Canva For Beginners
On Tuesday, February 20th, the Student Technology Assistant team led a design workshop for beginners on how to use Canva. Canva is a free-to-use online graphic design tool that students can use to create various types of designs, including infographics, marketing flyers, and short videos.
Here is a recap of our Canva workshop. This will provide you with general instructions for first-time users of Canva. So, if you are new to this design tool, please continue reading.
Step 1: Setting up the Account
- Go to https://canva.com and click “Sign up”.
- You can create accounts using multiple methods:
- Sign up with your email address or work email address.
- Sign up/log in directly using Facebook, Google, or Apple accounts.
If you choose to sign up with your email, you will receive an authorization code from Canva sent to your email address. You can set a password in Account settings later.
Step 2: Finding and Customizing Templates
- Navigate to the Templates page.
- Use the search bar to find templates.
- Save your favorite templates for later use.
- Select “Customize this template”.
You can easily find thousands of inspirations from the templates provided by Canva, but sometimes, it is overwhelming to browse through all of them. The best tip is to search for the right keywords. You can follow the structure below: style + theme + topic + category.
Step 3: Customizing Your Own Designs
- Add or edit text.
- Choose and edit elements.
- Upload your own media.
For beginners, the variety of elements may be overwhelming. But one of the most effective tips is to “Keep it simple.” Don’t overload your design with too many elements, as it can confuse the visual message of the images.
Step 4: Download and Share Your Designs
Share files:
- Type in the recipient’s email address and set their level of access.
- Click “Send” or choose “Copy link”.
Download the design:
- Choose your preferred file types and select the pages you want to download. Then click “Download”.
- Once the download is finished, the Download tray status will appear as “Complete”.
On Canva, designs are automatically saved. To organize your designs into separate folders, you can select “Save to your folder”. For printing, PDF is best for both documents and print designs. You can save an individual page of your design, a range of pages, or the entire design.
To explore detailed information, here is our STA’s presentation for the Canva Workshop.
If you need any assistances with Canva, such as requiring templates from Canva Pro account, or needing advices to enhance the design, you can contact STA desk through email sta-help@trincoll.edu or visit us during our Office Hours (Monday – Thursday: 11AM – 5PM, Friday: 11AM – 4PM).