What is Canva
Canva is a user friendly, free-to-use online graphic design tool that’s become popular among non-designers. Canva provides various templates and tools to easily create graphics best suited for social media, presentations, postcards, promotional merchandise and websites elements.
Canva can be a great option, especially for small businesses, nonprofits and anyone in need of quick designs without the need for professional design skills. However, while Canva is great for providing simple design solutions for screen based graphics and small print projects, it does have its limitations when it comes to large format printing. Setting up designs that meet specific printer requirements can be tricky for non-experienced designers. This makes Canva less ideal for large scale print projects like banners, posters, or signs.
If you’re aiming to produce high quality, large format prints, we recommend working with professional design software or consulting with a design expert. While Canva is good for quick and simple designs, it’s not always the best fit for setting up more complex print ready files
Canva is Good For:
- Social media
- Marketing materials
- Web design
- Small format printing
Canva is NOT Good For:
- Large format printing
- Complicated designing
- Highly customized designs
Using Canva for Large Format Printing
Using Canva for large format printing can be challenging due to the restrictions of the program. You may even consider upgrading to Canva Pro because it does give you access to more advanced tools, access to premium elements and additional output options, although keep in mind, even with the access to the more advanced tools the program still has limitations.
1. Grab the Template: Start by downloading the PDF template from the product page. If a PDF template isn’t available, check the design specs for file requirements. You can find more information on how to use our PDF templates here.
2. Measurements: Canva uses pixels as the default unit of measurement, and you’ll need to convert inches into pixels. The best way to do this is to find a conversion calculator on google like this one. Upgrading to Canva Pro will give you additional units of measurement options.
3. Custom Size: Choose to do a custom size rather than a pre-made template. Canva templates come in fixed sizes and if those dimensions don’t match the product requirements, you’ll run into issues.
4. File Dimensions: For most large products, the required file dimensions will likely exceed Canva’s dimension limits. In that case, you will have to scale your design down to a proportional size. We will enlarge the file on our end for printing as long as the design stays proportional to the specs.
- Canva’s maximum file dimension: 8000px x 3125px (83.33in x 32.55in)
5. Use High Resolution Images: Start with the highest resolution images/logos you can find especially since you will most likely be designing at a smaller size. Most logos or images should be at least 300 DPI. However, depending on the final size of your print, even 300 DPI might not be enough for a high-quality result, and we won’t know for sure until we see the final file. For more information on DPI, check out our article on DPI Explained.
- NOTE: Most elements/images in Canva are suitable for prints up to A4 paper size, which would not be high enough quality for large format printing.
6. Color Profile: Canva uses the RGB color profile, while we use CMYK for printing. RGB to CMYK conversion can sometimes cause color shifts. If color matching is important, we highly recommend ordering a printed sample before moving forward with the printing of your order.
7. Export Your File: Click on the share button and select download, select PDF-Print (though this may only be available with Canva Pro). If PDF-Print isn’t available, you can try other formats like JPEG or PNG, but keep in mind these might not provide the resolution needed for quality prints.
When to Use Professional Design Software or a Graphic Designer
If your design is more complex, or if you're having trouble getting your Canva file to meet our specifications, we recommend using professional design software like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, or Photoshop. If you don’t have the software or knowledge to set up the files properly, consider hiring a professional graphic designer. Check out our most recommend freelance graphic designers here.
Please note, our graphics team isn’t experienced in Canva and can only provide very basic information and guidance. There is a vast amount of Canva resources and tutorials on google that might help you find a solution for any file issues.