Starting with Canva might be the easiest in comparison to other graphic designing tools, but it’s a bit time taking to find and understand many of its features when you’re just starting out, especially the hidden ones. So I came up with this post showing most of the Canva features list.
In this post, I am going to share the most common features of Canva pro that can make your content creation journey more enjoyable by allowing you to find most of its features instantly.
Before we head into the complete Canva features list let’s see what actually Canva is. and the things that you can do with Canva.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, I will receive a commission if you purchase through these links (without any additional cost to you), which helps us maintain this website.
What is Canva and What is it used for?
Canva is an online graphic design platform with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop photo and video editor that has a web version and a mobile application as well.
It comes with an intuitive editor feature that enables anyone without any prior graphic designing experience to create social media graphics, videos, presentations, documents, and Gifs for personal or professional use.
With more than a hundred million premium stock photos and videos, over six hundred thousand pre-built templates and elements to choose from, plus the easy-to-use editor tool, Canva has also become one of the most used graphic designing applications over the years. It has around 110+ million users around the world.
It comes with a free version as well as the pro version. The free version is enough to create simple designs but I would rather suggest you go for the pro version as it’s not so costly and the benefits of Canva pro supersede the things you get from the free feature to a very larger extent.
An overview of what is Canva used for? and some of its amazing features
The first feature that attracts a lot of userbase to Canva is the photo background removal feature. Which allows the user to easily remove the background of an image instantly.
The other editing options from Canva that can give a different touch to your designs are amazing designing tools like the image shadow option, Duotone, text effects, page animations and the image or element transparency feature.
Canva Pro also allows you to add up to 5 team members, and also collaborate and comment with the team members in real-time while working on a design, plus you can share your design through a link where the one receiving the link at the other end can easily edit and download the design.
The other intriguing features are options like content calendar, social media scheduling (Sharing up to 8 social media platforms in the premium version), folder option to organize different projects and design collection with 6 different media download options, which are PNG, JPG, PDF, SVG, MP4 and GIF.
Canva also has a print service integrated into its platform. You can create your design or even choose one from the pre-built design, edit it and order print items like T-shirts, posters, invitation cards, photo books, Canvas prints, mugs etc.
Canva pricing plans
Canva comes with three pricing plans including the free plan. Check it out in the table below.
You can use the free plan if it’s for personal use, however, if it’s for a business, the pro plan would be the best to choose from, considering the vast array of tools that you get with it.
Things you can design in Canva
Whether it’s for a Facebook post or an Instagram post, or even a YouTube art, Canva has all the answers to your graphic design need.
Here’s a list of things you can design in Canva.
- Instagram post.
- Facebook post.
- Logo.
- Presentation.
- Instagram stories.
- Flyer.
- Poster.
- Facebook cover.
- Document.
- YouTube thumbnail.
- YouTube Intro/Outro.
- Business card.
- Postcard.
- Newsletter.
- Photo collage.
- Mobile video (Reel and shorts).
- Resume.
- Facebook ad.
- Facebook video.
- Infographic.
- LinkedIn banner.
- LinkedIn article cover image.
- Printable T-shirt design.
- Email header.
- Brochure.
- Ebook.
- Animated social media.
- Twitter post.
- Pinterest pin.
- Video collage.
- Blog banner.
- Calendar design.
- Letter design.
Now let’s have a look at the complete Canva features list that can get you started.
Canva features list
To make it less complicated I will divide the features available into 4 four parts.
1. Canva main toolbar
The main toolbar is where you can manage your projects, start your designs and much more.
Create your design
To create a design, you have different ways to get started. The first option would be to go to the create a design button and start creating your design.
You can either choose a design type from the suggested options or search for a specific format by entering a keyword.
By clicking the create a design button, you will also be able to import your files like photos, and PDFs to edit your file.
Other ways to start your design
The other way to start your design, you can select a template from the blue box on the dashboard which also has the option to search and upload your design.
Or,
Just head over to the feature option in the main menu, choose your option and start designing. [Menu>>Option>>Start]
- All your designs – This tab stores all your previous designs.
- Recent designs – As the name suggests, this tab contains all your recently made designs.
- Shared with you – This tab contains the designs that someone has shared with you through a link.
- All your folders – This tab leads you to your folders if you have made any for different projects.
You can create a folder after you click the tab and are led to the folder section just as shown in the picture below.
- Trash – All your deleted files will be found here.
UPDATE: The Canva’s dashboard has had a little update! Now you can find all the three listed above (All design, Recent design, and the folder) except for the “shared with you option” inside the tab “Your Projects“.
The files in the trash remain in the cloud storage unless you delete them permanently from the trash section.
- Team section – In the team section, there are two tabs, the first one is where you can share and collaborate on designs with your team. Inside the team dashboard, you can share designs, and create folders, templates, groups and apps.
- Tools section – Under the tools section, you get a Brand kit and the content planner feature. The brand kit allows you to create templates, add logos, choose typography unique to your brand and manage different colours related to your brand in one place to make your workflow easier.
- Content planner – on the other hand, allows you to plan and schedule your content to be published on different social media channels.
