Looking for a graphic design tool that gives you a better way to create images, presentations, and other graphics?
Canva is a top-of-the-line graphic design tool that makes it crazy easy to generate all kinds of designs. It’s both extremely powerful also super simple to use, even if you aren’t a graphic designer.
Canva is an excellent choice for designing presentation slides. Let’s go through an example of how to get started creating presentations in Canva.
Step 1 – Select presentation when creating a new design
Once you are logged into Canva.com, click the ‘create a design’ button in the top right corner.
This is where you select the type of design to create. Canva has many options, including PDFs, Instagram posts, Facebook posts, and more. To create a presentation with Canva, select ‘Presentation (16:9).
Step 2 – Pick a template to set the backgrounds for your slides
The first step to creating your new presentation design is to pick a template. Canva offers you about 250k templates on a free plan, and about 610k templates with Canva Pro.
You can filter through the list by…
Selecting the industry / associated keyword
Or by filtering based on the color scheme of the template (click filter button in search box)
When you select a template, you can choose to either apply the design for just one slide, or the entire set of slides that come with the template (for example, a set of 10+ slides) by clicking ‘Apply all 10 pages’.
If there’s a type of slide you want to add that is not contained within the template, you can use the ‘Layouts’ option to quickly select and add a new slide types with a particular layout.
Styles – you can use this to adjust the color palette of the template you are using, and to pick sets of font styles (heading, subheading, and body text fonts), as well as combinations of the two.
Step 5 – Finish, save, and export
Canva is set by default to auto-save your work, but still a good thing to double-check as you wrap up your design.
Then click ‘Share’ in the top right hand side.
There you’ll see various options for exporting or downloading your slides. You can download the slides as individual images, or the whole presentation as a PDF. You can export your presentation to PowerPoint or Google Drive, or even embed it on your website. There are tons of options!
Canva’s cool design features
You can do way more than simple graphics with Canva. The platform has an incredible variety of design tools. Some examples:- Font effects
- Graphs, charts, and infographics
- Icons
- Stickers
- Gradients
- Colors picked from a photo while designing
- Styles (color and font pairs)
- Animate a graphic
- Add video (including stock video)
- Add music to a video you create
Why should you choose canva presentation over other presentation tools?
When it comes to designing presentation slides, Canva is definitely one of the best options out there. Especially when compared with something like PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides. It’s far and away one of the most user-friendly platforms, and it allows you to create some truly brilliant designs…even with zero design skills.
While it takes a bit more time to create a full presentation with Canva, this should still give you an idea of how fast and easy it is to use.
Canva’s Best Features:
- Pre-sized social media images (and 100+ other design types)
- 100+ million premium stock images, photos, graphics, and even video
- >610,000 professional-level templates
- Cloud-based design platform that automatically saves so you don’t lose your work
- Create a brand kit to apply to your designs, with pre-set brand colors, fonts, and logos
- Export designs as animated GIFS or MP4 videos
- Schedule social media content to go out across 8 platforms
- One-click background remover – click to remove image backgrounds, perfect for product photos, headshots, or transparent PNGs.
- Instant animation – Experience the easiest way to animate your graphic and watch your designs come alive.
- One-click resize designs – Resize your work in any design type with just a click.
What third-party integrations are available with Canva presentations?
There are over 100 apps that integrate with Canva via their app marketplace, including: Screen Apply screen effects to your image Slidecast Share designs with Slidecast to analyze engagement Edgar Upload your designs to MeetEdgar Repurpost Upload your designs straight into your strategy Quicc Add Quicc captioned and subtitled videos to Canva SocialPika Post designs to your social media accounts Beaconstac QR Add Dynamic QR codes to your designs Shadows Add a shadow around your images. Take a 2-D image and give it a 3-D effect to help it stand out in your design. Smart mock ups Transform any image into a product markup TINT Add user-generated content to your Canva designs Box Keep all your files in one place with Box LoudDoc Publish your design to LoudDoc and add narrations Gain Get approval for your Canva designs in GainPricing For Canva Presentations
The price of Canva ranges from free (for their basic account, and also for teachers and students) up to 15 bucks a month for Canva for Teams. The main paid plan is called Canva Pro, and costs $12.99 / mo (or about $10 / mo if you pay annually). Here’s a highlight of some of the different features available with a free Canva account versus Canva Pro.Free Canva account features:
- 250k templates across 100+ design types
- Over 1 million free photos and graphics to use
- 5GB cloud storage
- Export in various file types (PDF, PNG, JPEG, etc.)
