Nowadays, mostly every company relies on visual content. However, in order to receive a positive response, in most cases, it is necessary to hire a graphic designer, who has no trouble using programs like Photoshop.
What if there is also another way of creating good looking content with no need for a professional designer? The offer of online design programs like Canva, Stencil, befunky, Crello, is increasing steadily.
As I am working with Photoshop on visual projects for our customers almost daily, I decided to give one of these online design programs a go – namely Canva. I am mainly going to talk about the drawbacks using Canva as a company, but that does not mean that there are no positive aspects to it.
Templates and designs
One thing Canva is most known for is its great variety of templates and designs in all shapes and sizes. Even though Canva offers this great selection, I personally find it too time-consuming always having to search for the right measurements. Why not adjust the size afterward? Because there is no option to do so in Canva. With Photoshop, in comparison, everything is fixed easily and no searching is necessary. Well, I can already imagine people throwing in that Photoshop does not offer so many designs compared to Canva.
However, more and more people get used to the Canva Style and are also able to recognize it online. Businesses using simple Canvas templates may suffer from people becoming bored or even commenting negatively. So if businesses do not want to be convicted for this lack of creativity, they should not use these designs anyway. Regardless of which program used, blank templates are usually the best option, to begin with.
Alignment of objects
Another thing I found very annoying while testing Canva were the missing rulers. In order to create a consistent brand style, you will definitely need some guidelines. Repeatedly applying a Logo or other objects in the same position precisely requires a lot of energy and time. And yes I did recognize those lilac lines appearing from time to time while dragging an object. Unfortunately, these lines and grids are still not precise enough for me to achieve a pixel-perfect alignment like with Photoshop.
Download/Export of files
The third drawback of Canva is the limited export/ download options. These settings only consist of the main file types- PNG, JPG and PDF, using RGB formats. Lately, they expanded their file options by a file called PDF Print. However, this setting is still not using the CMYK format, which departments for packaging design and magazine design depend on. Moreover, Canva is using very low file sizes that may add to the risk of pixelation. Photoshop allows you to change your export settings in a lot more detail and you can naturally choose between the RGB- and CMYK formats.
There is no doubt that these online design programs are definitely beneficial for influencers, blogger, small companies and also people at home. You can create appealing visuals by using the great variety of design templates. Nonetheless, in my opinion, bigger companies should not go without a professional graphic designer, capable of using Adobe programs or similar. Most clients value uniqueness and their brand recognition factor highly. Aiming to achieve these aspects more advanced skills are required.
In one of our next posts, we will compare Canva with other similar browser-based tools.
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