Canva

[JBurton]

I still get peoplemwho design a 24 x 30" sign and "need it to be 24x36" and they don't understand why I can't stretch it.

I'm a big fan of stretching the p*ss out of things, sending it back, and letting them tell me it looks bad. At that point I'll offer to rework it for an hourly rate, or build as originally specd. Then I'll spit on it while it's laminating, gives me a certain sense of satisfaction.

if you send me crap I will tell you that if I create your sign with it your sign will look like crap. If you insiist I will go ahead and do your sign. I dsepise customers and their infamous jpegs

Just like this guy^
I kid, but really, nothing I hate more than laminating an ugly print, on a slow af laminator, it's torturous. Gotta get a kala here soon.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Doesn't sound customer friendly and too many options. Do you ever blindly print something without looking at dimensions and pixelation? I wouldn't even put that policy out there. If they send you art that needs fixing just kick it back to them and say for X amount we can rework it or you can fix it. That policy sounds harsh and gives too many options and why waste time billing $10.. that doesn't even buy a smoothie hamburger

I had someone yesterday from Dr pepper said they had PRINT READY files. They sent a jpg inside a power point. Wasn't exactly to scale and slight pixelation, so I called and asked if they want me to crop it and are OK with a slight fuzziness. Answer was yes and order was off to S365 in less than 5 mins. If they could do it all themselves perfectly, why buy something from me they could get half off online? Ya gotta do something to add value.

Or up your price $10 if it's that big of a deal. All these little fees stand out and annoy people. They're also teaching their customers how to make print ready files, good way to cut yourself out of the whole deal.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I'm a big fan of stretching the p*ss out of things, sending it back, and letting them tell me it looks bad. At that point I'll offer to rework it for an hourly rate, or build as originally specd. Then I'll spit on it while it's laminating, gives me a certain sense of satisfaction.

Just like this guy^
I kid, but really, nothing I hate more than laminating an ugly print, on a slow af laminator, it's torturous. Gotta get a kala here soon.

You gotta watch the questionable ones as they come off the printer, not the laminator Burton. What kind of laminator do you have? I have an old Chinese one and can do a full roll in a few minutes including loading it.

 

[JBurton]

You gotta watch the questionable ones as they come off the printer, not the laminator Burton. What kind of laminator do you have? I have an old Chinese one and can do a full roll in a few minutes including loading it.

a genuine GFP 563TH(POS edition), I got new tensioners recently that has helped square it up more, but I'll spend the better part of 45 minutes laminating a full roll, including loading.

 

[Goatshaver]

I've gotten several files from Canva that a customer designed. My biggest issue is with fonts if they ask for a type change, they have to make a whole new file. Otherwise I just open SVG files and save them out as Ai files or if its a PNG that needs some resolution I pop it into Gigapixel. If something is just terrible resolution I warn them first about the printing may not look as good as it could with proper image resolution. If I can trace something that comes in as a PNG or JPEG I will just to make it vector so I don't have to worry about resolution.

I'm wondering what the partnership between Canva and Affinity will bring to their service.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I'd assume it's for more vector capability?
It's sad to see affinity get bought out but it wasn't going to go anywhere as it was, just like Inkscape. At least Adobe didn't grab it, they need some competition and so does Corel to a lesser extent.

 

[donkur]

I've only had a couple and IIRC they just gave an error when importing. Simple fix was print to pdf and import that, wasnt a big deal unless there is more to it that we haven't encountered yet.

Excuse my ignorance,
What's the issue with the canva files when not supplied correctly?

We dont get canva files so i have no idea.

People design in Canva and then they download it and send it to the printer however, they can download files in different formats and they normally don't ask the printer what they require. They can download PNGs, they can download print ready files, SVGs, etc. or they can SHARE it with you so you can download it in a format you require.
The most common issues are that the page size is not the size they want and there is never bleed. I will often get a file that the customer wants printed as an 8.5 X 11 print and the file they made is 18 x 24. Canva is a beautiful program because if they SHARE the file with you, you can get in and change the page size without having to do anything other than change the dimensions and Canva will resize and reposition everything. It's beautiful. If people would take the time to learn it, they might appreciate it.
Once the size is changed and bleed is added, you can download it as a PDF print file and you can include crop marks and bleed. The resolution of their images are like buying stock images, no issues.

