Canva is a browser-based tool and mobile app, which allows hobbyists and professional designers alike to create and design for many purposes. Canva is a Photoshop alternative, but it offers different tools and features compared to the creative giant. Retake your creative control and increase productivity in your workflow using Canva.

5 Magic Switch

Quickly and efficiently resize for multiple uses

It has never been easier to use Canva to create designs for multiple uses. Canva has always offered a resize option for your designs, but, in more recent updates, Magic Switch lets you do it in seconds.

This is a Canva Pro feature, so you must be a paying subscriber to use it; however, it’s common for Canva to offer periodic free trials of Canva Pro (even if you’ve had one before) at least a couple of times a year, if you don’t wish to pay.

Canva’s Magic Switch tool is part of its Magic Studio toolbox, which is made up of various AI tools. The Magic Switch tool allows you to create a design in one size and select a button to apply the design to all the other artboard sizes you want. Magic Resize will place the elements suitably within the new space, although you can still move them around to fit your preferences too.

To find this tool, just look at the top of your Canva artboard and select Resize. From this menu, you can choose from pre-set artboard sizes, or type in any custom dimensions you'd like; then you can decide whether to duplicate the design and resize a new version or to overwrite your current design and resize it directly.

Within the Resize tools, you’ll also find the Translation tools — Canva offers translation for over 130 global languages, so you can decide with true intent which audiences your designs are for.

4 Bulk Create app

Use CSV to bulk apply your designs

Creative control also comes in the form of efficiency — working smarter, not harder. Canva has a heap of built-in external apps under the Apps menu, and Bulk Create is one of those.

Bulk Create allows you to upload CSV sheets and apply text and data from your document to multiple similar layout designs. This is a great option for content marketers who may be designing similar layouts with different information (e.g. unique quotes, testimonials, deals) or updating weekly information boards that all sit on a similar visual design.

Bulk Create really saves time and provides precise results. Using it alongside the previously mentioned Resize feature would allow you to create mass designs for multiple uses in no time at all.

3 Integrate workspace apps

Canva Apps grant creative control and productivity

Similar to Bulk Create, you’ll find a whole host of other apps within Canva Apps. Any workspace apps you already use can likely be found within Canva.

Integrating workspace apps like Google Suite, Dropbox, or Asana can help add control and productivity to your creative projects. Using the built-in apps saves time and provides seamless ways to share your projects and integrate them into larger management systems.

While most creative people only want to work on the artsy aspects of the job, in reality, most creative jobs also require content and project management, admin roles, and other marketing or corporate tasks mixed in with the creative role.

Being able to directly integrate your workspace apps into Canva lets you have both creative and management control of your work, without opening multiple programs or windows to do so.

2 Grab Text tool

Fix text in images — photographed or AI-generated

This Canva Pro AI tool is one of my favorite tools found within Canva. It is extremely useful when editing AI-generated images with gibberish text, but it can also work on photos or other images containing text in them.

The Grab Text tool identifies any text within an image, in any language. It lets you select the text, then you can either delete it or retype it using the same font identified in the image.

The creative control really shines here when you’re using AI-generated images in your design. Most AI images that have text within them spew out unintelligible gibberish text that isn’t any particular language, often an amalgamation of various letter forms or words. The Grab Text tool can identify this as text, and you can retype it in your own language, keeping the font and thus the design style intact.

1 Brand Kit

Retain creative control over your brand’s visuals

Canva’s Brand Kit is another Canva Pro feature, and it’s not very hidden, but it probably gets overlooked by many people who use Canva as a hobby. Brand Kit can help you maintain creative consistency, whether you’re designing for a brand, business, or just as a hobby.

Brand Kit lets you upload a logo, a brand color palette, brand fonts, graphics and icons, brand photos, and a brand tone of voice. Collating all these into one place means you can easily set colors or add the right style of imagery to your Canva projects, while keeping with your brand or personal style.

While this is a feature that’s most relevant for professionals working with businesses or brands, it can still benefit hobbyists or smaller creators. Having a design hub in one place is great for organization and can be another way to keep your creative files and assets organized.

Canva’s Brand Kit feature also helps you retain creative control when working with larger teams. You set the brand’s boundaries for its visuals, and when you share your Teams account or collaborate on projects, anyone else invited to the account can see the brand guidelines and adhere to them easily.

Canva offers many smaller features to give you control

There are endless creative tools within Canva. Its drag-and-drop system makes it easy for anyone to create engaging designs, but the number of templates, AI tools, and endless stream of new features makes it hard to find creative control within the noise. There are some helpful tools that help claw back creative control and let you use Canva as a more professional creative design software as a result.