Canva is quickly becoming a popular choice for many marketers who want an online graphic design tool that helps them create professional, quality content, without the cost of hiring a designer.
We’re seeing more and more of our customers use Canva, so we want to clarify what is needed, and the steps necessary for exporting, formatting, and uploading your Canva design into the Postalytics Direct Mail Editor. Our editor is HTML based and has powerful features such as Variable Data, pURLs and personalized QR Codes, and more. The unique personalization and tracking tools that the Direct Mail Editor offers can be layered onto the design within minutes of uploading your offline built images. When combined with the unique Smart Send and Triggered Drip campaigns, offline created postcards and self mailers can truly become part of a digital marketing infrastructure.
Design your Creative
Although written for use with Adobe® design products, our article Build Direct Mail Postcards and Self Mailers With Adobe® Design Tools, is chock-full of information, explanation, and tips regarding design. We highly recommend that you review this article before and during your process of creating a design within Canva.
For the purposes of this article, we’ll assume that your creative design has been completed within Canva. But…before downloading, make sure that the sizing is in alignment with the format that you are mailing in Postalytics. See the charts at the end of this article for the sizing guidelines for our formats. All of our postcards and self mailers are full bleed. If resizing is needed, click ‘Resize’ in the top panel, left side, and enter the appropriate dimensions.
Note: The Canva Pro version is required to resize your file.
Export and Reformat
Postalytics templates are created, stored and managed as HTML templates. This means your Canva designed files will be uploaded - front and back separately - as full background images in .JPG or .PNG file format, with a resolution of 300 dpi. With Canva, the dpi for .JPG, .PNG, and .PDF file export is 96 dpi - ONLY. This file size works well for designs that will be used in web-based applications, however, for designs created for print, 300 dpi is required for best print quality.
Fortunately, there is a way to reformat your file, once exported from Canva, so that it will meet the requirements for Postalytics and other print purposes.
Exporting from Canva
Exporting the file as a PDF Print file will give the highest resolution available from Canva.
Start by selecting the Share button in the top right corner, then click ‘Download’.
PNG is the suggested download format option and is auto populated in the field. Select the dropdown menu, then choose ‘PDF Print’.
Do not select any of the checkboxes under the PDF print option.
Since each side will be uploaded into Postalytics separately, download each page separately. To do this uncheck the ‘All pages’ box and select ‘Page 1’, then ‘Done’.
In the Color Profile section, select CMYK (best for professional printing), and then click ‘Done’.
You’ll have the option to save these download settings by clicking the ‘Save download settings’ box.
Now click ‘Download’ and page 1 will download. This may take a minute or two. Once completed, return to the ‘Share’ button and repeat the steps to download page 2 (backside). If you saved your download settings, the only change that needs to be made is in the Select pages section. Simply unselect Page 1 and select Page 2. If you did not save the settings, then repeat all of the above steps. Now both sides have been exported from Canva as separate PDF Print files.
Convert PDF files to JPG files with A Third Party Converter Tool
There are many options when selecting a third party conversion tool. Some are free, while others are not. For this document, we have selected to use pdf2go.com. This link will take you to the PDF to JPG converter.
Here, you’ll choose your file by selecting ‘Choose File’ in the center of the box, or by dragging the file into the purple box.
Also, under the Choose File area you’ll find Optional Settings. Be sure the size is correct for the chosen format, the DPI option is set to 300 dpi, and the Quality bar is slid all the way to the right for Best quality. Now click ‘Start’ and the file conversion will begin.
Once converted, you’ll have the option to upload to the cloud or download to your computer. You can also choose to download a zip file.
To convert page 2, simply click ‘Convert another file to JPG’ and repeat the steps above.
To ensure that your files now have a DPI of 300, open the image and confirm within the properties.
You’re now ready to upload these images into the Postalytics editor.
From the top menu, click Creative>New Template>Build Offline and the Wizard will assist you with uploading each side.
Once uploaded, you’ll be able to edit the template, layering in personalization and tracking, and finally proofing the template with live data using the Postalytics Proofer.
For a full explanation of the features within the Postalytics editor, check out our article Understanding the Postalytics Direct Mail Editor.
Format Dimensions
Key
H = Height W = Width in = inches px = pixels
Postcard Dimensions (Landscape Layout)
4” x 6” Postcard (Landscape Layout)
6” x 9” Postcard (Landscape Layout)
6” x 11” Postcard (Landscape Layout)
4” x 6” Postcard (Front Portrait Layout)
6” x 9” Postcard (Front Portrait Layout)
6” x 11” Postcard (Front Portrait Layout)
Self Mailer Dimensions
12” x 9” Bi-fold Self Mailer
6” x 18” Bi-fold Self Mailer