Get Creative with your Chromebook, Meet Canva

Canva wants to put the power of design in the hands of everyone, regardless of their technical skills or the hardware they use. A web-based creative software, it is especially handy for Chromebook owners.


So your Chromebook does not run Adobe Creative Suite or similar programs yet you want to do creative work, Canva got you covered.

Here is the concept, 1 million images are stored on the cloud and organised into categories based on their theme and purpose. As a user, you can search all of them and pick the ones you like to create your own artwork. The images are either free or $1 each per artwork (so if you use one $1 image in multiple artworks, you need pay for it in each artwork). You can then download your artwork in JPG or PDF format.

The user experience is smooth: you can sign up with your Facebook or Google+ account or with an email address, and you are good to go. Creating artwork is simple: You first choose what artwork you want to create: an Instagram post, Facebook Cover, or a company brochure - Canva provides you with 38 categories and if none of them fits your needs, you can create your own.



You are then presented with a canvas with the optimum dimensions for the purpose you chose and a panel on the left with creative options. You either choose a pre-made full artwork, or create your own by picking from Canva’s 1 million images and/or upload your own. You can edit and tweak your artwork to your taste.



When you are done, you can download your final artwork as an image or high-quality PDF. You have the option to add crop marks and bleed to create a print-ready file.

Another cool feature, it saves your work on the cloud so it’s accessible anywhere. Speaking of the cloud, you can link Canva to your Google Drive to access the photos on Drive directly from the program and use them in your designs without having to upload.

One more thing: Canva’s “Design School”, a place with tutorials and creative ideas that will not only help you use Canva, but also refine your creative work in general and get inspired.



This is an exceptional tool for doing creative work on Chromebooks. I used it on my Toshiba Chromebook 2 (4 GB RAM - FHD Display) and I was able to produce great work simply and faced no major issues. There is one drawback: It was slow and less responsive at times to the point of frustration.

Nevertheless, this is a tool I definitely recommend for your Chromebook. It is available as a web-app on the Chrome Web Store. There is also a work-version for collaboration coming soon, as per the website. You can register for early access.

If you know other similar programs, feel free to share and spread the wisdom.