Apart from these features, there are some amazing things you can do from the Canva main dashboard. You can learn some basic design and branding tips from the learn section found at the top toolbar.
And the other wonderful feature that Canva offers is the Color wheel, Color palette generator and colour theories plus the colour palette ideas, which I use often.
Just head over to https://www.canva.com/colors/ and it will take you there.
2. Canva design dashboard
The design area or the dashboard is different from the main dashboard. You get to the Canva design toolbar/dashboard when you select to create or edit a design.
In there, you will find different features Canva has which in itself is unique and dynamic.
Let’s begin with the main toolbar at the left-hand side of your Canva design toolbar page. This toolbar is where you will find all the elements like fonts, images, videos and upload options to help you create your design.
- Templates – The first one at the top is the templates section, it allows you to choose from amongst the pre-made templates to use in your design. It automatically shows you the template according to the design format you have chosen.
- Elements – The element section lets you select and use any template provided by Canva to use in your designs. It consists of lines and shapes, graphics, stock photos and videos, charts frames and grids.
- Uploads – The upload section has two uses, the first allows you to upload files that can be used in your design and the other option allows you to record yourself through the webcam and also record your laptop/PC screen.
- Photos – The photos section is again the collection of stock images that can be used in your designs.
- Text – Through the text option you can insert different texts in your design. You can also use the texts from your pre-saved brand kit.
- Styles – The style section consists of a trending and curated colour and text combination that allows you to easily design your projects. You can also use brand-kit colour combinations and texts.
- Videos – Videos consist of stock videos that can be used in your designs. The recording option can also be used in this section.
- QR Code – This section allows you to create a QR Code for your website or a URL.
- Logos – The logo section can be used to upload your brand or business logo to make it convenient for you to use in your designs.
The folders section contains the folders that you create for different projects.
The More section which you can find in the three-dot contains various apps and other extra features that you can integrate with your Canva account. Such as connecting your social media accounts like Instagram, YouTube, Bitmoji etc.
3. Canva editing toolbar
The Canva editing toolbar comes with many powerful editing tools. It’s located at the top of the visual design area.
The editing tool is somewhat different as it appears in different manners. The tool appears according to the elements you choose, it shows you only the editing feature available in the element you choose.
For example, the tool might appear different when you select the text, and it changes when you select other elements such as the image or a gradient. The tools appear according to the editable option of the element selected.
The list below will show the different editing options that you get in the Canva editing toolbar.
- Font option – This option lets you choose from the variety of font collections available in Canva.
- Font size – Then comes the font size option, you can easily choose the different font sizes for your design.
- Font alignment – Just like any writing tool, Canva also comes with font alignment, letter and line spacing and the bullet and numbering option.
The editing features come with an extended feature with more options, which you will find in the three dots. Under this option, you get the Underline, animate, position, transparency, link and copy tool.
In addition to all these editing tools, Canva also has the option to edit images with options like crop, flip, animate and change colours of the elements.
4. Canva’s latest features.
The key thing about Canva apart from being a user-friendly tool is that it is constantly evolving by adding new features almost every now and then.
Let’s have a look at the latest features that were recently added to Canva. I’ll also be updating this list whenever there’s a new feature added in Canva.
- PDF upload.
- Draw.
- Custom Website.
- Dark Mode.
Note: There has been a lot of upgrade in Canva with amazing features powered by AI. I’ve covered them in another post. You can check it out here.
PDF upload
This one’s been added a while ago. Before that Canva did have the option to download your designs in a PDF format but with the addition of the PDF upload tool, you can upload any PDF to Canva and edit it.
To Upload, any PDF just click the Create design located in the Canva main toolbar and select upload. (The upload is not just limited to PDF, you can upload any other file like images, fonts etc.)
Now select the PDF file from your local device or any other storage drive and upload your file.
Draw
This tool has taken Canva as a design tool to a different level. With this powerful tool, you can start drawing in Canva for your designs.
To use this tool, you will have to be on the editing page/dashboard.
Scroll to the bottom of the main toolbar on the left-hand side of your screen and select more and you will find the draw application there.
Custom website custom domain feature
The latest feature that Canva introduced to its wide range of tools is the ability to add a custom domain to a Canva website.
You Can either publish the website with purchase a domain through Canva itself or assign a domain you already own to the website. Here’s a short tutorial on how you can add a custom domain.
Dark Mode
So, The latest addition to this list is the dark mode feature that comes with Canva. I have no idea if this feature has always been there or was added recently. But, I really felt glad that I found it. Switching to dark mode is really helping me a lot with my eyes.
Here’s where you can find it:
- From the Canva home dashboard go to the account section where the profile picture is located and select more.
- Click the account settings button. This will lead you to your account dashboard.
- Now, you just have to scroll down to the section where you’ll find the dark mode option with the other two options.
- Click dark mode and you’re done. Now start designing while not putting some extra burden on your eyes.
Wrapping it up
I tried covering most of the main features that Canva provides but if you think I’ve left something out, or you would like me to add some other topics on Canva, let me know in the comments.
