Spoiler: It’s Not About Hating Canva—it’s About Protecting Your Brand
If you’ve worked in design, marketing, or business in the past 6 to 7 years, chances are you’ve run across the platform Canva. Now, we’re just going to get this out of the way: we’re not anti-Canva. It’s a great tool for quick graphics, social media posts, and making your announcements look a little less… Microsoft Word circa 2007.
But when it comes to printed marketing materials, Canva can start doing more harm than good. What looks great on screen doesn’t always translate to ink and paper. And if you’ve ever received a pixelated, off-center, or oddly trimmed postcard from the printer, you know exactly what we’re talking about.
At Davant Indy, we’ve seen a lot of well-meaning DIY designs cause headaches (and wasted budgets) for small to mid-sized businesses across Greenfield and Central Indiana. Canva is convenient, free-ish, and easy to use. But here’s why you should think twice before hitting “Download PDF” and sending your Canva design straight to the printer.
Canva Isn’t Built for Print Marketing Accuracy
Canva is optimized for digital design, not professional printing and marketing. That means it often skips over important technical specs like bleed, trim lines, and CMYK color formatting.
If you’re designing a flyer, brochure, or business card in Canva and don’t adjust the file correctly for print, here’s what can happen: your design might get chopped off, your colors could look completely different, fonts might shift, or your images may print fuzzy instead of sharp.
A quick fix in Canva can quickly become an expensive reprint. Which is why you shouldn’t use it for print marketing. But when you work with our team, we prep every design to meet exact printing specs from the start, so what you see is actually what you get.
Resolution Issues Are Real (And Costly)
Canva uses screen-friendly resolution by default, not print-friendly resolution.
Digital files look sharp at 72 DPI (dots per inch), but print requires a minimum of 300 DPI to look crisp and professional. If your images aren’t high enough resolution, or if Canva compresses them during download, then you could end up with grainy logos or blurry photos in your finished product.
We’ve seen it too many times: business owners bring in materials they designed in Canva, and the print quality just isn’t usable. That’s why we always recommend working with print-ready file formats, built with resolution in mind from the start.
Fonts and Spacing Can Shift
Fonts are a big deal. They’re part of your brand identity. But if your Canva design uses a font that isn’t embedded correctly, or if spacing doesn’t translate well to a printer’s layout, it can throw everything off.
Worse yet, some fonts used in Canva designs aren’t licensed for commercial use, which could land you in hot water if you’re printing materials for distribution or resale.
When you work with Davant Indy, we use fully licensed fonts and check every detail—kerning, tracking, and spacing included—so your brand looks clean and consistent across every piece.
Canva Templates Can Cheapen Your Look
If you look around, it’s not hard to find them, because Canva templates are everywhere. And when businesses use the same handful of layouts and designs, everything starts to look the same.
That might be fine for a bake sale flyer, but your brand and small business deserve better. Using the same design as 1,000 other businesses online can make your materials feel generic, even if your message is strong.
Custom design gives your materials a distinct identity and a professional polish that reflects the quality of your business. And yes, custom doesn’t always mean expensive. We can work within your budget to deliver design solutions that are unique and tailored to your goals.
Canva’s Color Mode Is Wrong for Print
Canva uses RGB color mode, which is designed for screens (like your phone or laptop). But printers use CMYK color mode—cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—to reproduce colors in physical form.
If you don’t convert your colors properly before printing, you’ll likely see significant discrepancies. That vibrant red you loved on screen? It might come out dull and muddy in print.
That’s why we always work in CMYK from the start and do a color check before printing to make sure everything comes out just the way you want it.
Bleeds and Safe Zones Aren’t Always Built In
When designing for print, bleed (extra space around the edges) and safe zones (areas where no important content should go) are critical.
If your Canva design doesn’t account for this, your printed materials may have white edges, cropped logos, or awkwardly trimmed text. That’s not just a bummer; it’s a major branding problem.
Our design team knows exactly how to set up your files for edge-to-edge printing, perfect cuts, and zero surprises.
You Deserve Print That Matches Your Brand’s Potential
Canva is great for getting started – but it’s not designed to grow with your brand.
As your business expands, your marketing materials need to reflect the quality of your products, services, and team. That’s where custom print design and professional support come in. Your signage, flyers, mailers, brochures, and banners aren’t just throwaways; they’re touchpoints that influence how people see your brand.
At Davant Indy, we bring your vision to life in ways Canva simply can’t – through thoughtful design, professional-quality printing, and materials that are as polished as your business deserves.
Canva Isn’t a Print Marketing Strategy, But We Are
We’re not here to knock Canva; it’s a solid starting point. But when you’re ready to show up in the real world with print materials that reflect the heart of your brand, you need more than a drag-and-drop template.
Contact Davant Indy today at (317) 849-6565 or visit www.davantindy.com to create print marketing materials that go beyond basic and actually build your brand.
Because your marketing deserves better than blurry logos and misaligned margins.
