Canva is a popular, simple online graphic design tool. Users can import images, use templates to design banners and logos, or pay to use Canva's premium stock images/paid templates (elements starting at $1).
$12.95
per month
Pixelied
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Pixelied is presented as a fast and easy to use online design tool from the company of the same name in Walnut, California, that helps users quickly create images and graphics. It has a set of tools that aim to enable the novice and the advanced user to create stunning designs.
They are suited to serve the non-profit space, offering premium features at no charge for up to 50 users. They provide tools for non-graphic designers that help to create appealing and attractive pieces. For those who are unsure about where to start with a project, Canva offers templates that can be edited to suit the current need.
Pixelied is an online graphic design suite that makes it easy to create posters, ads, and branded designs for blogs, social media, and other publishing platforms. I am utilizing Pixelied to promote my social media accounts and to get thumbnails created for my YouTube channel. I use the photo filters to adjust the color of my photos, the mockup generator to piece together images with different backdrops, and the stock images and vector elements collection to add more detail and dimension to my designs. The templates allow me to create banners, image posters, and quotes. I found it easy to use because I could edit my own content without having to learn advanced design features. The templates helped me get started quickly and had everything I needed, from fonts down to icons. The photo filters were fun—they gave me an idea of how photos would look with different colors or patterns applied before I actually used them on my final designs. The only thing I didn't like about this tool was that adding images could slow down a layout if there were too many of them at once (like when you're trying to make a collage).
Canva exports in a wide variety of software extensions in exceptionally high quality images. The pro license even allows .svg and background-less exports.
Canva's pro license has a terrific set of available fonts that are easily matched or are exact matches to other web fonts. Basically, in a word, Canva gives its (pro) customers an easy-to-use and cross-compatible set of design options. Everything is customizable.
For me, Canva shines in its usability. There are variety of preset, pre-sized canvases. As a designer, marketer, presenter, educational technologist or even if you are just getting started, Canva has its UI and UX geared toward each level of user.
Canva's strengths are with its original features and the fact that even the most novice user can produce a professional looking design in little time.
Performance can become sluggish, particularly when adding new photos or vector elements to the layout design.
Pixelied can incorporate a broader assortment of creative stock assets, similar to Canva.
The options for modifying the composition's color scheme, adding customized elements, and personalizing the brand can be enhanced.
The basic options for moving, scaling, and rearranging layers and backgrounds should be accessible by right-clicking in the composition itself rather than through tool sets in the upper right sidebar.
The ease of use makes Canva a powerful tool for manipulating images, creating original content, and testing ideas without requiring the involvement of graphic design or more time-intensive image editing software such as Photoshop. While it doesn't have the full functionality of a mature software, such as Photoshop, The speed and simplicity of Canva makes it a necessity in a business of any size
It is super easy to use, but it could be limiting if you're on a small device. It is easier on a bigger device because you can resize graphics and text easier than with your fingers on a small device. I do think it's perfect and easy for non-designers who don't have any training. As long as you have a good eye for visuals, Canva is a wonderful substitute for graphics programs on-the-go.
I have yet to encounter Canva being offline in at least 6 years of using it regularly. They also announce well in advance if there may be upgrades to the code and the hours during which there may be issues accessing the service.
I haven't ever had issues with a slow-loading site and there haven't been any lag issues within the software. There have been maybe a handful of times over the past six years where I have tried to upload a large image and it will slow down as it loads the last megabyte, but I have yet to have the system time out or require any interference by me
Overall, Canva is easy to use, easy to train others to use, allows for creativity with a professional look without enormous associated costs. The mobile apps works almost as easily, but at a minimum allows for easy review and downloading in a pinch. Really, anyone can learn to use Canva quickly and will immediately benefit from the results.
Remember to download the mobile app onto your phone for easy image manipulation on the go. Adding company colors, logos, and typefaces to your company account is an easy process. When images are uploaded, these can also be shared between accounts within a company, as can canvases you've created for easy editing among teams.
Adobe products, well compared to Canva has a wide and long learning curve. Adobe spark almost comes close to Canva but lacks these tiny features that Canva focuses on to make the product irresistible to use. Canva also does a great job organizing and recording the designs in cloud so that it might increase the efficiency of Social Media management. Canva also provides features for designing ebooks, travel brochures etc which couldn't be easily done in Adobe. So finally, from a personal perspective, Canva ended up being the first choice.
Pixelied offers a more straightforward and brisk workflow for designing and editing images compared to Canva and VistaCreate. This is despite the fact that Pixelied has a somewhat more limited choice of stock photographs and vector elements, in addition to readymade design templates. Additionally, it lacks several fundamental features and functionalities, such as the capability to personalize the different layers and color themes. It also has a restricted number of color themes. Pixelied, in contrast to InVideo and OFFEO, does not yet have any animation or video editing features. However, it does have the capability to design image layouts that can serve as a base for video slideshows and presentations, and it does offer photo mockups. Pixelied is an alternative to 123rf that provides an in-built stock photo and vectors library that is included in the subscription price. Additionally, you do not have to pay an extra fee for each new image that you download. 123rf, on the other hand, is a dedicated website for licensing and downloading stock images; therefore, its collection and diversity are significantly more extensive than those of Pixelied.
Very easy to add accounts and share content between them. Collaboration is also easy to manage and can be done on a project-by-project basis. The cloud-based software means it is incredibly fast to add a coworker and have them editing images within minutes. A live internet connection is required to access Canva so this is something to consider if expecting to use the software while on journeys without access to wifi etc
I think Canva has had a very positive impact on our designs in that there is consistency with colors and fonts and approved school logos across all publications.
Since I am a only one user of many, I can't really speak about reduced costs or risk mitigation. But, I believe it has increased efficiency because our media department can access the designs done by other departments easily and make changes or corrections as necessary to keep the "brand" consistent.
I have not tried to use it on my phone, but I would think it would make it easy to work on designs no matter where you are.
