Simplifying DIY Design

How to Legally Use Canva Content: Bloggers Edition

May 9, 2023 by Simplifying DIY Design Leave a Comment

Last updated on June 2nd, 2023

In this Canva Content License Agreement series, we’ll be diving into the can and can NOTs of your Canva designs as a blogger. Part three of this series is all about how you can legally use Canva content throughout your blogging business!

Great visuals can either make or break a blog. Eye-catching Pinterest pin designs get more people to your blog posts.

Intentional blog post graphics break up heavy bits of text and make it easier to read, keeping people on your blog longer.

Enticing freebie opt-in designs gets people to sign up for your email list (and free goodies).

Thoughtful product mockups get people interested in your products before reading your sales page.

Instead of spending thousands on a brand photographer, most bloggers resort to using stock photos for their Pinterest pins, blog post images, opt-in designs, product mockups, and even testimonial graphics.

But because of that, you could be violating Canva’s Content License Agreement without even knowing it.

Ready to nail your product launch? Get our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit today! This kit has a checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template so you can create a digital product for your blog!

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If, while reading this post you find yourself on the wrong side of Canva’s agreement, what you do after’s going to make all the difference.

You’ll not only know what oopsies you’ve made by (illegally) using Canva content throughout your blog (so you don’t make them again) but how you can fix it.

We’ve all made mistakes in our blogs that cost us money, loss in traffic, or just downright embarrassment with LOTS of strongly-worded emails.

All you can do is fix it and write it off as a lesson learned!

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USE CANVA CONTENT ON YOUR BLOG

When you think about all the visuals that go into a blog, it starts to add up pretty darn fast!

Pinterest pins, featured images, opt-in graphics, blog post images, sidebar graphics, about image – it’s like it never ends.

A good chunk of those is usually made with stock photos which means you likely have a stock photo membership or use Canva’s media library.

If you use Canva’s stock photos, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

Add the copyright symbol © followed by the creator’s name and then canva.com if using standalone stock images
Ensure each Pro stock photo used is not larger than 480k pixels (roughly 600px x 800px) OR has content over top (to prevent theft of that image) OR
Use a free stock photo so you’re not limited by size or design requirements

To make more sense of it all, let’s dive into the areas of a blog where you’d use a stock photo.

Pinterest pin design

Our Pinterest pin sometimes uses a Canva Pro stock photo AND is much larger than 460px in size. But we have content over the majority of the photo, so it cannot be stolen.

Since our Pinterest pin is an original design and not just a stock photo, we don’t have to add any copyrighted material.

Overall, our Pinterest pin meets the criteria discussed in Canva’s Content License Agreement.

Featured image

Featured images can vary by size based on your website’s theme, so this is something that’ll be unique to you.

For our custom theme (designed by Laura at Pixel Me Designs), our featured image size is 350px x 500px. Because this image size is smaller than 480k pixels, we don’t have to put content over the top to prevent theft.

‘Woman typing on a laptop’ created by Janeb13 on Canva.com

However, most of the images we use are from Canva’s free stock photo library and not Pro, so we don’t have to worry about size regulation and theft prevention. Remember, that’s only for Pro stock photos!

Now let’s chat about copyright for a moment.

Section 9, line item 9 of Canva’s Content License Agreement, states that you can NOT “use the Content for editorial purposes without including the following credit adjacent to the Content or in audio/visual production credits: “©[insert Contributor’s Name] via Canva.com”

Technically, a website or blog is considered editorial, so we, as bloggers, would fall into this particular scenario.

Because our Featured image is a standalone stock photo, we need to credit the creator.

We’ve reached out to Canva for more guidance on how to properly cite stock photos used in featured images and will update you accordingly.

Blog post image

Adding related images throughout a blog post is actually a very common practice to break up heavy blocks of text.

To make sure we’re in compliance with Canva’s Content License Agreement, we generally use free Canva stock images so we’re not limited to a certain pixel size or have to add content over top to prevent theft.

‘Person using Canva on a smartphone’ created by Cottonbro on Canva.com

But if we really wanted to use a Canva Pro stock photo, we would keep the size to under 480k pixels as per section 5A of Canva’s Content License Agreement.

If you want to double-check your pixel size, save the image to your computer, right-click, and then select something like ‘Get info’ (depending if you’re on a Mac or PC).

Under General, we can see that our image is 235,523 pixels in size. If it’s a Pro stock photo, we can use it in our blog post without having to add any content over top to protect the image because it’s less than 480k pixels in size.

Don’t forget that because we’re adding these images as-is to our blogs (they’re not original designs like our Pinterest pin, for example), we need to credit the creator regardless if it’s a free or Pro stock image.

