Canva is a great design option that is low-cost and keeps your brand personality ready to go across print and online media. When creating a file for printing please read these hints and tips to get the best results.
Finished Size This is the finished size your design will be trimmed to after printing. Make sure your page size matches your product dimensions, for example, A5 (148 mm x 210 mm).
Safe Area (5 mm) Keep all essential content, like logos, text and key visuals, at least 5 mm inside the edges. Why? There can be a slight movement during the trimming process, so this buffer keeps your design looking clean and intact.
Bleed (3 mm) Extend any background colours, patterns or images 3 mm beyond the finished size on all sides. Why? This prevents unwanted white borders when your design is trimmed.
How to apply in Canva:
- Go to File > Settings > Show Print Bleed
- Extend design elements beyond the page guides
Colour While Canva designs in RGB, our professional printers use CMYK. We automatically convert files, but colours may change slightly. This means your colours may look different once printed, especially bright neons, blues and greens.
Improving colour accuracy
- Use high-contrasting colour palettes
These translate better across screen and print, especially for text or layered elements.
- Choosing the right paper
Choose silk papers to make colours pop for vivid designs. Uncoated papers will mute colours slightly for a softer feel.
Fonts Stick with Canva fonts or upload original custom fonts. Avoid fuzzy or pixelated text by keeping font sizes larger for coloured text. Fine thin fonts at small sizes do not print very legibly.
Image resolution All images should be 300 DPI (dots per inch) or higher to ensure crisp printing. Avoid using low-resolution web images, or they will print fuzzy.
How to check:
- Zoom into your design at 200% or higher
- If it looks grainy or soft, it will print that way
How to fix:
- Use high-resolution images from the start (at least 2500px wide for A5 or larger)
- Avoid dragging in images directly from Google or screenshots
Downloading files to send to us for printing
Once your design is final and you have thoroughly checked the content, hit the ‘Share’ button in the top-right corner and select ‘Download’ (see image opposite)
- Choose the 'PDF Print' file type
This is the highest resolution export Canva allows and the only format suitable for professional printing.
- Tick ‘Crop marks and bleed’
This is essential. It ensures your file includes the correct bleed zone and guides for trimming. Without this, your print may not line up correctly.
- Export using 'CMYK (best for professional printing)'
- 'Flatten PDF' if image-heavy (optional)
If the design uses lots of images or effects, Canva may flatten it automatically. Otherwise, leave flattening off unless you’re seeing slow exports or file issues.
- Save and check your file
Open your PDF in Adobe Acrobat (or similar) and zoom in. If it still looks sharp at 200 to 300%, you’re good to go.
Got a question? Call us we will be happy to advise you.