Whether you’re a business or an individual in Aurora, Oswego, Montgomery, Sugar Grove, Naperville or Yorkville (IL), you might be familiar with Canva.

Launched in Australia in 2013, Canva is a content-creation program with a focus on design. Canva’s three current program versions include Canva Free, Canva Pro and Canva for Teams.

The platform provides thousands of templates with a simple drag-and-drop interface. You also can upload your own photos or choose from the library of royalty-free photos, videos and graphics. Canva even provides different audio tracks and animation effects for custom inclusion.

Its AI-powered Magic Studio further lets users easily create new content or edit existing designs.

Guided by helpful pop-up windows, Canva’s template choices can be used for applications such as:

For the average person, Canva is easier to learn and use than traditional graphic-design programs such as Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. It is less expensive than those programs as well.

For new users who would like some initial guidance with the program, Canva offers free video tutorials such as through their Design School, Canva for Education for teachers and a Canva Pro course highlighting the platform’s premium extra features.

Canva from a Printer’s Perspective: The Pros

At Aurora Fastprint, we’ve seen first-hand how consumers and even marketing executives can find Canva to be a powerful resource, especially among those with only a basic grasp of design who wish to create presentable visuals quickly and affordably.

We work with Canva files daily – in any given week, as many as 30% of our projects from Aurora, Oswego, Montgomery, Sugar Grove, Naperville and Yorkville may be made with the program. While we typically have our customers convert the Canva files to PDFs before sending, we might also work in the program to adjust factors such as colors and sizes.

From the viewpoint of professional designers and printers who work with so many Canvas projects, we can recognize the platform’s appealing advantages.

No design background required – anyone can use it

Correct sizing of formats for use on other platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook

Affordability as compared with using other design programs and hiring professional designers

Wide range of templates – more than 610,000 in all

No cost for using stock photography

Project-file sharing with others

Good editing tool for basic video content

Background removal tools (stripping out the backgrounds of images and videos)

Brand Kit feature – ability to add branded business or personal logo, fonts, colors, photos and graphics

While Canva files aren’t ideal for wide-format printing or marketing materials that require intricate printing, they can still be useful for projects such as social-media graphics, website infographics and simple presentations.

Canva from a Printer’s Perspective: The Cons

Trained professionals who work with different design programs can recognize Canva’s limitations. Since being launched, the program has not made great impressions within the print and design community, where the files can often be frustrating.

To achieve excellent prints and print quality, a PDF file must meet certain criteria to be “print ready.” When we receive an order designed in Canva – especially with the free version – there’s usually only a 50% chance we’ll be able to work with that file. This can create particular pressure when a project deadline is tight.

Because of our design-software background, we can see how the program lacks design distinction as well, especially within its plug-and-go templates. While the templates offer speed and convenience, they also result in universal access and use, which can homogenize content. What would you think of two separate businesses sending different messages on the same Canva template? You might feel they didn’t invest much thought into distinguishing themselves.

Lacking the fine control and customization available with more-advanced tools such as Adobe Creative Suites, Canva’s design elements further can become at times oversimplified. While we can manipulate the files and help customers learn how to provide a print-ready file with “crops and bleeds,” these extra steps lengthen the design time and create extra back-and-forth.

A few other cons of using Canvas include:

limited export options. Unlike most desktop design programs, Canva’s output formats have limitations. This can make starting a project in Canva and sending it to a designer for touch-ups more difficult. For example, Canva exports in RGB color values, which are for digital colors, instead of CMYK values, which are for printing.

no downloading or back-up. Canva users can’t save the raw project file as back-up to their computer, nor can they download it for later use if they move away from the Canva platform. Because they can’t back up their Canva projects, if they accidentally delete a design or lose access to their Canva account, their work may be irretrievable.

no real-time human support. Do you prefer speaking or live-chatting with a person for assistance? Canva provides support only through email and its online help materials.

no working offline. Canva uses cloud storage to store its assets and your projects, so you’ll always need an internet connection to use it. If you don’t have WiFi access, you won’t be able to work on or export your designs.

Canva is here to stay, and it will remain suitable for many everyday design tasks and needs. If however distinctive creativity and print quality are important for your campaign, you will achieve much more with professionally trained designers working with greater design-program tools.

Printer Near Me: Contact Us Today

At Aurora Fastprint, we love three things: to create, to print and to serve. If you would like to discuss Canva further or you have an idea for an original project, let’s talk about how you can make it happen with impact and efficiency at your “printer near me.” We enjoy serving our Aurora, Oswego, Montgomery, Sugar Grove, Naperville and Yorkville (IL) customers. Give us a call at (630) 896-5980!