I simply love technology! The amazing things we can now do with the click of a button still amazes me and graphic design is one of those areas that has long been only available to professionals. BUT, with online services such as Canva, all that has changed.

Now, before you pop me a nasty email telling me that graphic designers are awesome please note that I love them and direct clients to them when they are needed. They can create designs that I would never conceive and have creativity and skill that can never be replaced. But let’s face it, no-one is going to continually hire a professional every time they want to create a social media graphic – so I believe there is room in this world for BOTH.

With that said, here are my 10 reasons (plus 1 extra) why you should give Canva a go…

#1 It’s easy to use

Before I discovered Canva, creating images for my social media posts and websites could be a long and drawn-out process. You either needed specialist software or the online interface was slow and difficult to use.

Canva changed all of that! Their user interface is drag-and-drop and there are so many templates for you to use that you can create a gorgeous image in just minutes. Whether it’s for social media, a poster, invitation or even business cards – simplicity and speed are second-to-none.

#2 Image Library

With the free version of Canva you have access to 200,000 royalty-free images to use in your designs and that increases to over 2 million with Canva Pro. You can use the inbuilt search feature to find the perfect image for your design or upload your own images to create something completely bespoke.

#3 Awesome Templates

No matter what type of graphic you are creating, Canva has a template already set up for it. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest graphics? And, that list is growing just as quickly as the online world. You can create a post with the ideal dimensions in one click right from your homepage. And if you have the Pro version, you can even resize a design to another template instantly. It saves hours of work and is great for all types of social media campaigns you may wish to run across multiple platforms.

#4 Fonts Galore

The free version of Canva offers you a large range of fonts that you can use to personalise your designs. If you upgrade to Pro, you get an extra 500+ exclusive fonts AND you can upload your own and save them within your Brand Kit to access for all of your designs.

#5 Brand Kit

This is a feature of the Pro version and definitely one I am pleased that I have. Here you can upload your company logos, fonts and colour palettes so that they are always on hand when you create a new graphic. My palette for this website is pretty simple, but it still makes it quicker to find the right teal colour by having it at hand…

And, because you can have more that one palette, I also use this if I’m doing a large website job for a client that requires imagery so I don’t have to go searching around and manually add their details each time I need to creat something.

#6 Store your designs in Folders

This is another Canva Pro option and one that I love. I can create folders for my own work and a new folder for each of my clients. As I can create up to 100 images a week sometimes, being able to sort these and find them easily makes my job just SO much easier!

#7 Design School

A resource open to all Canva users, Design School is a series of video courses on everything from graphic design basics to branding your business. There are also short challenge videos and quick tip videos to make sure you are getting the most out of this online tool.

#8 Animations & GIFs

You can now create animated images, videos and GIFs! I simply love this and created a simple animation for my Facebook page – so much fun to do and it creates interest in a way that static images simply can’t do…

#9 Collaboration Tools

As a Canva Pro user you can add Team Members to your account and share specific designs and folders with them. This is great if you are working with a group or collaborating on designs within a business. It may not be something that everyone needs, but to have it as an option for future work is worth remembering.

#10 Transparent Backgrounds

Hate the white background that appears around each of your designs when you create a graphic? Again, Canva Pro allows you to remove the background and save your design as a transparent PNG file. This automatically removes any sections of your design that are colourless (basically the background if you haven’t used an image or a colour) so they show up on your website or over other designs without the annoying white area showing. Cool huh?!

BONUS – BACKGROUND REMOVER

Since I first wrote this blog post, Canva have added and continue to add amazing new features – like the ability to remove the background from photographs with one click if you have Canva Pro. Yes, you can now upload your images with crappy backgrounds, and in one click Canva will remove them from the image. 

With all of these reasons to give Canva a go, it only remains to say that every single graphic that I create for my own website and my clients is done in Canva Pro – my job would be A LOT more difficult without it!

Note: this post contains affiliate links to Canva Pro and I may receive a commission when you click one of these and make a purchase. However, as with everything I recommend this does not impact my review of this product. My 10 reasons listed above are based on my own continued use of this product and this post is written to help you make the best decision for your own business.