USE CANVA CONTENT IN A TESTIMONIAL GRAPHIC

While your first response might be to share the photo of the person actually giving the testimonial, you can easily use a stock image for things like sports, outdoors, parties, journaling, and many other products.

This keeps with the theme of your brand and showcases your product type (if not the actual product) in action, which helps visualize your buyer using your product.

However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

According to section 9, line items 6 and 7 of Canva’s Content License Agreement, your graphic can NOT:

Give the appearance that the person in the stock photo is a brand advocate or endorsing your business (especially political endorsements)
Depicts any person(s) in the stock photo in a bad light or in a way that they themselves might find offensive

An easy workaround is by using an image of more than one person because it can’t be attributed to one specific individual. See the difference?

The first image gives the appearance that the woman on the laptop gave the testimonial and therefore endorses the template brand. The image on the right, however, can’t be attributed to a specific individual.

You can also just not use an image with a person. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with keeping the testimonial front and center with a few design elements to make it pop.

Another popular option is using the actual testimonial (so like a screenshot). We’ve done this with email and social media posts on our sales and checkout pages for authenticity and trust!

USE CANVA CONTENT TO PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCTS

There are many forms of a product mockup that can be designed with Canva content. We use mockups on social media, in our emails, and on sales pages, just to name a few.

Here are two different product mockups using Canva’s stock images that meet Canva’s Content License Agreement.

First, they don’t give the impression of any endorsements. Second, it doesn’t depict any individual in a bad light.

If we were to include a testimonial in these images, then we’d be in hot water because it could be tied to the person in the photo. But just using them as a plain ol’ mockup is a-ok.

WHEN YOU CAN NOT USE CANVA CONTENT

It should go without saying that you can NOT use ANY Canva content on a blog that is immoral, libelous, obscene, defamatory, pornographic, or just plain wrong in any given nature.

If the person in the photo or content creator would be seen in a negative light, don’t use it.

Additionally, there are a few other things that can NOT be tied to ANY Canva content.

Tobacco, adult entertainment, politics, and pharmaceutical or healthcare are off-limits. Even herbal and medicinal products cannot be tied to Canva content.

We know that some of our reader’s blogs contain material about naturally grown medicine and remedies, which, unfortunately, could fall under medicinal products.

Please reach out to Canva Support for specific clarification on how you can use Canva content on your blog.

Check out the rest of our Canva Content License Agreement series so you know what you can and can NOT do with your Canva designs as a blogger!

Part One: Read This Before You Make a Logo in Canva
Part Two: How to Legally Sell Digital Products Made in Canva

Do you use Canva content in other ways throughout your blog, or do you have a different example you want us to share? Let us know down in the comments.

We want to make sure this post is as informative as possible so you can feel confident when you use Canva content (legally) on your blog!

Don’t forget to grab our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit! Use the checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to create a digital product for your blog!

GET THE FREE QUICKSTART KIT NOW!

TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS

Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that cut your design time to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $12.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every design is put back into making MORE money in our business!

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Canva’s Content License Agreement: Legally Sell Products Made in Canva

May 1, 2023 by Simplifying DIY Design 2 Comments

Last updated on June 2nd, 2023

In this Canva Content License Agreement series, we’ll be diving into the can and can NOTs of your Canva designs as a blogger. Part two of this series is all about how you can legally sell products made in Canva – it’s not as straightforward as some might think!

Canva is not only the focal point of our business but also, hands down, the best tool we’ve ever used.

It’s so easy to create literally any visual for your blog – product mockups, lead magnets, social media posts, email signatures, and even digital AND physical products.

Bloggers and small business owners don’t just use Canva. Mega corporations like FedEx not only use Canva but actually partnered to create a design-to-print marketplace.

Okay, it’s no secret we get super giddy anytime we can talk about how awesome Canva truly is.

But the one thing that’s not so awesome is talking about Canva’s content licenses.

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It’s easy to think that if Canva offers it, we can use it without question. Life as a blogger could be much simpler, right?

If you sell products made in Canva, you could violate their Content License Agreement without knowing it.

And if reading this post helps you realize you are, that’s okay. You’ll know what mistakes you’re making (so you don’t make them again) and how you can fix them!

Or maybe you’re just starting and want to ensure you’re doing things right the first time.

We’ve all made mistakes, both big and small (trust us!), and we all still managed to come out on the other side stronger than ever.

So if you sell products made in Canva or want to start, this is for you!

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Sell products made in Canva? You could be violating Canva's Content License Agreement! Here's what you need to know to legally sell products made in Canva!

