In this post I’m going to go over the exact step-by-step design process I use to bring my designs to life by simply adding textured font in Canva for free! Textured font is by far the best way to stand out and get your designs noticed which increases traffic, email sign-ups, and your blog’s income!
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As a blogger, you’re always looking for ways to get your content to stand out in the sea of sameness.
You can only get so creative with your designs until you find yourself off-brand and unrecognizable to your audience.
Or worse, looks more like every other blogger in your niche with each passing day.
What you need is a way to make your words jump off the page. Something that instantly grabs your reader’s attention to where you are all they see.
Yet, is simple to create and won’t bust through your blog’s budget (if you have one at all).
Adding textured font to your designs is one of the easiest ways to stand out among the rest.
And when you stand out, you get noticed.
If you’re ready to boost your blog’s traffic, increase email signups and ultimately make more money with your blog, you need to incorporate textured font in your designs.
Please note that this tutorial uses Canva and Preview (Mac-specific software). I’m sorry for any inconvenience!
REMEMBER THIS POST LATER! SAVE IT TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD! 📌 ⬇
WHAT IS TEXTURED FONT?
If you’ve spent any kind of time on Pinterest lately, I’m willing to bet you’ve seen a few pins with textured font.
And, I’m willing to bet it was either glitter or metallic. That’s because these two are the most popular font textures on the market.
Why?
They’re both incredibly eye-catching!
Just look at the difference between these two Pinterest pins. Which one would grab your attention first?
Now, glitter and metallic aren’t the only options we have to create textured font.
I’ve seen paper, paint, marble, grit, plastic, fabric, watercolors, brush strokes, even marker!
Anything that gives your design dimension can be considered a texture.
This makes textured font the perfect solution to create jump-off-the-page designs in any niche!
FIND A TEXTURED FONT THAT MATCHES YOUR BRAND
Even though you may want to go with the brightest, boldest texture you can find, you need to make sure it matches your brand.
This is key to establishing recognizability and trust with your readers.
If your brand is more modern and edgy, plastic or marker textures will pair better than let’s say marble.
As for light and airy brands, watercolors are a great match because they’re naturally soft and muted.
There are a ton of different options to choose from on Creative Market and even right inside of Canva!
You can search for a specific texture (like grainy or marble) or browse Canva’s entire collection by going to Background from the left menu bar –> Textures.
This is a great option if you don’t have the money to purchase a textures bundle on Creative Market just yet.
However, Creative Market does offer texture bundles in their weekly Free Goods every now and then (along with a ton of really great design resources)!
CREATE TEXTURED FONT USING CANVA AND PREVIEW
First, you’re going to create a new design so we have a place to add our text. I like to go with the Facebook Ad, which is 1200px by 628px.
This gives you plenty of working space to play around with different style fonts and see what looks the best.
Side note: There’s also a really cool (and FREE) font generator to help you choose the best font combinations if pairing really isn’t your thing.
Add a textbox to your blank page and type whatever you’d like to texturize.
Make your textbox fairly large and be sure to keep the background white. Oh, and don’t forget to center it!
When you’re done, download your design as a PNG.
Next, you’ll need to open up your download in Preview. (Remember, this tutorial is only for Mac users!)
USE THE MAGIC TOOL INSIDE OF PREVIEW
First, select ‘Show Markup Toolbar’ which is to the left of the Search box.
From here, click ‘Instant Alpha’ or what everyone else calls the ‘Magic Select Tool’. It looks like a magician’s wand doesn’t it!?
This next part can be quite tedious depending on how long your text is and if any of your letters connect like the example above.
What you want to do is click in the first letter of your word and drag until the entire letter turns red. Then, hit Delete.
Don’t forget to remove the color from the i’s or exclamation points!
There may be some color lingering about, so I recommend trying that same color-removal process once more.
Once you have all of the black removed from your text, hit Save.
We’re now going to upload that design back into Canva so we can create our textured font!
As a side note, if you don’t have a Mac computer, you can use pixlr.com to do this as well.
ADD TEXTURE TO CANVA DESIGN
If you haven’t uploaded your texture to Canva yet, now is the time to do it.
Add your desired texture to your blank page and adjust as needed.
Sometimes there’s a certain area of a texture that I prefer more, so I’ll manipulate the design so it shows through my text.
Once you have your texture right where you want it, upload and add the text you just edited in Preview.
You can also drag the text around to find the perfect spot. This text will be totally custom to you, so have fun and get creative!
When you’re done, download your design as a PNG once more.
BACK TO PREVIEW FOR THE FINAL EDIT
Once we have our second design opened in Preview, you’re actually going to be doing the opposite.
Instead, you’ll be removing the background of your design instead of the actual text.
Click anywhere on the white background and drag until it’s completely highlighted.
Make sure you don’t accidentally highlight any of the textured font you just created. (I say that because it’s happened to me a few times!)
Once that’s all said and done, crop your image to remove the extra texture around your design. Then, hit Save one last time.
ADD TEXTURED FONT TO A PINTEREST PIN USING CANVA
I tend to add textured font to my Pinterest pins the most because I’m finding it harder and harder to stand out.
Pinterest is, unfortunately, becoming oversaturated and I found textured font to be the easiest way to overcome this.
You can also use your textured font on YouTube thumbnails, social media graphics, and more!
Our textured font now acts like any other image we’ve uploaded to Canva.
We can rotate it, change the size, or move it anywhere on our page design.
Side note: If you’re looking for an easier way to design pins, you can find new pins every single month in our DiyDesign Creators Vault!
It’s such a simple and easy way to make your designs pop. And, get noticed!
Not to mention it gives the I’m-a-graphic-designer impression when in reality it was the I-spent-5-minutes-using-Canva kind of day.
THINGS TO REMEMBER
Because you’re using textured font to grab your reader’s attention, try to use it sparingly. What I mean is one to two words at most.
It can easily make your designs noisy and difficult to read if used too much. There are some things in design where less and more, and textured font is definitely one of those things!
Another thing to note is the style of font you use. If it has extra details, you’ll end up spending quite a great deal of time removing the color in Preview instead of going with a simpler font.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to try a few different variations (as long as it matches your brand) or just manipulating the image to create a different look.
This can be done by rotating the textured image or simply by changing the size.
Now, get out there and start creating eye-catching designs using DIY textured font!
WATCH THE VIDEO!
AS ALWAYS… showing is easier than explaining, so please watch the video below. Resources discussed in the video will be linked beneath it and make sure to join our Facebook group!
RESOURCES DISCUSSED IN THE VIDEO:
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