spin, completely free for 30 days!
Related: Canva Pro Review: Should you upgrade?
1. Cut-out Image Feature
If you’ve ever struggled to find images with a transparent background for a design project, you’re in luck!
Canva offers a handy ‘cut-out’ filter option when you search for images. You can use this feature if you want to quickly & easily find images with a transparent background.
How to find cut-out images
Open a new design
Select ‘Elements’ in the left-hand menu
Type your keyword (i.e. Flower)
Select the filter button and check ‘Cut-outs only’
And you’ll now have a wide range of cut-out images to choose from!
2. Canva Styles
A quick & easy way to customize your Canva templates is by using the ‘Styles’ feature.
To use the 'Styles' feature, you'll first need to have your Brand kit setup (Canva Pro feature). Once finished, you can follow these steps:
Click the ‘Design’ tab on the left-hand side of your Canva editor
Choose a Template (or use one you’ve already created)
Click the ‘Styles’ tab
Click on your brand color palette and continue mixing until you’re happy with the result!
3. Canva Video Background Remover
You might already know about Canva’s super helpful ‘Background Remover’ tool that lets you remove the background from your images in just one-click.
But did you know that Canva recently introduced a Background Remover feature for videos?
You can use the Background Remover tool to give your videos & graphics a unique look to help you stand out online!
Follow these steps to remove the background from any video:
Create a design
Upload any video and add it to your design (or click the Videos tab on the left-hand side of your Canva editor)
Click on the video and select the ‘Edit video’ option
Under the ‘Effects’ tab, select ‘Background Remover’
5. The background of your video should now be removed.
Click the play button to make sure everything looks normal (Canva is still working out some of the kinks for this feature), and you can go ahead and export your video!
4. Tidy Up Elements
If you’re anything like me (cough cough Virgo), then getting all of your design elements lined up perfectly might just be your worst nightmare— but I mean, it has to be done, right?
Fortunately Canva has a nifty ‘Tidy Up’ feature that can do all the hard work for you! Here’s how you can organize your elements in just a few easy steps:
Select all of the elements
Click ‘Position’
Choose ‘Tidy Up’
And voila! All tidied up. :)
5. Copy Text Style
You can copy the style of your text and paste it to other pages within your design.
Just select the text (or element) and click the copy style icon, then select any text within your design to paste the style.
Bonus Tip: You can also use the following keyboard shortcuts to get the same result.
Mac Users:
Copy Text: Cmd + Option + C key
Paste Text: Cmd + Option + V key
Windows Users:
Copy Text: Ctrl + Alt + C key
Paste Text: Ctrl + Alt + V key
6. Create a QR Code
Did you know that you can easily create a QR code right inside of Canva?
Just open a design and scroll down to the ‘Apps’ tab (left-hand side menu at the bottom). Click “QR Code” and add a URL to create your own in just a few clicks!
7. Add a Drop Shadow
Using Canva, you can easily add a drop shadow to any of your images and design elements.
This feature is incredibly useful if you need to create mockup images for your online business (i.e. mockups to promote your workbooks, eBooks, opt-in freebies, digital products etc).
Here’s how you can create a drop shadow in a few simple steps:
Create a design
Upload any image and add it to your design
Click on the image and select the ‘Edit image’ option
Scroll down until you see the Shadows option and select ‘See all’
Choose one of the drop shadow styles and make any necessary adjustments
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If you enjoyed this, share the love!
I hope you found this Canva tutorial helpful. If you did, feel free to save it for later by pinning any image in this article to one of your boards on Pinterest!
What are your favorite time-saving Canva tips? Let me know in the comments!
