In today’s video, I’m sharing 10 new Canva Tips and Tricks that you can use to become
a better designer and create more engaging content!
Ready? Let’s do this!
Hi my lovely people, it’s Natalia and welcome back to my channel where I help you create
better content and grow on social media! It’s been a highly requested video after part 1
and 2 of my Canva tips & tricks so I hope you’re excited to discover brand-new Canva
hacks. Some of the tips I share with you today are available for free users while others
may require a Pro account. It's up to you if you want to use the free or the paid version
but I can tell you Canva Pro is well worth the money with all the incredible features
that come with it. You can check out the link in the description box for a free 30-day trial
for Canva Pro.
Alright, let’s jump straight to Canva.
1. **TIP 1: Time Video Elements**
Let’s start with an absolute banger of a tip and it has to do with the Canva video
editor. Did you know that you can adjust the timing of any elements that you put on top
of your footage? There’s a new, slightly hidden feature that lets you do it quickly
from the timeline. There’s no need to split the video into multiple clips every time you
add something on top of it!
**To do this, add an element onto your clip, and instead of splitting the footage from
the timeline below to have it appear when you want it to, right click the element and
choose Show Timing. This will expand this element on the timeline below and you can
simply drag it from the sides to adjust the length of this element.**
I was so excited when this was introduced because let’s be honest, you don’t want
to split your clip into hundreds of pieces just to add some text or a pop up graphic
on top of it. It’s still not a very well known feature since it’s pretty much hidden
from the timeline unless you click on the element and find this option there.
2. **TIP 2: Remove Video Backgrounds**
This has to be one of my favorite new options in Canva! Just like with images, you can now
remove backgrounds from videos too. It’s such a great feature because it allows us
to create a variety of fun designs and videos. You can search the library for animated green
screen footage and remove the backgrounds to overlay them on top of your videos, you
can create gifs or animations of you to use within your designs, you can replicate the
green screen effect that we know so well from Instagram or TikTok. Or you can just use your
clip and switch up the background for something completely different. There are so many great
possibilities with this one cool feature!
**To do this, find any video from the library or upload yours, then select it and choose
Edit Video from the top panel here and here’s our Background Remover in the left panel.
Let’s click it and let it process, and voila, that’s your transparent video clip.**
One small note from me here, as you can see, it is still in beta so it works best with
simple backgrounds but by all means, experiment with different clips because there may be
enough contrast between the subject and the background for the tool to recognize it well.
By the way, I’m launching my Canva Course for beginners soon so if you want to become
a better designer and improve your business and social media with Canva, click the link
in the description and sign up on the waitlist! Can’t wait to see you there :D
3. **TIP 3: Create your own photo filters**
It’s super important to keep a consistent brand image across all your social media platforms,
your websites and any resources or materials you create. This applies to the photos you
use too. You know how people use similar styles of editing for their photos, usually by using
the same presets? Well, you can achieve something fairly similar within Canva. Granted, it’s
definitely not as advanced as Adobe Lightroom or VSCO, but does the job nicely when you
have to adjust something to fit the style of your design. One of my favorite tips is
to use filter codes to then apply the same settings across your images!
**To do this, choose an image, click Edit Image from the top panel, then go to the Adjust
tab in the left panel and click See All. From here, you can adjust things like the brightness,
contrast, you can sharpen the image with the blur tool or saturate or desaturate the colors.
This image right here needs a bit less warmth so I can adjust it here. Once you have all
your adjustments, you can also copy your unique filter code and paste it to a different image
to achieve the same look.**
It’s a very useful trick to keep your images consistent and make your designs look a little
bit more polished.
4. **TIP 4: Enhance your photos**
We also have three new effects to improve our images: Face Retouch, Auto Enhance and
Auto Focus.
**To access them, select a photo, go to Edit Image again, and scroll down, you’ll see
them here in the Tools tab.**
Let’s start with Auto Focus. When you click on it, it basically identifies the subject
and blurs the background to an extent to create this look that professional lenses would give
you. You can then adjust the Blur Position and Intensity with the slider to achieve this
nicely balanced look.
Auto Enhance is simply a one-click filter that improves the parameters of your image.
It balances all the different settings like brightness, clarity, contrast to make your
photo look better. With one click, it analyzes the photo and applies an automatic setting
to improve it. You can then adjust the intensity with the slider and toggle the original to
see the changes.
Last but not least is the Face Retouch. When you choose this option, it automatically applies
some filters to the photo to, mmmm, enhance the look by whitening teeth, smoothing the
skin and removing the red-eye effect. With the auto option, you can adjust the intensity
by dragging the slider again but you don’t have to go for the automatic settings. You
can select the skin smoothing, teeth whitening or red eye on its own and change the intensity
too for a more targeted effect.
A little disclaimer here, I’m not a fan of intense retouching because it really affects
how we perceive reality and our self image so I don’t recommend going too heavy with
this but I can understand how it can be useful if you’re enhancing photos to have a more
editorial feel.
And a heads up as well, all three of these tools are in beta so I expect them to keep
on getting better with time :)
5. **TIP 5: Apply Video Adjustments**
Alright, we’ve covered photo filters, but do you know you can also do something similar
to your videos? First of all, Canva has its own filters for you so you can make your footage
look a bit better or match it to the style of your photos. Secondly, just like with photos,
you can now also adjust the visual aspects of your videos and, again, make them brighter,
darker, warmer, colder, you get the drill.
