Canva.com – Images Made Simple
If you’re like me then the thought of having to create images for social media, blog posts and websites is not one that fills you with joy. After all, some people have artistic flare and others don’t – that’s life.
However, there’s a tool that I’ve discovered which is absolutely perfect for people like me (and you – if you’re the same). It’s called Canva and basically lets non-designers create beautiful images using drag-and-drop tools.
I’d always wished I was proficient using design tools like Photoshop but when I tried it all just seemed far too involved. Who wants to spend a small fortune on expensive software to find out that it’s complicated and you need a design degree to use it.
That’s why Canva is so revolutionary! It lets you easily create images from the ideas in your head using simple tools that slowly build a picture. Furthermore, you can create designs for just about anything from online publications to invitations.
Let me outline some of my favourite aspects of Canva:
Online-based & free to use
Canva is online-based which means you can login from anywhere that has an internet connection and access your previously created images and design preferences. Moreover, Canva is totally free if you just want to create an account and take advantage of the free images and templates that they provide.
Drag-and-drop
Perhaps the most appealing feature of Canva is that it is literally drag-and-drop. You can start out with a blank design and add elements of your choosing quickly and using a real-time visual editor.
This allows you to build images piece-by-piece and remove certain aspects should they not fit with your overall design. Your design can start from a blank canvas or you can utilise one of the many standard design templates that are available.
Built-in photo editing
How many times have you wanted to create an eye-catching social media image using an existing picture but the quality hasn’t been quite right? Canva’s built-in photo editing tools allow you to apply preset filters and adjust the brightness, saturation, tint, contrast and blur of every image.
Canva say that there are “more than six quadrillion options” when it comes to image editing. I’m taking that with a pinch of salt but then I haven’t discovered them all, so I won’t dispute their figure just yet.
This is in addition to the thousands of free pictures that Canva provide for you to use. A simple search brings up literally pages of results that you can add to your designs – often for free.
It’s not just images…
Design software often allows you to add images and manipulate them in an effective manner. However, the ability to add text can sometimes be lacking. With Canva it’s certainly not.
Text can be added wherever you like and there are hundreds of different formatting options to choose from. Plus, the ability to overlay text on an image makes the whole design process seamless.
When you’re done, you can select the exact format that you want your final image to be and download it or publish it accordingly.
Canva has made designing online images for people like me an absolute breeze. Obviously if I want anything really involved creating then I consult my designer but otherwise it’s Canva all the way for me. As an example, I recently created a new Facebook cover image for my business page using Canva.
Have you tried Canva yet? If so, what do you think of it? Also, if you use any other free software I’d love to hear about your experiences.
