Design a Photo Book and an eBook

Getting Started

Set up your Canva account
In this lesson we will set up your Canva account, simply go to the VIP link: http://bit.ly/195QZcM and click 'Sign Up'.
Watch the 23-second introduction and complete the 5 Starter Challenges
Once you've signed into Canva for the first time, you'll be shown a 23-second introduction video. Watch this video, and then complete the 5 Starter Challenges that follow.

These Challenges will give you an overview of the main Canva features, so that you're ready to start designing.

Using Canva

Start a new design using the 'Photo Collage' design type
To get started on our Photo Book, we need to create a new design. From your logged in homepage, click 'Photo Collage' under 'Start a new design'
Upload your own images to use in your photo book
You can upload photos by going to the 'Uploads' tab and clicking 'Upload your own images'. You can then choose the images that I want to use. Click open and your images will upload.

You can also upload your photos direclty into your computer. Select the images you want and drag them directly onto the screen. You will see this upload icon appears when your images are hovering over the Canva editor.

The third way you can upload photos is by pulling them directly from Facebook. To upload images from Facebook, click the 'Uploads' tab, then click on the Facebook icon and ‘Use Facebook Photos’,

Upload several photos to use in this design.
Choose a layout for your first page
So now we've uploaded our images it's time to start designing.

To start with we need to go to the 'Layouts' tab over on the left. To choose a Layout simply drag it onto your page. Once you've choosen your layout, you can drag the images you uploaded into the design.

Grids and frames

Add a grid to your photo book
Next up we are going to learn to use Grids. Grids are a really easy way to lay out your photos. Use the search bar and type in 'grids'. Click enter and it will come up with a great selection of grids.

The same way we did with layouts you can simply drag the grid directly onto your page.

Click on your 'Uploads' tab and drag your photos into the Grids. If you want to reposition any of the photos you can simply double click on the photo and then move it into position. Click the 'tick' box and it is set into place.

Grids don’t have to take up your whole page, you can also resize them to look how you like.

Add a grid to your page and drag in the photos that you've uploaded.
Add frames to your photo book
For the final page in my photo book we are going to use Frames. Add a new page then search for 'frames'. Scroll through and then find one that you like and drag it directly onto your page.

You can rotate the frame using the Rotate icon, copy using the copy icon and then rotate it again into the position that you like. Drag the images directly into the Frames.

To make an image a background, all you have to do is drag it onto your page like normal and resize it so it takes up the whole page. You can see it automatically moves behind everything else in your design when it takes up the whole page.

So that is it for this unit, you now have all the skills you need to create a beautiful photo book.

Choosing your color and font palettes

Choose a color palette for your eBook
Start a new design, by going back to your homepage and clicking 'Presentation' under 'Start a new design'.

Once your design has opened, search for 'map' and add the world map graphic to your page. Also add a heading to your page by choosing a Text Holder from the 'Text' tab on the lefthand side of the page.

Here are three basic color palettes you can choose from:

Color and white

The first is choosing a very intense color and pairing it with white highlights.

Pastels

A selection of various pastel colors. Pastel colors can be found near the center of the color wheel.

Monochromatic shades

Color palette featuring different levels of brightness for the same color.
Add a text holder and change the color to match your color palette
Add a text holder to your design and change the colors so that it matches the color palette you determined earlier.

Working with text

Add a favorite quote to your eBook
For the second page of our eBook, we are going to add a quote.

Search for a 'speech bubble' and add one that you like to your design. Add the quote to the speech bubble, and change the font to one that you like.

Make sure the color of your speech bubble and font matches the color palette you decided on earlier.
Add some text to your design and choose a font palette
It's time to add another page to your design to fill with text. For this page, we want to choose our font palette. Our font palette should consist of a Heading font, a Subtitle font and a Body font.

The Title Font is the first thing that people will read when they see your design. It’s important to consider what font compliments your brands image.

If you have a brand where you want to convey a sense of history, you might like to choose a Serif Font. Such as Droid Serif. Serif fonts have small lines at the ends of the characters, for example on the M and E.

If you have a company that prides itself on being modern and cutting edge, you might like to choose a Sans Serif font such as ‘Gruppo’. Sans Serif do not use serifs (those small lines).

If you want a classy font that has a magazine look, you might like to choose a font like Abril Fatface. We are going to stick with this font.

Next up, we need to choose our subtitle font. One rule to think about when choosing your Subtitle is that it is very important to contrast with your title font. If you have chosen a bold, font for your title, try a lighter font for your subtitle. Ensure it’s much smaller, so it doesn’t conflict. It should be easy to tell what to read first. We are going to choose Roboto and make it size 21.

For your body font, choose a font that is easy to read. It is really important that you don’t choose a decorative font. After you have set your fonts, it is important to consider the alignment and spacing of all your elements. Is there enough white space around the perimeter of your page? Is there ample white space between your elements? Are all of your elements correctly aligned?

Working with images

Choose an icon to represent your message
Next we'll add an icon. Search for 'female icon'. In this case, we want to illustrate the fact that 75% of people are not living up to their creative potential so we're going to make 3 icons a dark red and 1 icon white.

Sharing your design

Publish your design
We're now going to publish our design. You can choose to publish as an Image or PDF. To publish, click 'Link & Share' in the top righthand corner of the page.

Lisa Hallman

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