Canva offers two membership plans – free and Pro. Even though your free membership has a very limited media library, you still have the option to purchase Pro content.

Each piece of Pro content (indicated by a crown icon) is just $1. Even though you purchased a piece of Pro content, you must pay each time you use it in a DIFFERENT design/project.

If Amanda has a free account and purchases a piece of Pro content (let’s say, an arrow) for one social media post, she’ll pay $1. But if she wants to use that same arrow in:

Multiple social media posts that are in the SAME design/project, she’ll only pay $1
Two YouTube thumbnails in DIFFERENT designs/projects, she’ll pay an additional $1
One page in her eBook, she’ll pay an additional $1

This can add up quickly, so if you use more than 13 pieces of Pro content a month, you’d save money by upgrading to Canva Pro ($12.99/mo OR $119/yr).

If you’re on Canva’s free plan and pay to use a piece of Pro content, you’re issued a Pro Content license upon purchase.

If you have a Canva Pro account and use a piece of Pro content, you’re issued a Pro Content license when you export a design.

But what does that mean?

When you either purchase or export a design using a piece of Pro content, you agree to the limitations found in the Pro Content license.

There are things you can and can NOT do with your designs that contain Pro content.

CAN YOU CREATE AND SELL PRODUCTS MADE IN CANVA?

The short answer is YES. You can create and sell products made in Canva!

But…

Some limitations will vary based on the type of product you’re selling, whether it’s an end-user product or a design template.

But before we dive into examples specific to bloggers, there are some license commonalities with selling any product you created in Canva.

1. THEY MUST BE YOUR DESIGNS

Any design you want to sell (finished or template) has to be created from scratch. You can also purchase a design template specifically made for commercial use from a third party (like us).

However, you can use a Canva template for inspiration! This is a great way to see what types of layouts or styles you like (or maybe even a color palette!) to help you create something unique.

This includes selling standalone items like a stock photo or single design element from Canva’s media library, which we’ll get to in a later example. That’s a big no-no!

2. CANVA TEMPLATES CAN NOT BE SOLD AS-IS

You cannot sell something you didn’t create. To sell Canva templates, you must create your own designs.

It’s kind of obvious, but you can’t take credit for something you didn’t design. How would you feel if someone took something you created, changed out one or two things, and started selling it as their own?

You’d feel pretty icky, huh?

3. CANVA TEMPLATES WITH PRO CONTENT MUST BE SOLD AS A CANVA LINK

If you use Pro content in your (original) design template, it has to stay in Canva by selling it as a direct Canva link.

If your designs ONLY include free content, you can sell them as a digital file (flattened PDF or PNG) or as a direct Canva link.

You can do this by delivering a PDF with buttons that link to each Canva template. This helps ensure the proper royalties are paid to those who contribute to Canva’s Pro media library, like photographers, illustrators, artists, etc.

Now that you know what you can and can’t do if you want to sell products made in Canva, let’s dig deeper into a few examples specific to bloggers.

USING CANVA CONTENT IN PRODUCTS TO SELL

EXAMPLE #1

Renee wants to create a workbook to help parents teach their children about the Bible. Her workbook will include a mixture of Canva free and Pro content, including stock photos and graphics.

Related Post: How to Design a Workbook Using Canva

Referencing sections 5 and 5A of Canva’s Content License Agreement, Renee can sell her workbook if:

It’s an original design (or she purchased a template specifically intended for commercial use from a third party like us)
Each Pro stock photo used is not larger than 480k pixels (or 600px x 800px) OR has content over top (to prevent image theft)
It’s being sold as a finished product that her customer can use as-is (doesn’t need to edit to use)

Yes, you read that right. You can NOT use a Canva template to create a workbook to sell it if you do not put your own creative design spin to make it your own.

This is why we highly encourage our readers to purchase design templates specifically designed for commercial use from a third party (like us!).

We created our templates to help you sell digital products without worrying about design or licensing.

Keep in mind that Renee’s example applies to most end-user products.

End user means it doesn’t require any edits from the purchaser in order to use – workbooks, eBooks, worksheets, greeting cards, cheat sheets, etc.

However, there is one caveat that we’ll get to in example #2.

ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION

Let’s say Renee is on Canva’s free plan, uses our page design templates, and ONLY wants to use free content throughout her workbook.

Renee no longer has to worry about:

Creating an original design because she’s using OUR templates designed for digital products
A specific pixel limit because it doesn’t apply to free stock photo content
Selling her workbook in a particular format if she decides to sell it as a template versus end-use

Remember us mentioning Canva templates that contain Pro content MUST be sold as a direct Canva link?

