Canva files and editing

[dypinc]

I'm pretty sure it doesn't. I get decent files created in canva from some customers. The problem files always seem to come from someone using the free version.

That might be a good reason to purchase the pro version. If you have customers you want to keep who insist on using the free version they can share there files with you.

 

[Geneva Olson]

Sounds like you need to educate yourself, to educate your customer. Here are some google search results on the subject.
I read somewhere once that Canva doesn't have the "outline text" option - but in canva world it's called "Hollow", or something like that.

I have a question for you about canva: I have customers who send me artwork in canva all the time. I tell them that if they are going to use canva, to make the pallet the size that they want the actual graphic to be. The must send it over to me an a png or jpg. EVERY TIME they send me a pdf exported from canva and I drop it into Coreldraw, the file is "corrupted". I THINK its because canva has some sort of protection on their pdf files...but I don't know enough about it. I thought maybe your graphic arts background could clue me in?

 

[myront]

I have a question for you about canva: I have customers who send me artwork in canva all the time. I tell them that if they are going to use canva, to make the pallet the size that they want the actual graphic to be. The must send it over to me an a png or jpg. EVERY TIME they send me a pdf exported from canva and I drop it into Coreldraw, the file is "corrupted". I THINK its because canva has some sort of protection on their pdf files...but I don't know enough about it. I thought maybe your graphic arts background could clue me in?

Yeah, Corel don't like them there convoluted Canva PDF's. I usually try illustrator then save again as pdf. I did try this sight that was mentioned earlier. It fixed me up too.

 

[Boudica]

I have a question for you about canva: I have customers who send me artwork in canva all the time. I tell them that if they are going to use canva, to make the pallet the size that they want the actual graphic to be. The must send it over to me an a png or jpg. EVERY TIME they send me a pdf exported from canva and I drop it into Coreldraw, the file is "corrupted". I THINK its because canva has some sort of protection on their pdf files...but I don't know enough about it. I thought maybe your graphic arts background could clue me in?

If you don't need the vectors for adding spot colors (like to print white, or contour cut) can you open them in your equivalent to photoshop? Unless I NEED to pull the file into Illy, our normal practice is to open customer files in photoshop, flatten them and save them as a tiff. 95% of the time no issues - unless they don't understand scale - like send an 8.5x11 file and want it produced at 24x36. Even then, I have tricks up my sleeve to make it happen.

 

[Geneva Olson]

If you don't need the vectors for adding spot colors (like to print white, or contour cut) can you open them in your equivalent to photoshop? Unless I NEED to pull the file into Illy, our normal practice is to open customer files in photoshop, flatten them and save them as a tiff. 95% of the time no issues - unless they don't understand scale - like send an 8.5x11 file and want it produced at 24x36. Even then, I have tricks up my sleeve to make it happen.

Usually it's for banners so I tell them to make it in the pallet size they want (3x6, etc). HOWEVER, it looks like the free version of canva only allows them to go up to 72". But when customers send me artwork, I generally tell them I need a pdf.
BUT, every time someone sends me a pdf from canva, coreldraw says that it's a corrupt file and doesnt even let me open it.

Two days ago I had a customer come in who had created her logo in canva. She sized it at like 5 inches. She wanted me to print it 24"x24". I ended up resampling it in corel to bump up the pixels. It turned out pretty clean.

But i'm just curious why the pdf comes across as corrupt when I bring it into coreldraw.

what does saving it as a tiff do?

 

[Boudica]

But i'm just curious why the pdf comes across as corrupt when I bring it into coreldraw.

what does saving it as a tiff do?

Something in the PDF settings that corel doesn't read I would guess.
Tiff/Jpg - either way. The thing is we've seen a lot of strange things happen to pdf files in the rip - discolored boxes you can't see on screen, fonts wack out... crazy vectors wacking out .... a variety of things. When we flatten the artwork and save it as a bitmap, it eliminates all of those unseen weird things that you don't see until it starts printing. Just a standard practice safety measure for us.

 

[Geneva Olson]

Something in the PDF settings that corel doesn't read I would guess.
Tiff/Jpg - either way. The thing is we've seen a lot of strange things happen to pdf files in the rip - discolored boxes you can't see on screen, fonts wack out... crazy vectors wacking out .... a variety of things. When we flatten the artwork and save it as a bitmap, it eliminates all of those unseen weird things that you don't see until it starts printing. Just a standard practice safety measure for us.

gotcha. I can see that happening.

 

[Bobby H]

Regarding embedded fonts within PDF files, the type objects using those fonts can be easily converted to outlines from within Adobe Illustrator using the Flatten Transparency dialog box. BUT! First the PDF file must be placed into a preferably blank document using the Place command rather than opening the PDF file with the File>Open command. Also when placing the client PDF file the Link box must be checked in the Place dialog box. Once the PDF file is placed into a new document the Flatten Transparency dialog box can be used to do various things to the PDF, like outline the embedded fonts.

Art files from Canva are often just garbage quality. The SVG files Canva exports are rarely ever usable. When customers use the PDF for Print export the situation is usually a little bit better. Still, I have to round-trip the PDF material through Vector First Aid to automatically remove as much trash as possible. We're talking lots of duplicate unfilled, unpainted paths, paths that are broken open, etc. Vector First Aid dramatically cuts down the amount of repair work that still has to be done to the artwork.

It is possible for someone with real graphics production knowledge to create artwork in Canva that is more edit friendly when exported in either PDF or SVG format. However, most Canva users are rank amateurs with little if any graphics production knowledge (much less any creative talent). They don't know the difference between pixels or vectors, much less basic concepts of geometry such as aspect ratio. So they'll "design" a lot of things that won't even fit the desired space where the sign is supposed be installed. These people are just winging it. At the same time they're patting themselves on the back because they too are an "artist" now. Every child gets a gold star. The big attraction with Canva is it has a free version and the app has lots of clip art and templates.