**To do this, select your clip, hit Edit Video in the top panel, and similarly to photos,
you’ll see the adjustments but they are in the second tab here at the top, the layout
is a little bit different here. Unfortunately, this panel doesn't allow us to copy unique
filter codes (hopefully that’s a feature Canva is working on!) but it’s still very
useful with all the different sliders here. If you want to apply Canva’s filters, you
can go to the first tab, the Effects tab, and just below our Background Remover, we
have all the different filters. Once you apply one, you can adjust the intensity and to remove
it, just scroll back to the top and choose None.**
6. **TIP 6: Batch Create Social Media Posts**
Did you know have the possibility to quickly create a bunch of posts for different platforms
with just a few clicks using the same template? If you didn’t, then I hope you’re excited!
It’s called Quick Create and it’s a really great feature for all of us content creators
who want to save some precious time.
Now, Quick Create is not so obvious and can be easily missed. **What you need to do is
to go to your home page and choose the social media tab below the big search bar and it’s
the first option here.** Now, we’re welcomed by a new type of editor which lets us quickly
design a bunch of graphics for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and
even email. Once you select what you want, you then add your primary and secondary text,
an image and a logo. Next, you can select a template from this library here and then,
select your own color palette and apply your own fonts to keep a consistent brand image.
If you keep on clicking on the palettes, the colors are going to shuffle and you’ll see
a lot more variety so that you end up with a well-matched design. When you’re done,
you just click finish, wait for the images to be processed and then download a whole
pack of your new designs, ready to be uploaded across all platforms. Just a neat little trick
that can easily be missed among all the other Canva features!
7. **TIP 7: Draw your Own Elements**
Ok, heads up because not everyone knows about this! You can draw in Canva right within the
editor and straight into your designs. This trick is very cool for those moments when
you really need a custom element that you can’t seem to find in the library.
**To be able to draw, scroll down in the left panel down to the More tab and then type Draw
in the search bar. You should then see the icon for the Draw tool, and once you select
it, you can choose between a few different effects. We have the standard pen here, then
the marker, the glow pen and the highlighter. As usual, you can adjust the sliders to change
the size or in this case the transparency as well and choose the color too. Once you
draw something, another icon appears for the eraser to be able to fix any mistakes and
the great thing is that when you’re done drawing, you can click Done from the top panel
here and your drawing becomes an element just like any other from the Canva library. You
can move it, rotate it, make it bigger and smaller, in short, you can incorporate it
into your design however you please.**
This is another beta feature so it’s going to be improved over time and I definitely
feel like this is one of those options that work so much better with a graphic tablet
for the best control but you can still use it with a mouse or a touchpad if you’re
especially dexterous ;)
8. **TIP 8: Export in CMYK**
For all of you lovely people designing in Canva with the intention of actually printing
designs later, you can export your designs in CMYK! CMYK is a color model used in color
printing and it stands for four ink plates: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key. It’s super
important for the printing process so that your colors are rendered correctly and look
the same both in the editor and in real life.
Heads up straight away, this is a Canva Pro option so you won’t be able to access it
if you have a free account.
**To export your design in CMYK, go to Share, then Download, choose the PDF Print option
which should be your choice for the best quality possible and select CMYK from the drop-down
menu here under Color Profile. As a useful side note, you can also select to include
crop marks & bleed, flatten the PDF or include notes, all of which are usually a necessity
when using professional printing services.**
And by the way, if you go to File here in the top right corner, you can select show
margins and show bleed to see the perimeters of your design. Bleed is the extra space
around the outside of your design that gets trimmed when printed. It is absolutely crucial
in printing pretty much anything, from business cards, leaflets, folders to banners and posters.
Usually, print shops require a 3mm bleed and this is why you need to include it in your
design. Same goes for margins, it’s crucial to have enough negative space on the inside
so that no important elements or text get accidentally snipped off.
9. **TIP 9: Design Presentations Quickly with Layouts**
It’s no surprise that Canva helps you create incredible presentations and I’ve shared
some really useful tips for those in Part 1 of this video, it’s going to be linked
so make sure you check it out next! But there’s more to presentations! Apart from using some
of the templates that Canva provides, you can now access a variety of presentation layouts
too.
To do this, choose any presentation template, it can be blank or not, and once you’re
in the editor, tap the Templates tab from the left panel. Just as I’ve said, apart
from the templates bar, you also have layouts here and you can apply any layout to your
presentation with one click. Now, if you’ve used a blank presentation, you have standard
branding here, but if you’ve chosen a template, you’ll see that all the styles are applied
for you too so you’re keeping your slides consistent with the fonts. If you want to
finesse it even more, you can go to your chosen template from here in the Recent Templates
tab and apart from being able to apply any of the pages, you also have the unique presentation
style kit so you can toggle different colors to add even more interest to your slides.
I absolutely love how Canva keeps on improving all the existing features apart from adding
new ones and the presentations are no exception here!
10. **TIP 10: Learn with Canva Events**
I want to put you up to something that a lot of people miss out on! Apart from being a
very versatile design and editing tool, Canva is a brilliant way to learn new things, and
Canva Events are no exception. They’re not really advertised that much so I consider
them to be a bit of a hidden gem. There’s always something on, covering a variety of
different subjects and you can view past events too. You even get a wee certificate of completion
after you’ve participated in the event ;)
**To access Canva events, go to canva.com/events**
Have you discovered something new today? Go to the comments section and share your favorite
tip you’ve learned in this video! I have a whole bunch of other Canva Tips & Tricks
to make you a better designer and speed up your workflow so make sure you watch Part
2 now. Subscribe for more exciting Canva Tutorials and Content Marketing Tips and like this video,
if you’ve enjoyed it, it really helps me create more videos like this for you!
Thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you… next time!