Because Renee uses free content in her workbook (instead of Pro content), she can sell her workbook in various ways if she decides to sell it as a template instead of an end-user product.

EXAMPLE #2

Morgan has a homeschooling blog and wants to sell printable flashcards with only individual pieces of Canva content on each card, like an earthworm, caterpillar, and honey bee.

While the printable flashcards wouldn’t require editing from the end user, it still violates Canva’s Content License Agreement. So, what makes Morgan’s flashcards different from Renee’s workbook?

Renee incorporates Canva’s content throughout her workbook, making it an original design.

Selling printable flashcards with standalone Canva content violates section 9, line item 1 of Canva’s Content License Agreement.

Whether Morgan was using free or Canva Pro content, she was (unintentionally) reselling Canva content as a standalone element.

What can Morgan do to sell flashcards still? Morgan needs to do one of the following:

Create an original design (either with the Canva content or without)
Purchase design elements specifically for commercial use (like Creative Market)

Suppose Morgan was to purchase her insect graphics from Creative Market for commercial use (meaning, she bought the ‘Commercial’ license at checkout). In that case, she can create and sell her flashcards as initially intended.

We recommend this route because it can become a gray area in terms of creating an original design when you want to use just one piece of Canva content.

Could Morgan put the piece of content over a colored shape to provide some dimension? Absolutely. Does that classify as an original design? Some might say yes; some might say no.

She could get more creative with her design, but then it might negatively affect the intent of the homeschooling product.

You can always contact Canva Support for more clarity or if you’re unsure about any potential license violations.

EXAMPLE #3

Carla is a skilled calligrapher and wants to design and sell her own line of stationery, including children’s birthday invitation templates.

All of her designs are completely original, with a mixture of free and Pro content. She then sells her invitation templates on her Shopify storefront as direct Canva template links.

Carla does NOT violate Canva’s Content License Agreement because she:

Designed all of her templates from scratch
Sells her templates specifically for use on Canva (only when using Pro content)

Because the customer needs to add their information to use this product, it’s not classified as an end-user product but rather as a template.

Canva treats templated products differently than end-user products, specifically those that use Pro content.

Here’s where we get into end-user versus templated products again.

Related Post: How to Sell Canva Templates on Your Blog

If Carla were to use ONLY free content in her invitation templates, she would have the option of selling her templates as a direct download (like a flattened PDF or PNG) or as a Canva template link.

But because she includes Pro content in her templates, she MUST sell them as direct Canva template links. Canva Pro content licenses will always trump their free content licenses.

EXAMPLE #4

Jasmine blogs about all things dogs and wants to start selling apparel for dog lovers on Etsy using a print-on-demand service like Printify.

She uses a pre-existing Canva template but puts her own unique, creative take on it to make it her own. She used a mixture of fonts as well as free and Pro content. Then, she downloads her design as a high-quality digital file and uploads it to Printify.

Jasmine does NOT violate Canva’s Content License Agreement because she:

Put in her own creative effort to make the design template unique and original to her
Didn’t use any piece of free or Pro content as a standalone design item

If her design consisted of just a single stock photo (or piece of content, as we mentioned in example #2) instead of her own design, Jasmine would’ve violated Canva’s Content License Agreement.

It would still violate the agreement even if she added a simple border. The bottom line, the designs you sell need to be original.

CANVA PROTECTS THEIR CREATORS

You need to know a lot of information if you want to (legally) sell products made in Canva.

We promise you, Canva isn’t doing this to make our lives as bloggers harder. They want to ensure that the proper royalties are paid to those contributing to their Pro media library.

Once we started looking at their Content License Agreement from that mindset, it became much clearer.

If you sell Canva templates that contain Pro content, you must sell them as a direct Canva link. That’s so the creators of the Pro content are paid.

If your end-user product contains Pro stock photos, it can’t be larger than 480k pixels in size (600x800px) or have another piece of content or text over it, so it can’t be stolen.

You can’t resell something you didn’t create, which protects the original creator(s). Instead, purchase templates specifically designed for commercial use from a third-party designer like us!

Check out the rest of our Canva Content License Agreement series for bloggers, mainly if you sell Canva-created products!

Part One: Read This Before You Make a Logo in Canva
Part Three: How to Use Canva Content Throughout Your Blog

Do you sell products using Canva, or do you have a different example you want us to share? Let us know down in the comments.

We want to make sure this post is as informative as possible so you can feel confident creating and selling products made in Canva!

Don’t forget to grab our FREE Product Creators QuickStart Kit! Use the checklist, cheatsheet, and Canva design template to create a digital product for your blog!