 

[Geneva Olson]

Something in the PDF settings that corel doesn't read I would guess.
Tiff/Jpg - either way. The thing is we've seen a lot of strange things happen to pdf files in the rip - discolored boxes you can't see on screen, fonts wack out... crazy vectors wacking out .... a variety of things. When we flatten the artwork and save it as a bitmap, it eliminates all of those unseen weird things that you don't see until it starts printing. Just a standard practice safety measure for us.

hey val, are you able to open a pdf canva file in your graphic arts program?

 

[Boudica]

hey val, are you able to open a pdf canva file in your graphic arts program?

usually, feel free to email it to me and I'll check it out.

 

[Johnf]

You can open canva pdf in flexisign 22. You just open with fonts outlined.
Some files you get will be simple others will have a mask for different layers(sometimes for every letter)
I just tell clients to download cmyk best for printing.
I miss the days of graphic designers sending files that work.

 

[Kemik]

CMYK PDFs are only available for paid users.

You can open canva pdf in flexisign 22. You just open with fonts outlined.
Some files you get will be simple others will have a mask for different layers(sometimes for every letter)
I just tell clients to download cmyk best for printing.
I miss the days of graphic designers sending files that work.

CMYK PDFs are only available to paid users, most of the files I get are in RGB.
Which is fine, I can convert to CMYK or just print as RGB, however I need to open them in Illustrator to add a cut line.
I use a PDF web tool to convert the fonts to outlines, it does a better job than Illustrator, at least with my old version of Illustrator!

 

[Stacey K]

I just finished up a box truck and all the graphics were made in Canva!!! It started out as a DISASTER!!! I ended up getting the paid version of Canva. I had her send me links to groupings of the graphics and I went directly into Canva and downloaded every group - about 25 different files. I couldn't measure it myself so I had do a layout with all the measurements and her Dad checked every graphic off and we made some adjustments. It ended up exactly as she expected. Lots of masks, fonts were fine but I had to remove all the outlines and recreate them.

Bottom line - the customer did all the design work, all the layout, all the colors. I just had to print and apply and be a little patient with the graphics. I only have a video for my FB page...it's a Catio! A patio for cats! A strange job request but it's kinda a cool truck!

 

[yetti320]

The free version is the challenge. The paid version should give work. It gives you various exporting options.

 

[Geneva Olson]

I just finished up a box truck and all the graphics were made in Canva!!! It started out as a DISASTER!!! I ended up getting the paid version of Canva. I had her send me links to groupings of the graphics and I went directly into Canva and downloaded every group - about 25 different files. I couldn't measure it myself so I had do a layout with all the measurements and her Dad checked every graphic off and we made some adjustments. It ended up exactly as she expected. Lots of masks, fonts were fine but I had to remove all the outlines and recreate them.

Bottom line - the customer did all the design work, all the layout, all the colors. I just had to print and apply and be a little patient with the graphics. I only have a video for my FB page...it's a Catio! A patio for cats! A strange job request but it's kinda a cool truck!

Pretty cool.
I sell trade show displays too. The wholesaler tells me that canva is not for large format printing. But, I have a customer who has made 3 different graphics for tension banners on canva. I've had to jockey with her artwork a little, but it comes out fine.

One thing we discovered is that she can proportionally half the dimensions, I am able to size them up and they come out fine. Honestly, she also sent me over pngs and they worked great for the tension banners. I was worried about pixelation on one of them. And even the art department sent me one back for one area being too pixelated. it was their logo. I was able to use my vector file on their logo and popped in it without anyone noticing.

It does take some patience to work with.

 

[Goatshaver]

hey val, are you able to open a pdf canva file in your graphic arts program?

If you have Canva Pro you can save in a few different formats. PDF being one. Only the characters they use get embedded in the PDFs. Links are embedded as well but you can save those out easily.
I have a way of grabbing the fonts and then converting them for use so they can be loaded when you open the PDF. (Not sure if it's ok to share that kind of thing here.) I had to work about 20 different canva PDF files for tapered labels and once I figured out a system it wasn't too bad to edit them.
Just keep in mind their output files end up having lots of clipping paths and text is usually broken up into single lines.

 

[DL Signs]

The wholesaler tells me that canva is not for large format printing.

Your wholesaler is absolutely correct.
Canva is mainly for web use, small format & desktop publishing/ printing tasks, crafters, hobbyists... Customers need to be told this, that it's not comparable to professional design software.

The soccer mom who has a cricut and wants to do stickers for the team, the restaurant who edits and prints their own menus, the lady in the sewing circle who bought that embroidery sewing machine and wants to make patterns, the small business who sells or advertises on social media and wants more professional looking posts/ pictures. These, and other tasks like them are what it's for, there are millions who it can benefit, and there's no learning curve, but they just don't understand it has limits.

 

[myront]

...I have a way of grabbing the fonts and then converting them for use so they can be loaded when you open the PDF. (Not sure if it's ok to share that kind of thing here.) ...

Yeah, I found a way to get the fonts too. Not sure what you mean by "converting them". No need, once installed just import the pdf with "text as text" option.

 

[Stacey K]

I encountered these kinds of things - all were workable but I had to re-do or fix quite a bit.


It's stuff like this...you can't just add a contour cut, as it's a rectangle. Unmask and it looks like this...



And this...it's all masked and there's extra pieces on the bottom that are brown.


Not sure what kind of outlines these were but I just deleted and made my own so I knew they were good.

 

[4cpro]

Canva is fine assuming it is setup correctly. I prefer to use Enfocus Pitstop to convert to outlines. It also gives you great control over color changes etc. My biggest issue with Canva is the use of masks etc which can be a challenge.