- Create custom dimension graphics
- Share view or edit access with your team
Canva Pro features:
- Access to 610,000 templates across 100+ design types
- Over 100 million premium stock images, photos, graphics, and even video
- 1 TB cloud storage
- Create a brand kit to apply to your designs, with pre-set brand colors, fonts, and logos
- Resize designs with a single click
- Export designs as animated GIFS or MP4 videos
- Schedule social media content to go out across 8 platforms
What are the pros and cons of using canva?
Canva is used for all sorts of designs, from social media posts to presentations (which is what we’ll be talking about here). It’s grown in popularity tremendously, and claims to have over 10 million users today.Canva Pros:
- Simple & user-friendly
- Good selection of preloaded fonts
- Drag-and-drop designer
- Price (can do a lot for free, and paid isn’t too expensive)
- Pre-formatted designs (like an Instagram story, or a Facebook banner)
- Collaboration on designs (even on the free plan)
- Brand kits – create designs with a consistent aesthetic
- More recently can do some cool things with animating graphics, adding audio narration, and even editing videos
Canva Cons:
The cons are few and far between, honestly. But if you are wondering about possible downsides, here are a couple ones that might annoy some very specific groups of people trying to do very specific things.- Simple means not fully controllable (find for most but just means you can’t change every little thing in a 100% custom way)
- Little bit of a ‘Canva look’ – since the platform is built around using templates, there’s a kind of look and feel to them
- Moving elements between designs is a headache (there’s not an easy drag and drop way of doing it)
- Alignment of elements can be a little bit annoying at times
- Some possible concerns about IP (intellectual property). Canva could theoretically go in and delete all your designs. This hasn’t happened, and isn’t likely, but there might be some intellectual property implications for certain types of businesses.
Frequently asked questions
Can Canva be used for presentations?
Yes – Canva is a great tool for designing presentation slides, though it can create many other types of graphics also.
Is Canva better than PowerPoint?
While some might prefer PowerPoint, for most people and businesses Canva is definitely the better option. Canva is easier to use, and also allows you to create better and more complex designs. Canva also has way more (useful) features. It also has >250k design templates you can use, versus the handful of (very basic) templates from PowerPoint.
How do you present a presentation in Canva?
You can either export (download) the presentation, or use their live presentation mode by clicking ‘Present’ in the top right-hand side of your screen.
Can I convert a Canva presentation to PowerPoint?
Yes – Canva has the ability to download your slides as a .pptx file.
How do I get Canva Pro for free?
Yes – Canva Pro is free for teachers and students. More info available here: Canva for Education
Can you transfer Canva to Google Slides?
Yes – simply select Google Drive for the export option. And then once it’s uploaded open the file and click save as Google Slides.
How do I save a Canva presentation on Google Drive?
Click Share > Click More > Select Google Drive
Is the Canva program free?
Free-for-life accounts are available with limited use. Canva Pro is available for free for teachers and students.
How long is Canva free?
Forever for the basic account. For free trials of Canva Pro, those last 30 days.
How do I save in Canva without paying?
It’s free to do so, as long as you haven’t added any premium (paid) design assets.
How do I get Canva Pro lifetime free?
Canva Pro is free for teachers and students. More info available here: Canva for Education
Is Canva worth the money?
Since it’s pretty cheap, and extremely powerful, it’s definitely worth trying out.
Do students get free Canva Pro?
Yes – more info available here: Canva for Education
Do teachers get Canva Pro for free?
Yes – more info available here: Canva for Education
Is Canva for education free forever?
Yes – more info available here: Canva for Education
Which is better, Canva Pro or Canva for education?
They are the same
Who is eligible for Canva for education?
Teachers and students – more info available here: Canva for Education
What is the purpose of Canva?
To make graphic design easier and faster, especially for non-designers.
How do teachers use Canva?
To make better-looking and more interesting designs for the classroom…much faster.
How do I sell a Canva template?
Sign up to become a contributor with a single click. Then upload your work and Canva will review. You can sell a wide range of designs in Canva.
Learn more here: Canva contributors
Can I sell something I made on Canva?
Yes
Is it profitable to sell Canva templates?
Some people report making up to 2k USD per month
How to Sell Canva Templates and Make Money
How to upload a PowerPoint presentation to Canva?
Click ‘Upload’ from the website, then drag your PPT presentation file onto it and you’re good to go!
Can you download the Canva presentation as a ppt?
Yes – you can download files as .pptx
How to download a Canva presentation?
Click Share > Click Download > Fill out options > Click Download
How to add a voice recording to Canva presentation?
Click Share > Select ‘Present and Record’ > then click ‘Start Recording’.
