THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO CANVA & PRINT
Canva is a fabulous design tool for beginners to create their own logos, business cards, flyers and everything in between! We love to see you create designs for your business, birthday, and every other occasion, however there are quite a few things to learn and know when it comes to creating a document that will result in your work coming out EXACTLY as you planned.
This is our official Echuca Printers 'Ultimate Guide to Canva & Print' which is going to be your bible when it comes to all things Canva.
You'll be a Canva whizz in no time!
DOCUMENT SIZING:
Canva has an extensive amount of templates and documents you can edit, however majority of these are not in correct AUSTRALIAN PRINT SIZING. This means when you send your document to us, it won't come out exactly as planned - most likely your work will be cut off or have white boarders - not giving you he professional print outcome you were after.
A SERIES PAPER DIMENSIONS:
A0 = 841 X 1189
A1 = 594 X 841
A2 = 420 X 594
A3 = 297 X 420
A4 = 210 X 297
A5 = 148 X 210
A6 = 105 X 148
A7 = 74 X 105
DL SIZE (ENVELOPE/FLYER ETC.):
99 X 210
BUSINESS CARD:
90 X 55
For any other document sizing, you can head to Google and search for Australian Print Sizing, or contact us if you have any specific sizing and document needs.
Below are the correct Australian print measurements to our most popular documents (please also remember in the print world we use MILLIMETERS as our primary unit of measurement.):
HOW TO SAVE YOUR CANVA
DOCUMENT FOR PRINT:
So you've created an epic document and are ready to send it to us for print? Woohoo!
Unfortunately saving print ready artwork is not quite as straight forward as it may seem. We require your document to be saved with specific settings and finishes. This includes saving your document as a PDF with CMYK colours, flattening it, adding bleed and trim and ensuing you do not have any Canva Premium elements in your final design.
Does this sound like a whole lot of printer talk? Not to worry we will break everything down for you and show you how to save using these settings.
PLEASE NOTE
We cannot accept or print any files saved as JPEG or PNG, files must be a PDF.
CMYK colour settings are only available to Canva Pro users. If you are not a Canva Pro user, your document will be in RGB. This means your final print colours will be slightly different to how they appear on screen.
Artwork MUST include bleed and trims, if document is not provided with bleed and trims your final print will either have be cropped with the edges of the document missing or have a white boarder.
HOW TO SAVE THE CORRECT PDF FILE:
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STEP 1:
Go to 'Share button in the top right corner, then press 'Download'.
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STEP 2:
Click on the 'File Type' drop down. Select PDF Print.
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STEP 3:
Select the 'Crop marks and bleed', and 'Flatten PDF' checkboxes.
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STEP 4:
Click the 'Colour Profile' drop down. Select CMYK (best for professional printing).
TIPS AND TRICKS
WHAT IS
BLEED
AND WHY DO I NEED IT?
The bleed is extra space added to your design that goes outside the final print size.
Positioning graphics, images and backgrounds into the bleed area ensures that there’s no unwanted white space around the edges of your design after it is printed.
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You can add bleed to your document in the design phase.
Simply click 'File', 'View Settings', 'Show Print Bleed'.
Having your file set up this way ensures you are designing with bleed from the start.
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WHAT DOES
CMYK
MEAN?
The CMYK acronym stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key:
These are the colours used in the printing process. to make up images.
So what happens when you don't save your art as CMYK?
Your final product colours will be slightly different to how they appear on screen. Canva default colour settings are RGB, which is used for digital formats such as social media and web.
DO I NEED
CANVA PRO?
No, you do not need Canva Pro to provide us with the right document.
The only setting you will not have available is the option to use CMYK colours, so your final print colours will differ slightly.
If you are using the free version of Canva you cannot use premium elements, we will not be able to print your design (as below).
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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO
FLATTEN ARTWORK?
When designing in Canva, each image, graphic, shape, logo, text box etc is an individual element.
When you export your PDF, these remain as individual elements.
The reason you need to flatten your artwork is due to the way our print equipment works.
Our machines disassemble files and take apart each component of the file. This ensures every fine detail is printed - and if your document is not flattened our machines simply cannot read the file, and your work can't be printed.
*now we can all celebrate and work together seamlessly on creating professional print products! Woohoo!*