Have you ever needed to create a poster, presentation or digital design and weren’t sure which tool to use? With so many different graphic editing applications available today, choosing the one that best suits your needs can be stressful, nerve-wracking, and time-consuming.
In this article, we’ll look at the differences between Canva and Photoshop, two of the most popular graphic editing applications available.
What is Canva?
Canva is a free online graphic design platform. It helps users create brochures, business cards, presentations, book covers, and even online content like Instagram and Facebook posts. You can create your project from scratch using its basic tools, or you can choose from Canva’s professionally designed templates. Let’s start by examining Canva’s strengths.
Canva’s strengths
- It’s free
One of the benefits of using Canva for your design needs is that it is free to use. It does not require you to purchase the software or pay a monthly subscription fee.
- There is no software to download or install
You won’t have to download a special app or software to start using it. You will do all your creative and design work within the platform. All you need to do is go to the Canva website and open a free account.
- Easy to use
Canva is incredibly easy to use and doesn’t require endless instructions to understand the basic functions. Its simple drag-and-drop interface makes designing quick and easy. There’s also 15 personalized tutorials who will guide you if you need a little more help. You don’t have to be a graphic design specialist to create professional-looking projects with Canva.
- Custom templates
If you’re not a graphic design professional or don’t have time to start from scratch, you can choose a pre-designed template. Canva has thousands to choose from. Simply select the template and with a few clicks you can customize it to your liking. Using templates is a smart way to save time while giving your project a professional look, even if you’re not a designer.
- Photo editing feature
With Canva, you can easily upload your photos and add them to your design projects. Your photos will be saved to the Canva cloud for easy repeat use. Canva also has a built-in photo editor that you can use to crop, resize, and style your photos in numerous ways. With easy-to-use sliders, you can quickly adjust brightness, contrast, and color saturation.
- Can be used on your smartphone
Since Canva is a digital design platform, it is compatible with both Android and iPhone. All you need to do is open the Canva website in your smartphone browser and you will have the same features and tools available as the desktop version.
Canva Weaknesses
- you get what you pay for
The free version of Canva has many options and is suitable for most of your basic design needs. However, if you are looking for more features, you will need to purchase “Canva Pro”. This paid version has more features, such as more advanced photo editing features and 1,000GB of cloud storage, but it’s still quite limited.
- It is not vector based
Although you can create designs of all kinds, Canva is not based on vectors. Therefore, you won’t be able to scale your finished product to sizes outside of your limitations. This means that if you design a poster that you want to professionally print at a size much larger than the original, the quality and resolution of the image will be affected.
- Excessive use of templates
Anyone can use Canva’s free templates. If you wanted a unique design, this could present a problem. What you think is a unique design may have already been used by thousands of people before you.
- The use of elements is limited in terms of design.
When designing, it is common to use elements: lines, circles, squares and frames. Although Canva has hundreds to choose from, you can only resize, change color, and rotate them. If you need a unique element, there is no way to edit or customize these built-in elements.
- Alignment problems
When it comes to alignment, you won’t have much control. You can move text and images, but you won’t be able to do it with great precision. You can use the arrow keys, mouse, or trackpad to move elements in your layout. However, Canva uses a “snap to grid” method that doesn’t give the user much control.
What is Photoshop?
Photoshop is a photo editing and graphic design software. Having been around for decades, it is recognized as the industry standard. You can create almost any type of image with it, from basic brochures to incredibly detailed graphic paintings. Photoshop is also used to edit and manipulate photographs.
Photoshop Strengths
- Professional and covers all your design needs.
All your photo design and editing needs can be achieved with Photoshop. From incredibly detailed photo editing to designing almost anything, it does it all. The only limitation is your imagination. With Photoshop, you have complete creative control.
- Almost all image formats are supported.
You can open and make advanced edits to almost any image file format. Photoshop works with almost all image formats. If a format is not supported, plugins are available to implement support. You’ll never worry if Photoshop can open a file.
- Vector-based software
When you’re ready to print your design or photo, especially at large sizes, you won’t lose image quality or resolution because Photoshop is vector-based software. Although not perfect, scaling photos is usually not a problem. No matter what size your final product will be printed at, you can be sure it will have all the details you put into the design.
- Excellent for editing photos
When it comes to retouching and editing photos, this is one of the areas where Photoshop excels. It has built-in editing tools to adjust skin tone, whiten teeth, remove red eyes, and make background adjustments, to name just a few.
- Also great for editing videos.
Photoshop is not just for editing photos. You can also import videos and edit them. Video editing features include trimming or cropping videos, correcting color, adding filters, and enhancing audio or adding music.
Photoshop Weaknesses
- it’s not free
You must purchase Photoshop by paying a subscription, either monthly or annually. There are a few different plans available, but even the basic plan could be expensive considering you will be billed for as long as you want to access the software. There is no way to purchase Photoshop directly. This could be quite expensive, especially if you don’t make any money from using it.
- It is not easy to use
This app was designed for professionals and learning the ins and outs may take some time. With its numerous tools, filters, and features, Photoshop could easily overwhelm a novice user. That’s not to say it’s difficult to learn, but it has so many features and tools that it will take some time and effort to use it proficiently and the learning curve can be slow.
- You will need a lot of available disk space
Photoshop will take up a lot of disk space. The application will take up approximately 4 GB of space, but it also uses temporary disk space and RAM to run it. If your disk is already almost full, you could experience problems with Photoshop working properly.
- Saved files can be large
Although Photoshop is a great option for photo editing and digital painting, the file size of saved images can be quite large. You will need a lot of available disk space to save your files. Saving them to an external device is an option, but comes with an additional expense.
- Not good for creating logos.
When Photoshop creates an image, it’s just a series of pixels. For that reason, it is not a good choice for logo creation if the final product is going to be quite large. Image quality may be affected when scaling to unusually large proportions.
- Mainly used as a desktop program.
Photoshop Express is a free app that runs on your Android or iPhone. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have all the features of the desktop version. Additionally, it may be difficult to edit images or make very precise changes due to the size of your smartphone screen.
Additional FAQs
What are some other free graphic design apps?
There are many free graphic design applications. They are generally easy to learn, although they can be somewhat limited in terms of features. If you’re creating basic content, here’s a list of some of the most popular options:
• Visme
• Ink landscape
• Gravit Designer
• DesignHill Studio
• GIMP
• Design cover
Which is better? Canva or Photoshop?
The answer to that question depends on your exact needs. For a person with very little graphic design knowledge, Canva would be the right choice. With its easy-to-use interface, you can create fabulous, professional-looking designs using its drag-and-drop functionality and pre-designed templates. For a person who simply needs to design a flyer for a party, or perhaps an Instagram post, Canva again is the obvious choice. It’s free, easy to use, and tailored to the needs of the casual user. Canva makes a lot of sense for these situations.
Photoshop is best suited for professional graphic designers, users with very detailed and specific needs. The app requires a monthly subscription, but is the industry standard for graphic design and advanced photo editing.
Different applications for different needs
You now have all the information you need to make an informed decision about which app is best for you. Both are awesome graphic design tools. Photoshop is great if you need to produce high-quality, detailed work. Canva offers a more basic graphic design solution. If your needs are not very detailed or complex, Canva is a good option. But you can rest easy knowing that no matter your graphic design skill level, you can complete your project using Photoshop or Canva.