 

[Pauly]

People design in Canva and then they download it and send it to the printer however, they can download files in different formats and they normally don't ask the printer what they require. They can download PNGs, they can download print ready files, SVGs, etc. or they can SHARE it with you so you can download it in a format you require.
The most common issues are that the page size is not the size they want and there is never bleed. I will often get a file that the customer wants printed as an 8.5 X 11 print and the file they made is 18 x 24. Canva is a beautiful program because if they SHARE the file with you, you can get in and change the page size without having to do anything other than change the dimensions and Canva will resize and reposition everything. It's beautiful. If people would take the time to learn it, they might appreciate it.
Once the size is changed and bleed is added, you can download it as a PDF print file and you can include crop marks and bleed. The resolution of their images are like buying stock images, no issues.

That's very neat!
i think if these instructions are provided to customers, it'll make peoples lives easier. as im sure their files are accessible in their account?

 

[Boudica]

That's very neat!
i think if these instructions are provided to customers, it'll make peoples lives easier. as im sure their files are accessible in their account?

Ideally it is pretty neat. If you have a customer savvy enough to figure it out, and send you what you need, to produce what they want.
It's annoying when they are not savvy, get insulted when you can't produce what they send you, can't seem to figure it out after you have spelled out what you need... and/or get incredulous at the thought of paying for design time to fix what they sent... Because they already created the "artwork".

One or three customers that waste your time because they use canva is one thing, I think it's just becoming so widely used, and the time sucking scenarios are more and more common.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I've gotten several files from Canva that a customer designed. My biggest issue is with fonts if they ask for a type change, they have to make a whole new file. Otherwise I just open SVG files and save them out as Ai files or if its a PNG that needs some resolution I pop it into Gigapixel. If something is just terrible resolution I warn them first about the printing may not look as good as it could with proper image resolution. If I can trace something that comes in as a PNG or JPEG I will just to make it vector so I don't have to worry about resolution.

I never have dealt with Canva files, do they automatically flatten the text when export for the SVGs (I assume that is the format you are getting since you just said if there were no changes you just open the SVG files in Ai (one of the worst programs to use with SVG files, Corel is the other). If you want to avoid that extra step, open up the SVG in Inkscape and see if it's still live text. If it is, that's easy enough to swap out, either within Inkscape or within a simple text editor (that sounds tedious and complicated, it really isn't, but I know how to quite Vi, so I'm strange like that). Ai may actually flatten the text object on it's own. I have used SVGs for a lot of things outside of vector graphics and if open, edit and save as the SVG file in Ai/Draw, it destroys all that extra information, unlike Inkscape which just ignores it. Ai/Draw purge, so they tend not to be the best programs to work with SVG. Just in my experience.

 

[Goatshaver]

I never have dealt with Canva files, do they automatically flatten the text when export for the SVGs (I assume that is the format you are getting since you just said if there were no changes you just open the SVG files in Ai (one of the worst programs to use with SVG files, Corel is the other). If you want to avoid that extra step, open up the SVG in Inkscape and see if it's still live text. If it is, that's easy enough to swap out, either within Inkscape or within a simple text editor (that sounds tedious and complicated, it really isn't, but I know how to quite Vi, so I'm strange like that). Ai may actually flatten the text object on it's own. I have used SVGs for a lot of things outside of vector graphics and if open, edit and save as the SVG file in Ai/Draw, it destroys all that extra information, unlike Inkscape which just ignores it. Ai/Draw purge, so they tend not to be the best programs to work with SVG. Just in my experience.

I'll have to try Inkscape for those. I know I get a an error when opening it in Ai and the text is outlined so it's hard to make text changes. Also it may do that because some of the fonts are exclusive to Canva. It's usually filled with a bunch of bounding boxes that I have to dig through to get to certain layers if I need to adjust something.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I'll have to try Inkscape for those. I know I get a an error when opening it in Ai and the text is outlined so it's hard to make text changes. Also it may do that because some of the fonts are exclusive to Canva. It's usually filled with a bunch of bounding boxes that I have to dig through to get to certain layers if I need to adjust something.

