Lines, shapes, and text are the building blocks of almost every design.
When combined together, they create infinite possibilities.
In this video, we're going to explore some of the most basic elements of design
and learn how to edit them in Canva.
One the most basic elements in graphic design is line.
Line is used to add style, enhance comprehension, create forms, and separate space.
It can be a border around other design elements
or a divider between them.
It can be curved dotted, zigzagged, or straight.
To add a line in Canva, click the Elements tab
and then shapes and lines. You'll find pre-styled lines to choose from.
To quickly add a line to your page, press the L key on your keyboard.
Let's start by styling this line.
First, select it so you can see the toggles on each end.
Switch between dotted, dashed, and solid lines in the toolbar here.
Next, try adjusting the weight or thickness.
We can also choose an endpoint style for the start and end of the line like this.
Lastly, change the color here.
Next, let's look at working with shapes in Canva.
You can find all types of shapes in the Elements tab.
Depending on the type of shape you choose, your editing options vary.
Some shapes stay in proportion, while others allow you to change width and height.
Let's choose this isosceles triangle, for example, which means it has two sides of equal length.
In addition to adjusting the color and scale,
we can also adjust the width and height, warping the triangle.
This handy adjustment opens up a world of possibilities
when it comes to combining shapes together to make new shapes.
For example, by making a copy of our triangle and rotating it 180 degrees,
now we've made a parallelogram. A completely different shape altogether.
Once you've created a new shape by combining them together,
it helps to group them so that you can easily move them and resize them as one.
Select all the objects by dragging your selection over them, then group them.
Grouping also allows you to edit shape colors all at once. Hold command or control
and click the grouped objects to select them as a set, then change the color.
Let's discover how to add text.
We can easily add text to our page and customize it in a few ways.
The quickest way to get started is to hit the T key on your keyboard.
This will add a text box to your page.
Now, we can start to apply some basic formatting such as editing text size, color,
styles like bold, italic, or underline, and case.
You can also resize and rotate a text box just like any other element.
To find pre-styled text groups including things like text effects and font pairs,
find the Text tab here.
These are a real time saver when you're looking for some type inspiration.
Let's add in a text group like this one.
It has a headline font here and some body copy text here.
All of these text boxes are grouped together.
We want to ungroup them so we can easily edit them separately.
We do that by clicking here, giving us more control over individual text boxes.
We can easily remove text by selecting text frames and using our keyboard to delete it.
We can also adjust the alignment and styles here.
Now, we have the beginnings of what could become the design of a poster or flyer.
There's a clear heading, but what if we want to change the font of our headline?
Select it and find your font list in the toolbar.
There are thousands of fonts to choose from or you can search by category like this.
This title is looking great, but there's still a couple
more styling options we can experiment with.
Let's try adjusting text spacing.
I can increase letter spacing here and line spacing like this.
If I increase spacing too much, text can feel too sparse
and letter forms no longer connect with one another
to create a fluid block of text.
Perhaps the ultimate method for type styling comes from text effects.
But be warned, although they're fun to play with,
text effects can overwhelm designs.
So use these in small doses.
Let's try some effects.
Text effects allow text to stand out and can create some depth and movement in designs.
These basic elements of line, shape, and text will help you form any design you can think of.