Graphic Design Tool
Canva added some ‘Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo’ in 2023.
I feel like Canva has brought us to another level in designing this year. Is it just me?
You see, last year (2022) was a good year for Canva. I think some of the major additions were Canva Text To Image (beta), Video Background Remover, and Canva Docs. I know there are other minor changes, but these three were a big deal.
However, in 2023, Canva gifted us with multiple new features that each have great importance by itself. Now, I bolded ‘gifted’ because Canva actually presented each feature as ‘wrapped gift boxes’ on the app’s homepage. It was pretty cool.
The many gifts Canva has to offer in 2023.
1. Create an Animation
I just have to start with this one because there were so many times when I wished I could make a bunny hop or a giant donut flying over a man eating an actual donut!
Yeah… my imagination is kind of silly sometimes…
But the point is, I wanted to be able to move Canva elements as I like. And lo and behold, they did it, guys. Canva made it in the easiest way possible for pretty much anyone to create a simple animation.
You can use this in a presentation or simply to have some fun with your imagination.
The animation you desire is just three clicks away.
- Click the element you’d like to animate.
- Click ‘Animate’.
- Click ‘Create an Animation’.
No sweat!
2. The new Text To Image
Ah, I remember when it was still in beta. It was very unstable, but it was very promising. And now, it has blossomed into an AI image generator that keeps on giving.
Firstly, it has a broader range of styles now. It’s divided into three sections:
- Photography
- Photo
- Vibrant
- Minimalist
- Neon
- Filmic
2. Digital Art
- Colorful
- 3D
- Retrowave
- Psychedelic
- 3D Model
- Concept Art
- Gradient
- Retro Anime
- Dreamlike
- Anime
3. Fine Art
- Watercolor
- Color Pencil
- Stained Glass
- Ink Print
Next, we’re no longer stuck with squares!
That sentence can be very confusing without context. But I assume, like me, all of you are familiar with the old Canva Text To Image. You know, when the aspect ratio was only good ol’ square.
Well, now, Canva also offers ‘jacked landscape’ and ‘sexy portrait’.
I just love the many options in this feature.
3. Magic Design
This is yet another beta feature that has a lot of potential. It’s made very convenient for businesses or solopreneurs to come up with a template without using much time and brain power.
Just head to ‘Templates’, click ‘Try Magic Design’, then ‘Insert media’ either from your device or the ones you’ve uploaded to Canva.
After picking your image, you can then choose the style and vibe or theme you’re going for. Then, you can edit the headline and customize the desired template to make it fully personalized.
In my case, I uploaded one of the many food photos I have on my phone. Then, I picked a style and chose ‘Restaurant’, ‘Advertising’, ‘Sale’, and ‘Business’ for the vibe/theme.
After doing a little tweaking, this is the result. ⬇️
Pretty neat and saves a lot of time.
4. Magic Edit & Eraser
These features are such a design-changing experience with Canva! And again, they made it way too easy for anyone to learn how to use it.
Magic Edit allows you to replace any object in a photo with pretty much anything. Though it’s still in beta, the results I’ve gotten so far are pretty well done.
On the other hand, Magic Eraser enables you to erase that extra limb from a failed Text To Image result or make half of the Eiffel Tower disappear.
I’ve been wishing for this tool to be on Canva. And it came through!
5. Edit with Beat Sync
This feature enables you to easily sync clips and audio to spare you the headache of manual video editing.
By the way, I noticed this feature works much better with upbeat music. But since it’s pretty new, that could be improved in the future.
6. Play with Draw
You can now add some doodles or write down some notes on your whiteboard with Canva Draw.
It has four primary writing tools:
- Pen
- Marker
- Highlighter
- Eraser
You can customize the color, font, weight (boldness or lightness), and transparency.
This actually reminds me of the Draw app Canva had before adding this feature. Not sure if you guys are aware of that. Anyways, my favorite thing about that app was the neon pen, which I hope Canva will add to the new Draw feature eventually.
7. Translate
It’s basically like Google Translate, but you can now do it all in one application! There’s nothing much to say about this. It’s pretty self-explanatory.
The usage is, of course, very vast. But, at the top of my head, I think this would be especially helpful and save plenty of time for small businesses making social ads.
Let’s say you’re a solopreneur. And you’d like to quickly promote your service or product to other countries through social media. With this feature, you could easily translate your tagline or headings on the ad design!
This could also work if you’re a content creator who wants to stay connected with your diverse followers through quick hellos and uplifting messages.
8. Brand Hub
This feature would be beneficial for businesses subscribing to Canva Teams. It’s easier for everyone to create a uniform document, presentation, social post, and social ad aligned with your organization’s whole aesthetic.
Through Brand Hub, you can compile —
- Logo
- Colors
- Font, sizes, and text styles for headings, subheadings, text body, quotes, captions, and section headers.
- Photos
- Graphics
- Icons
You can add guidelines to help your team determine when, where, and how to use each of them. Also, you can easily customize your brand colors from the logos you upload to Brand Hub.
9. Magic Write
Is now available on all designs, not just Canva Doc.
As I’ve mentioned in my blog post about Canva Doc, it’s basically an idea generator. All you need to do is type a prompt, and this feature will do its magic.
And with a little change of color, adding some graphics, and change of font, you’re ready to upload to your socials!
10. Magic Presentation
Similar to the other Canva Magic features, all you need to do is type in a few words about the content of your presentation, and you’ll get choices upon choices of templates.
Let’s take the photo below as an example:
I typed ‘The History of Traditional Music in Southeast Asia’, and as we can see, the photo for the title of my presentation has nothing to do with it. It also lacks some key info about the topic if you scroll down.
To be fair, this feature is still a Beta version, so it will take some time to improve. But on the upside, you have ample options to save time designing a presentation from scratch.
11. Position
This tool wasn’t part of the gift boxes from Canva, but it’s pretty new and worth mentioning. I wasn’t even aware of this addition until a graphic designer shared a reel about it on IG.
You simply click ‘Position’, and ‘Layers’, and arrange the various elements with the drag-and-drop function! Super helpful, especially for graphic designers.
These updates are jaw-dropping!
Okay, maybe it’s just me. But compared to last year (2022), I was surprised by the features added to Canva this year. At this point, I don’t even know what’s in store for designers in 2024.
Canva started implementing AI last year with Text To Image (beta version), and later with Magic Write in Canva Docs…
But 2023 seems to be the year Canva fully embraced AI with Magic Design, Magic Edit & Eraser, Magic Presentation, updated Text To Image, and making Magic Write accessible throughout the entire application.
Since they’ve come this far, and keep surprising us with new goodies, I’m stoked to see what they have in store for designers in 2024.
Am I the only Canva junkie here?
I wonder if any of you attended the Canva Create 2023 virtually. Despite calling myself a Canva junkie, I dozed off a couple hours before the live event. A long day and aging would do that to you. 😂
Jokes aside, have you tried using the new features in your design? Which one’s your favorite? Mine is Create An Animation.
Originally published at https://jerikhojordan.com on April 18, 2023.
