Canva’s New iPhone App Is Seriously Elevating My Visual Content

By @TheMarkDalton

Canva have released a new iPhone app and I absolutely love it. Just in case you are not sure what Canva is, Simon Cocking has a fantastic interview up with cofounder and CEO, Melanie Perkins.

The aim of Canva is to make stunning graphic design accessible for everyone. Canva was started in 2007 and aims to make incredible and professional designs really easy to make. Ever wondered how people make those inspirational Instagram posts with an awesome font and really cool filter?

It is probably not because of their Photoshop skills.

There has been one thing that has held me back from Canva to this point. I have dabbled with it on and off over time but it was a desktop only experience which just didn’t work for me as I do so much of my social work on my iPhone.

Canva For iOS

That has now changed as Canva has launched on iOS, and I absolutely love it. Now that Canva has an app, my images when promoting content are on a different level to before and that should be the same for you too.

Canva on iOS just makes things so easy with a simple layout and simple gestures to manipulate images. The app lets you add and edit images from your camera roll or choose a licensed image from the Canva library.

The app is also synchronised to the website so you can start editing on iOS and then head on over to finish working on the desktop if you choose.

You start by selecting what platform you are editing for, remember folks – imagery on social media is all about optimising.  Then you are given a number of layouts, choose one and then start editing it to your required specification.

You can change the background image, fonts, add text, change filter, add elements and you can also dive into the more complex editing settings such as brightness, contrast, saturation, blur and vignette. The power of editing images in the Canva app is really incredible, the example I have shown below took me no longer than five minutes.

What strikes me as being the most impressive thing about the Canva app is just how fast it is to get an image ready for your content on social. The app is in the early stages so we can expect further improvements and new features on the way over time.

There are plans for an Android app however Canva chief officer Cam Adams has told Mashable that the focus for now is on iPhone as that is where a lot of their users are at the moment.

Take Your Content To The Next Level

If you are a publisher or a content creator then you know that social media is a battle right now to get noticed. You need to be using all the tools you can to help you up your game and try to stand out from the rest.

Canva for iOS will definitely help you do that. Think of the current stock images you push out on Twitter or Facebook when you publish a piece of content. Sure, images get you noticed over text but what if you were able to make those images look even more special.

What if you could make the image really pop by adding a quote as an overlay from your content, add your logo and get your Twitter handle on there in the bottom corner. Well, you can do all that and you can do it easily for no cost if you like.

You can sign up to Canva for free today, there is also a Canva for work plan if you wish to pay. You can try it out on a 30 day free trial before committing to it. Personally I am on the free plan (of course I would love to get Canva for work but I’m saving pennies at the moment!) and I can happily say that it will do more than enough to cover your needs.

With tools like this available at your fingertips, why would you want to use a stock image ever again?

Download Canva from the App Store today