GET THE FREE QUICKSTART KIT NOW!

TRY CANVA PRO FREE FOR 30 DAYS

Start your FREE Canva Pro trial today and unlock ALL of their incredible time-saving features that cut your design time to just minutes.

To be honest? It’s the best $12.99/mo OR $119/yr we spend on our business because that time we save with every design is put back into making MORE money in our business!

WANT TO SAVE THIS FOR LATER? PIN IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!⬇

Read This Before You Make a Logo in Canva | Understanding Canva’s Content License Agreement

April 25, 2023 by Simplifying DIY Design 2 Comments

Last updated on June 5th, 2023

In this Canva Content License Agreement series, we’ll be diving into the can and can NOTs of your Canva designs as a blogger. Part one of this series is all about (legal) Canva logo design and how you can make a trademarkable logo in Canva!

Understanding a license agreement for anything can be challenging. But when it pertains to a multi-use program like Canva, it can be even more complicated.

There are licensing differences between Canva’s free and paid memberships, simple logos versus trademarks, end-user products versus templates, Magic Write’s (similar to ChatGPT) dos and don’ts…

It’s a lot of content to unpack for experienced bloggers, let alone for someone new to the blogging community.

GET THE FREE PRODUCT QUICKSTART KIT NOW!

While the constant addition of new Canva features is a total game-changer, there are now even more content licensing agreements bloggers need to know.

Now, remember that this is a breakdown of Canva’s Content License Agreement specific to bloggers.

There will be things in Canva’s agreement that we won’t mention because it doesn’t pertain to the average blogger, i.e., remixing music from Canva’s media library.

Just because we don’t touch on it doesn’t mean it’s not included in Canva’s Content License Agreement.

When in doubt, always reference the entire license agreement or contact Canva Support for additional guidance.

Due to the size of Canva’s Content License Agreement, we’ve created a series to go into full detail on the topics that matter most to bloggers!

Now let’s dive into logo design from a blogger’s perspective using Canva’s Content License Agreement.

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What’s the one thing ALL bloggers, specifically all websites, have?

A logo.

Not everyone has a YouTube channel, but we’ll bet that every blogger has or is working on a logo!

Which is why this is hands down the most common question we get asked…

“Can I create a logo in Canva and use it for my blog?”

First things first.

1. You CAN create your logo in Canva

In fact, they have hundreds of logo templates to choose from if designing from scratch isn’t your thing.

Type ‘logo’ in the search bar at the top and filter based on style, subject, topic, color, and more.

Once you find a logo template you like, swap out your brand colors and add your business name.

Poof! Instant logo!

Download it as a transparent background (only available for Canva Pro users) and keep it somewhere safe.

Don’t forget to compress your file using TinyPNG to access raw and compressed files quickly and easily.

We use and LOVE both Google Drive and Asana to keep our business organized, especially as we expand our team.

If you still haven’t found the perfect logo, be sure to check out our Five-Minute Brand!

You’ll get instant access to 40 complete (editable!) brand kits PLUS hundreds of Canva templates to brand your blog. It’s truly lived up to its name if we do say so ourselves!

2. You can NOT trademark your logo if…

Here’s where it can get a little confusing for some.

You can use Canva’s logo templates for your small business if you do NOT want it trademarked.

Reason being, you can NOT trademark something that more than one person owns. The same goes for using stock content like photos or graphics – it’s not original to you.

In other words, if it’s available to use by others, it can’t be trademarked.

Even if you:

Change the colors and fonts to match your brand
Swap out the text with your business name
Add stock content like a photo or graphic

It’s still based on the original design of the template and can NOT be trademarked.

It’s okay not to have a trademarked logo. Some million-dollar bloggers haven’t trademarked their logos or even their business names. If you’re using a template, you have to be okay with having the same or similar logo design as someone else.

We don’t recommend it if your blog is less than five years old because you’ll more than likely update your brand as your business and blog grow anyway. We revamped just after three!

If you’re firm on trademarking your logo, you can:

Create your OWN logo using lines, simple shapes, and/or fonts
Hire a designer to create a custom logo for you

As Canva’s Content License Agreement states, Canva defines ‘Content’ as “photos, icons, illustrations, video, audio, fonts and templates.”

However, Canva expressly excludes fonts regarding the prohibited use of their free and Pro content, stating, “use any of the Content as part of a trade-mark, design-mark, trade-name, business name or service mark (excluding fonts).”

Note that lines and shapes are not listed as items of ‘Content.’ Under copyright law, you cannot copyright a simple shape. Again, a design created using simple shapes can be trademarked (like Target’s bullseye logo).

Let’s go over a few examples.