15 Canva design tips and tricks in 2021

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Canva is an online image designing platform whose purpose is to empower people to create their own unique designs. It provides the flexibility and functionality to create your own designs without having graphic skills. Also, allows people to share their design on social media platforms. So, in this article, let’s learn 15 interesting Canva design tips and tricks that will help you to achieve even an better result and save some time.

Canva design tips and trick:

Below are few Canva design tips that I wish I knew when I first started using Canva. You can use Canva on both, your desktop and your mobile. Also, if you want to see a full tutorial on Canva then checkout this article, How to use Canva?

Tip #1: Design a beautiful E-Book cover

One of my favorite features of Canva is that it provides you with a range of book and E-book covers. Just search for an E-book cover on its search box and you will find a number of book cover templates. You can go ahead and edit those templates as per your liking. You can also connect your Canva account to a smart mockup account for free.

After you’re in the smart mockup, go to all mockups and click on “magazines and books”. Now choose any mockup style. A new tab will open up, click on “Upload from” and choose “Canva”. Choose the template you want and adjust it according to the mock-up.

Tip #2: Put shadow/neon effect

It is as simple as selecting the text, going to effects, choosing shadow, and there you have the shadow effect. You can also do some adjustments like changing the color of the shadow, change the direction or angle of the shadow. You can also change the transparency of the shadow. Similarly, you can put neon effect too.

Tip #3: Moving certain elements

This tip will come in handy no matter what you’re designing on Canva. If you want to slightly move certain elements of your design, all you need to do is to use the arrows on your keyboard. Press up or down to move it vertically and left or right for moving it horizontally.

Tip #4: Add gradient to your background

Next, we are gonna see how to add a gradient to your background. Simply go to elements and search for gradient, gradients of different shapes will appear, select as per your desire. You can also change the color by clicking on the top left, where you have color options. If you want colors the other way round then click on “flip”. Choose “vertically” or “horizontally” as per requirement. The below picture is to show you that you can do similar things on the Canva app.

Canva design tips
Add gradient effect

Tip #5: Save time with your favorite colors

If you’re tired of using the same colors repeatedly then click on “add another palette” which is at the bottom left corner of the design page. But if you’re on the home page, click on “brand kit” -> “brand colors” and select colors for your new palette.

Tip #6: Upload images faster

Instead of uploading photos normally, you can use this shortcut. Just open your folder where the image is and with the help of the mouse, drag and drop the image on the Canva template. This hack will save you a heap of time.

Tip #7: Easily duplicate elements

If you have an element on the template that you might wanna duplicate then click on duplicate icon that is at the top right corner of your desktop. But there’s also a shortcut for this on your keyboard. For MAC users- CMD+D and for Windows- CTRL+D

Tip #8: Zoom in/out faster

There’s an option for zooming in/out of your image at the bottom right corner of your page. But the keyboard shortcut for it on MAC is CMD +,- and for Windows is CTRL +,-. Another way for MAC- CMD+Scroll with the help of your mouse. For Windows – CTRL+Scroll with your mouse.

Also Read: How to create thumbnail using Canva?

Tip #9: Cropping

Canva doesn’t have an eraser tool, you are left with the cropping feature. To crop an image, click on the element, click on ‘crop‘ at the top left corner of the page. Drag your mouse to do the cropping and select done when you’re done.

Tip #10: Just see free elements

Canva provides an ample number of elements but not all of them are free to use. So to only see the elements that are free to use select the filter icon that is on the Canva search bar. You will find an option to see only free images, select that and click on “Apply filters”.

Tip #12: Filter element by colors

To do this, type on the search bar what you’re looking for. For example: type “heart” and now click on the filter icon and select the color you want. Here, I choose blue so I got results for the blue heart.

Filter on Canva
Filter on Canva

Tip #13: Hyperlink your text

If you want to save the image as pdf and want people to click on a certain text, then this Canva design tip might be handy. Firstly, select the text you want to put on your link. At the top right corner there are three dots -> click on the ‘link’ icon to get a link. Now enter your URL, click on apply and it’s linked.

get link on Canva
get link on Canva

Tip #14: Image backdrop effect

This is a new feature that Canva recently added. The ability to add shadows to your image will take it to another level. First, select the image-> select effect on the top left corner. Scroll down to the bottom and you’ll see shadows. Now you can click on various options like glow, drop, etc.

Also Read: Photoshop beginner’s guide

Tip #15: Create a team

On the home page, click “create a team” on the sidebar, give a name to your team, add a logo if you wish to, and click on continue. Now you can invite people on your team by entering their email addresses. Your team is now created. You can access the team from sidebar. Once on the team page, you can see the designs, folders and invite more people as well.

I hope these Canva design tips and tricks were helpful to you guys. If you want to download the app from the Google Play store then click here. Also, learn how to edit images on Canva by clicking here. Do let us know if you liked this article in the comments down below. There will be more such articles soon on Kapsnotes.com.

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