1+2. Select + copy all objects
4. Paste into new design area.
5. Rearrange objects to fit.
How to resize your designs in Canva
Being able to resize your Canva designs is useful when you want to use the same design across multiple platforms. Maybe you’ve created an amazing Instagram post but now you want to use that same design for a Facebook banner. If you’re using Canva Pro, then you can just go along and use the resizing tool. If you’ve already done this for your designs, then you’ll know that it isn’t a perfect function. You still need to fiddle with the design, especially if you’re going from a square design to a horizontal or vertical one.
Let’s say you’ve purchased one of my mockups, which are by default 6000 x 4000 pixels in size, and you want to convert it to an Instagram post. Auto resizing the design is going to place the horizontal layout of the objects onto a square page, leaving empty space at the top and bottom of the square. Depending on the sort of design it is, there are various ways to adjust this.
- You can just resize and rearrange the objects in the design to spread them out (my favorite).
- You can duplicate some of the objects in the design into those spaces.
- You can add some additional objects to the design.
- You can add text to those empty spaces.
What if you’re not using Canva Pro and don’t have access to the resizing tool?
With only a couple more clicks, you can still create a new size of the same design. You will need to do this in the desktop version of Canva.
- Select the entire page of your original file by drag selecting everything on the page.
- Copy everything you have selected by right clicking and selecting ‘copy’ from the dropdown.
- Go to ‘file’ in your toolbar, and select ‘create new design’. Then select ‘Instagram post’ from the options.
- In the new blank design, hold down cmd/ctrl + V together to paste all the objects you just copied. They will reduce to fit the new size.
- Then all you need to do is rearrange your objects to fit the area.
- To make sure you match the background color, go over to your original design and copy the color code from there. Then paste it as the background color in your new design.
Important note
Sometimes weird things happen when you copy over a design manually. Object shadows can go wonky or insert themselves into the page background, objects sometimes ungroup, and backgrounds don’t copy over so you’ll need to reapply them. You might need to do a little damage control – this is the nature of Canva, and all the more reason to use the Pro version so you can use the resizing tool.
Once you’ve resized your design, remember to name and save it then share away!