That could very well be, it may actually also be a webfont as well and pulling it from some CDN (as most people are online nowadays even on production machines (I'll try to avoid my usual yelling at the clouds on that one)), but all that information should be able to be parsed from the markup as well or in the XML editor of Inkscape, I just dunno. Canva wasn't too much of a thing during my time. Just something that I thought may have been worth a shot.

 

[donkur]

That's very neat!
i think if these instructions are provided to customers, it'll make peoples lives easier. as im sure their files are accessible in their account?

Yes, I often send screen captures to my client so they know what to do. Sometimes they send a link and that will work as well, but it is better if they use the share button at the top right corner and share it to your email address or the email address that has a pro subscription, which will allow you to do more things than if you don't.

 

[donkur]

Lots of options for saving. Even CMYK if required...

 

[ikarasu]

https://easyupload.io/h9nf3r Figured I'd upload a canva file I just got.

supposed to cut about 40 room names and apply them - The person saves it as 40 individual files... I went through how to export it as PDF, click this option, make sure this one isnt clicked, etc... And I get this file back. I got about 35 individuals, and then this one that has more than 1... but also has some weird outline text on everything past the first... And she swears its not on her canva so she doesnt know how it got there or what it is. A rasterized image of text, thats behind about 30 clipping masks.

Not the end of the world since I can just image trace everything... BUT it shows how Canva does weird shit to files even when it shouldn't. If she shares the canva with me and I export it... 9/10 times it'll export as a vector and be ready to use. Ocasionally It'll rasterize it and I have to export it with different settings and then it'll work... but its not consistant.


Took me 30-40 minutes total to open up each one, image trace, inspect to make sure it didn't trace anything weird... So it wasn't too bad, but it's still 30-40 mins that isn't getting billed. For this client that sends me a ton of work, I just eat it and not care - But when joe bloe walks in and wants 1 sign and sends me a canva file thats been rasterized, has about 15 clipping masks, is the wrong size by a good FT or two...and the wrong ratio to fit in his sandwich board.... So he wants it modified for free and you know you're going to spend an hour trying to fix it, its not worth making $30 on a single coro sign for.

I'd upload the file I'm talking about if it didn't have a photo of the guy and his phone # and everything on it. But I would have had to make the file from scratch, find out what 4 different fonts were, because for some reason he needed 4 different fonts on 1 sign... Remove the background from his image and hope it blows up enough to be good quality... and it was all for 1 24x36" Coroplast sign.... that he sent me in 8.5x11 format. He couldn't send me his photo separately or any of the artwork separately.. Couldn't send me the brokerages logo (It was some weird small company, not remax or any of the big guys I already have templates for). And he wanted it next day for a showing... It was just a mess... to be fair even if he paid an artwork fee, I don't think I could have done his sign since he didn't have any of the logos or his photo or anything, so it wouldnt have mattered - But the people who send the broken canva files are usually the "walk in" type customers who want everything for cheap, they want it while theyre standing there, and then when all is said and done and the signs made...they try to haggle on the price because they made the art.

Canva is a small problem, the people it attracts is the bigger problem!

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

https://easyupload.io/h9nf3r Figured I'd upload a canva file I just got.

supposed to cut about 40 room names and apply them - The person saves it as 40 individual files... I went through how to export it as PDF, click this option, make sure this one isnt clicked, etc... And I get this file back. I got about 35 individuals, and then this one that has more than 1... but also has some weird outline text on everything past the first... And she swears its not on her canva so she doesnt know how it got there or what it is. A rasterized image of text, thats behind about 30 clipping masks.

Not the end of the world since I can just image trace everything... BUT it shows how Canva does weird shit to files even when it shouldn't. If she shares the canva with me and I export it... 9/10 times it'll export as a vector and be ready to use. Ocasionally It'll rasterize it and I have to export it with different settings and then it'll work... but its not consistant.


Took me 30-40 minutes total to open up each one, image trace, inspect to make sure it didn't trace anything weird... So it wasn't too bad, but it's still 30-40 mins that isn't getting billed. For this client that sends me a ton of work, I just eat it and not care - But when joe bloe walks in and wants 1 sign and sends me a canva file thats been rasterized, has about 15 clipping masks, is the wrong size by a good FT or two...and the wrong ratio to fit in his sandwich board.... So he wants it modified for free and you know you're going to spend an hour trying to fix it, its not worth making $30 on a single coro sign for.

