The Ultimate Guide To Using Canva for Print

So you've just finished your design in Canva and now you're scratching your head on how to save your file for print. Well, Print Pup is here to guide the way. We've developed this step-by-step guide to make sure you get the best result from your artwork. It is important to note however that the best results come from professional design tools like InDesign and Illustrator where you have an advanced level of control over your design. Saying that, Canva is a great tool to develop designs fast and requires limited knowledge. With this guide, you can create your print files like a pro and get the best result possible. 

For this example, we will be designing and exporting for a 1 sided A4 Flyer. Let's Jump in! 

If you are using Canva, You should be fairly familiar with this page by now. We have completed our design and now it's time to save for print. 

We want to click on the "share" button in the top right corner, and scroll down to "Download".

By default, the file type is selected as "PNG". For printing, we want to use a PDF so we need to click the dropdown arrow to change the selection

Select PDF Print

This next step is crucial and is often the most missed. For Print, we want to make sure that we select "crop marks and bleed". Also, make sure that the background extends at least 3mm beyond the edge of your canvas like below. During this stage, we ideally want to change the colour profile to "CMYK". If you are using the free version of Canva, don't stress, we have a free tool inside of Print Pup that can convert your artwork from RGB to CMYK.

Click "download", and you should get a PDF file that looks a little like this. Make sure you check that your file has at least 3mm bleed outside the trim marks. 

Now it's time to upload to Print Pup. Select the product you would like to order and click "Upload your artwork".

Now Click "Upload File" or you can also drag and drop your artwork into the canvas. 

Now that the artwork has been uploaded and it correctly fills the bleed box, we can select "Fix All" to convert the file from RGB to CMYK and click the "next" button to continue. At this  stage, you may get a warning about low resolution or DPI. For best quality, we recommend a resolution of 300 DPI. Usually a DPI of 100-150 prints fine, particularly for smaller files, but we do suggest you proceed at your discretion in these cases. 

Then all you need to do is approve your artwork and checkout and you will have a beautifully printed A4 flyer on its way. Of course, if you have any issues, we are always here to help!