Digital Schoolhouse

Getting Started with Canva

Canva is a free and simple to use design program that allows you to design presentations, social graphics and more.

The App is available on the iTunes App Store

Registration is simple and free and simply requires an email address

A range of interactive tutorials, deliverable presentations, and teaching materials including lesson plans are available to view and download from . The site also contains lesson plans developed by teachers which aim to cover a range of subjects.

Interactive Support Materials to help you get started

There is a vast array of support materials on the Canva site to help you familiarise yourself with the environment, as well as design tutorials to help you become a skilled graphic designer. All are easily accessible and very helpful, but below is a list of some that you may want to look at first.

Workshop 1: This is Canva(

Lesson Plans (

Workshop 2: Fonts-colours-Images (

Tutorials (

  • Essential Canva Tools
  • Choosing the right Fonts
  • Color Your Design
  • Enhancing Images
  • Designing with Shapes
  • Canva Tips and Tricks
  • Designing a Presentation

Public or Private?

Canva allows you to share your designs with others as well as keep them to yourself. All screens have the following options along the top:

Selecting the ‘Share’ option allows you to post your design to Facebook orTwitter. Alternatively you can share your design via email and choose whether the recipient sees an editable version or a read only format

Canva designs can also be downloaded for local editing and distribution. Simply clicking on the download button provides you with options for file formats.

By default your Canva design will be saved as ‘Private’. This means that other Canva users will not be able to see your designs. If you wish to share your design with the public Canva gallery then simply clicking this button will switch it to ‘Public’ and allow other users to see it.

You know Canva is saving your work when the ‘Private/Public’ option changes to say ‘Saving’. Clicking on the button now will bring up a box allowing you to add a description to your work. If you intend to make your work public adding tags and a description is a good idea as it will enable others to locate your work much more easily.