I'd upload the file I'm talking about if it didn't have a photo of the guy and his phone # and everything on it. But I would have had to make the file from scratch, find out what 4 different fonts were, because for some reason he needed 4 different fonts on 1 sign... Remove the background from his image and hope it blows up enough to be good quality... and it was all for 1 24x36" Coroplast sign.... that he sent me in 8.5x11 format. He couldn't send me his photo separately or any of the artwork separately.. Couldn't send me the brokerages logo (It was some weird small company, not remax or any of the big guys I already have templates for). And he wanted it next day for a showing... It was just a mess... to be fair even if he paid an artwork fee, I don't think I could have done his sign since he didn't have any of the logos or his photo or anything, so it wouldnt have mattered - But the people who send the broken canva files are usually the "walk in" type customers who want everything for cheap, they want it while theyre standing there, and then when all is said and done and the signs made...they try to haggle on the price because they made the art.

Canva is a small problem, the people it attracts is the bigger problem!

Don't serve those type of clients if you don't want them. You selling ONE $30 yard sign doesn't get rid of those people. Minimum orders. $100 is a small minimum but it will freak out those time wasters

 

[richsweeney]

Canva will accept a .svg file, and it seems to retain the vector when you output it back to PDF. If you are printing cmyk, then I see no reason to not accept it. I think most clients are happy with "pleasing color" I am not talking about color matching here. We print on roll to roll, flat bed and digital press. If I am not sure, I call them in for a press check. Most of the market is not as picky as we are. Last week I was given a 24x36 file they wanted to print 24x18. I took in montax, made it fit, took a snipit shot, then emailed back for approval. Goofy to us, but sold it.

 

[ikarasu]

Don't serve those type of clients if you don't want them. You selling ONE $30 yard sign doesn't get rid of those people. Minimum orders. $100 is a small minimum but it will freak out those time wasters

It's not always that simple. If you accept Realtors the brokerages usually have rules.

Most realtors buy 5-10 signs... Some will buy 50 signs at once. I'd say 80% of the work from a brokerage is worth it... But you can't just refuse, or set a min limit or you lose all of that brokerages business.

You're allowed to charge for custom artwork that deviates from the standard templates - but some realtors try to get around that by using canva and doing their own design...

For other non realtors we have an advertised $75 minimum. We'll deviate from it for long term customers, but it does keep away most of the door knockers - were far too busy to spend an hour dealing with a customer who may or may not buy a $30 sign.... So we inplemted the minimum almost 2 years ago, haven't regretted it since!

Even with the minimum though.... You can spend an hour fixing a customers file.


It's funny... We tell all the sign shops on here not to try to do everything themselves, leave the stuff you don't specialize in to professionals and outsource it ... But then half the people on here defend people who have never touched a design program and have no design experience, and say to just fix their files and deal with how badly they're setup.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

It's not always that simple. If you accept Realtors the brokerages usually have rules.

Most realtors buy 5-10 signs... Some will buy 50 signs at once. I'd say 80% of the work from a brokerage is worth it... But you can't just refuse, or set a min limit or you lose all of that brokerages business.

You're allowed to charge for custom artwork that deviates from the standard templates - but some realtors try to get around that by using canva and doing their own design...

For other non realtors we have an advertised $75 minimum. We'll deviate from it for long term customers, but it does keep away most of the door knockers - were far too busy to spend an hour dealing with a customer who may or may not buy a $30 sign.... So we inplemted the minimum almost 2 years ago, haven't regretted it since!

Even with the minimum though.... You can spend an hour fixing a customers file.


It's funny... We tell all the sign shops on here not to try to do everything themselves, leave the stuff you don't specialize in to professionals and outsource it ... But then half the people on here defend people who have never touched a design program and have no design experience, and say to just fix their files and deal with how badly they're setup.

May half those people are dealing in much larger orders than you. Doesn't make sense on 1 ... or even 10 yard signs.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Why not just subscribe to canva so you can open the problems in their native program? It's not like it's gonna go away