In the first part you learned how to start with new design in Canva, basic text editing and scaling and cropping. Now let's move on ...
Intro to Frames and Grids
On the left side menu click on Elements tab (button).
Scroll down a little bit and you will see different categories, among them are Frames and Grids.
You can click on “see all” text to expand only Frames or only Grids elements.
Another way of doing it is to select Elements and than type Frames (or Grids) in search box and press Enter on keyboard.
Now scroll down to see all available Frames and click on any of them.
All Frames and Grids have the same placeholder graphic.
Go back to Photos tab and drag any photo directly onto placeholder graphic on your canvas. Image will fill only that area.
You can now manipulate entire Frame (scaling and cropping) like it is a single element.
Grids are similar to Frames but the difference is that you can use multiple images with Grids.
Using Canva Videos
From left side menu select Videos tab (button).
There are two ways to place video file on your canvas as background.
First one is to drag file thumbnail from library onto canvas and release it just when you cross the canvas border. If you drop it in the middle of the canvas video will not expand to whole canvas.
Another way is to click on the thumbnail in library. Video is placed on canvas. Now right click on video and select “Set Video as Background”.
Click on video and options will appear in top menu.
Click Trim button (scissors icon) to open edit track. Here you can move start and end handles to adjust video length.
Click done button on the right side when you are finished to apply changes and go back to canvas.
With crop button you can change which part of the video is visible. Click and drag image to adjust position. Click done button on left side when you are finished to apply changes.
When you are done with editing you can download your creation in MP4 or GIF format.
Elements in Canva
The real power of Canva are premade files you can use for your projects. You can add photos, videos, music, background.
Besides this basic files there are also Elements, graphic elements you can include.
First, start with new design.
Click on Elements tab (button) on the left side menu.
Scroll down to see all categories. Image shows basic ones like fetaured, lines, shapes, frames, stickers, charts, grids, gradients.
Next are specific subject graphic elements like Coronavirus, Bold Foliage, Zodiac Symbols, Handdrawn Animals and many others.
You can expand a category by clicking ‘see all’ on the right side of category name.
You can use search to find what you can’t find in these categories.
Let’s say you need graphics of planets. Type planets in search box and voila!
Some Shapes are so common they have their own keyboard shortcut.
Try R for Rectangle, C for Circle or L for Line.
Part III will be published in few days. Stay tuned.
This post was first published on my wp blog.
All images created by me.