Hi there, it’s Matt from Style Factory.
In this Canva review I’m going to walk you through the pros and cons of an increasingly
popular browser-based design tool.
Is it right for your business, or should you use a desktop app like Photoshop or Illustrator
instead?
Stay tuned to the end to find out.
Let’s start things off with a key question: what IS Canva?
Canva is a design tool that lets you create professional looking visual materials easily,
and without needing graphic design skills.
Canva can be used to design social media graphics, videos, presentations, slides, posters and
other visual assets — and a wide range of templates and royalty free images is provided
to help you do this easily.
Although you can install Canva on your own computer, there’s no need to do so, as it
works fine in a browser.
You do need to be online to use it, however.
But is Canva any good?
To answer that question, I’m going to take you through some of the key pros and cons
of the app.
But just before I do, a quick reminder to like this video, hit the subscribe button,
and click the notifications bell.
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Right, let’s look at 5 key reasons why you might want to use Canva.
One – Canva is really easy to use.
Canva promises to make graphic design easy for non-designers, and it really delivers
on that promise.
Its interface is simple and intuitive, and anyone with the most basic of computer skills
shouldn’t face much of a learning curve from Canva at all.
Two — it’s great value for money.
For a very low monthly fee, Canva gives you access to hundreds of thousands of design
templates, royalty free graphics, photos and videos.
Not only this, it also lets multiple users access your account.
Additionally, Canva provides a generous free plan that comes with a significant amount
of functionality and a large number of templates and royalty free images.
Despite this plan being free, you can actually create some pretty stunning work with it.
You’ll find a link to the free plan in the video description.
Three — Canva makes it easy to stay on brand.
Thanks to its ‘brand kit’ feature, which lets you upload your own logo and define your
own color palettes, Canva makes it easy to ensure brand consistency across any materials
you design using the tool.
Four — Canva is really flexible.
Canva can be used to design a wide range of media types.
You can create static images, videos and even printed products like T-shirts and business
cards without ever leaving the Canva interface.
And, thanks to its ‘magic resize’ tool, Canva can take an asset you’ve already designed
and automatically reformat it for a variety of channels.
Five — Canva comes with a great mobile app.
You can use Canva on a mobile device, thanks to iOS and Android apps that are available
for the platform.
The mobile app is really easy to use, highly functional and is ideal for creating visual
assets for social media on the go.
So there is a lot to like about Canva.
But where could it perform better?
Let’s go through the 5 main disadvantages of using Canva.
One — the output formats are limited.
Unlike most desktop design tools, the output formats for Canva are pretty limited.
This can make it hard to start a design or video project in Canva and hand it over to
a professional designer or editor for enhancements.
Two — you can’t back up your projects.
There’s no obvious way to back up your projects in Canva.
So if you accidentally delete a design, or lose access to your Canva account, you may
be in trouble.
Now that said, you can retrieve deleted items from your Canva trash for 30 days, which is
helpful.
But it would be better if there was a proper backup system in place.
Three — there’s no phone support.
If you’re somebody who likes to get instantaneous support by talking to a human being via phone
or live chat, you may be a bit disappointed by Canva — only email support is provided.
That said, the product is very easy to use, and a wide range of online help materials
are available to help you if you get stuck.
Four — producing printed products with Canva is expensive.
It’s great that Canva gives you the option to produce printed items like t-shirts, hoodies,
business cards and tote bags.
However, doing so is pretty expensive, and you can usually only print up to 50 items
in one go.
It would be better if you could mass produce items more cheaply using the tool.
Five — Canva doesn’t work offline.
In order to use Canva, you need an internet connection.
So, if you find yourself without WiFi, you won’t be able to work on any designs.
So that’s it — 5 key pros and cons of Canva.
We’d sum Canva up by saying that it is a great value tool that can empower your team
to produce high quality visual materials really easily — even if they don’t have any formal
graphic design skills.
However, if you need to output your designs in very specific formats, or envisage needing
to work offline, then traditional tools like Photoshop may work better for you.
But overall, Canva gets a big thumbs up from the Style Factory team.
If you’d like to learn more about Canva, do check out our full Canva review, which
you’ll find on the Style Factory website.
There’s a link to this in the video description, along with a link to a free trial of Canva.
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And if you have any queries about Canva, just leave a comment below.
We’ll do our best to help.