Templates are an effective way to save time by avoiding repetitive tasks. Instead of designing everything from scratch, you fill out these templates according to the task at hand. If you Frequent Canva users You should know that Canva offers a variety of templates for every occasion. However, these templates may not fit our requirements to a T. While Canva allows you to create editable templates, this is only available to Canva Pro users. Here's how to create editable templates on Canva.
If you haven't upgraded to Canva Pro, we have a great trick up our sleeves. With this trick, you can create eye-catching custom templates in no time, whether it's a YouTube thumbnail or an Instagram Story (see Top Instagram Story Tips and Tricks) or a post or a simple birthday invitation. No kidding.
So, let's see how to create editable templates on Canva.
How to create editable templates on canvas
As you already know, templates are useful when most of your Instagram stories, posts, thumbnails, or highlights have the same content or structure. We'll explore how to create this basic structure and then reuse it in the future. Since creating templates is Canva Pro Feature , we will have to resort to the basic feature of saving designs as PNG/JPG files.
Note: We assume you already have a Canva account.
How to Create an Instagram Story Template
Step 1: Open Canva in a browser and click the Create Design button in the top right corner.
1080 to 1920
This will give you a blank frame with an aspect ratio of 9:16.
Step 3: Next, click the Untitled Design text box as shown below and name the design. For this guide, we've named it GuidingTech Eng.
Now, all you have to do is fill in elements like the background image, permanent text, and frames. Most importantly, you should have a color palette that matches your business theme.
For example, the Guiding Tech theme color is Heliotrope and white. Therefore, we used these colors for the text and background image.
Step 4: Once you're finished, press Ctrl+S to save all your recent changes. Although Canva has an auto-save feature by default, it doesn't hurt to save your progress manually.
So next time you have to create an Instagram Story, open Canva > Projects, and you'll find your saved design under Designs.
Once you've located it, replace the necessary part, and then download the design. That's it!
Pro tip: You can move the design to make it more lively.
How to Create an Instagram Post Template
Unlike Stories, Instagram posts are either square or rectangular. For the perfect resolution and size, you can choose one of the sizes below:
- square: 1080 pixels x 1080 pixels
- horizontal: 1080 pixels x 566 pixels
Step 1: Open Canva > Create a Design and select one of the dimensions listed above. In our case, we've chosen a 1:1 aspect ratio.
As with the element above, add all the essential graphic elements, such as background images, frames, text, and an optional watermark. The key is to add all the important elements now so you only have to do the bare minimum later.
Step 2: Click Add Page to add a few pages.
The good thing is that Canva lets you download a single page.
Step 3: Once you're done, give it an appropriate name and save it. The next time you need to download a specific frame, select Share > Download and click Select Pages.
Enter the page number, and you'll find that specific page in your Downloads folder. Cool, right?
How to Create a Youtube Thumbnail Template
YouTube follows the traditional 16:9 aspect ratio, and YouTube thumbnail dimensions are 1280 x 720 pixels. Unlike Instagram posts and stories, YouTube thumbnails are slightly different in that they must include a watermark, text, and some eye-catching text.
This process is somewhat similar to the ones above, except you will use fewer graphic elements and rely more on the background image and text.
The good thing is that Canva comes with a large number of text options—both free and paid. And if you want, you can view free fonts simply by adding free fonts to the search box, as shown below.
From there, the process is simple. Create as many templates on as many different pages as you want, then save them.
Once finished, you'll see all your saved pages under Your Projects > Designs.
Canva has many great features. For example, you can share template links with some of your teammates so they can contribute to them as well.
Since the designs we just created aren't exclusive templates, the most recently saved images and graphics will appear as the most recent. Therefore, we recommend using the Make a Copy function under Designs to avoid overwriting the original design. From time to time, you can clean up a design you don't want.
Let your creativity run wild
Canva is an easy-to-use tool, and its diverse features make the process a breeze. You'll learn all the tools you need to create an eye-catching design in the shortest possible time.
