I’ve been writing a lot about the benefits of a print on demand business (you can see links to all my print on demand blog posts at the bottom of this post) but how exactly do you create print on demand designs? In this post I’ll show you how to create print-on-demand designs for free with Canva in this step-by-step guide.
What is print on demand (POD)?
Print on demand, sometimes called POD, is where you can sell your custom designs on different types of products.
Instead of ordering a lot of items in different colors and sizes and holding inventory (with significant financial outlay), these items are printed on demand from third-party providers.
The “on-order” bit means that when an item sells, it triggers an order from your supplier, who takes care of everything else for you.
There are a lot of items that can be sold using print on delivery, especially if you jump on current trends. Print on demand products include:
- T-shirt
- hoodies
- Face masks or face coverings
- Cups or mugs
- bags
- Office tools
- Smartphone covers
- attachments
- prints
- Tote bags
And many more.
This side hustle is free to start, with no financial outlay until you receive your first order. The only thing you need to invest to start with is your time.
What is Canva?
Canva is an online platform that enables users to easily create professional-looking designs. Whether you’re an experienced designer or just starting out, Canva’s easy-to-use platform makes it easy to produce visually stunning content using a drag-and-drop interface.
One of Canva’s main strengths is its wide range of templates, which are perfect for creating everything from social media graphics to business presentations. These templates can be customized to suit your needs, allowing you to create truly unique and distinctive designs.
In addition to templates, Canva offers the flexibility to work with custom sizes, ensuring that your designs fit perfectly into any format you need. This makes it an ideal design tool for creating everything from custom designs to print-ready files for marketing materials or personal projects.
You get a basic Canva account for free, and you can create print-on-demand designs in Canva with the free version.
Canva also has a paid version, which unlocks more useful features. With Canva Pro, you get access to an expanded library of assets, advanced editing tools, and the ability to save designs as print-ready files, making it easier than ever to produce high-quality, professional designs. Whether you use Canva for personal projects or professional endeavors, it’s a versatile tool for all your design needs.
I use the Pro version of Canva, but this tutorial will cover how to create your own design for free.
Why is Canva ideal for print on demand?
There are many great reasons why print on demand sellers use Canva to create their digital products.
Canva’s easy-to-use platform is one of the main reasons it’s perfect for print on demand.
The drag-and-drop interface allows you to quickly create designs without needing any prior design experience, and without learning any complex programs like Adobe Photoshop. You can easily add and adjust elements, change colors and apply filters with just a few clicks.
Canva also simplifies the process of creating custom designs by offering predefined dimensions for popular POD products, so you don’t have to worry about setting up the correct sizes manually.
Perhaps the best reason to use Canva for print on demand is that you can get started for free and you don’t need to use the paid version of Canva to create designs for print on demand.
How to create custom print designs in Canva
I’m going to create another cat design for my test Etsy shop, and use this blog post to show you how I do it.
First, sign up for Canva or log in.
Then click New Design > Custom Dimensions and type 5000 x 5000.
I now have a blank space to create my design in Canva.
Using the menu on the left, select items and find your design ideas.
Any of the crown designs appear in the bottom right corner and can only be used for free if you have Canva pro. I have Canva pro and I love it, but for the purpose of this article we’ll stick with the completely free design elements.
I’ve chosen an element to include in my design, and now I’ll add some text. To add text in the left menu, select Text.
From here you can choose plain text, or text with effect. If you are using a text effect, make sure to select a free effect.
Canva is very easy to use, so it was easy to drag and drop text and change the color and size to a design I liked.
At the top be sure to rename your design so you can easily find it later.
Once you have a design you like, click Download and download it as a PNG. This may take a while since we created such a large design.
Tip: If you have Canva pro, download with a transparent background to skip the next few steps.
Now we need to give the image a transparent background.
Although the background looks white on Canva, without a transparent background, the white background will print on your products. Without making the background transparent, this is what it would look like:
You can use any online transparent background maker. For this tutorial I’m using Online PNG tools.
Here you can see how it looks with the background removed on the right. You can play around with the settings to get it right – I just noticed that I was able to remove the pink in that cat’s cheeks.
And now it’s done – our design is complete and it didn’t cost us a dime to make it in Canva.
Can you use Canva templates to create custom print designs?
The last thing you want to do is get into legal trouble, so can you use Canva templates to create custom print designs?
No. And yes.
Here’s what Canva says:
‘At Canva, we create templates for our users. However, we also welcome people who want to create and sell their own designs made in Canva as templates that others can use on our platform.
This means that while you can’t resell templates we’ve created, you can create your own to sell to other Canva users.
Note: Change the content of the Canva template Without completely changing the design Creating your own work is not permitted.
You can’t use templates on Canva and sell designs.’
Canva has some amazing templates to inspire you, but you’ll need to change them if you want to sell the design for print on demand.
This can include:
- Change the layout
- Change colors
- Change font
- Add Canva elements
- Remove Canva items
It’s a good idea to use Canva’s templates to inspire your designs (which you can find from the search bar), but then keep creating your own designs from scratch.
Get started with print on demand
I know what you’re thinking – where do you start? How are designs made? How to choose a supplier? Where do you list your items for sale?
The good news is that I cover all of these topics and more with my print-on-demand series:
Are you looking for more ways to make money online? Enter your name and email address below to be sent a free copy of my book ’10 Ways to Make £1,000 in the Next 30 Days’.
