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Using Canva with Book Creator
Using Canva with Book Creator

Canva is a free app in the Book Creator App Store - ideal for making amazing book covers!

Dan Kemp avatar
Written by Dan Kemp
Updated this week

To get started, go the + button then Apps and select Canva to enable it. You can choose to enable it just for you, or you can select which libraries you want to allow it for your students too. You can also access and enable Apps from the Teacher Dashboard. On the top of the screen, you will see the tabs for Libraries, Discover, Learn, Certification, and Apps. Simply go to the Apps section and enable or disable the apps of your choice.

Make sure you double-check Canva's terms of service before you use the app. You can review important notes by clicking on the App Privacy details in the bottom left.

To start using Canva in Book Creator, click on the + button, then Apps and choose Canva.

You'll be prompted to sign into Canva (or to create an account if you don't have one) and to accept cookies. If you don't yet have a Canva account, we would suggest heading over to canva.com/education and signing up there, rather than through this login screen. This way, you'll be signed up to their Canva for Education plan, which gives free access to Canva Premium to teachers and their students.

Design in Canva

Once you've signed into Canva, you'll be able to create your design and then add it to your Book Creator book. Choose from the available templates, use your existing designs or create from scratch. You'll see different templates here depending on which size page you chose (portrait, square or landscape) - the templates are designed to fit the page perfectly.

If you want to access designs you made previously in Canva, go to More > Folders > All your designs.

You don't have to add the templates as they are. You can edit them in Canva before you add them to your book. Here's a short video explaining how to edit in Canva.

When you're ready, click Add to Book in the top right corner.

Editing your design

If you want to edit your design after you've added it to Book Creator, you can do so by clicking the pencil icon at the top of the image, or clicking once and using the Inspector - where you'll see a link to edit with Canva (you can also add a hyperlink or alt text to the image). This will re-open the design in Canva.

You can also use Book Creator's editing tools to edit images and designs. In some cases designs created in Canva might be added with a white border around them, if so you can use the crop tool to edit them.

Safe search in Canva

Although search results won't return anything explicit, some of the search terms that students may try will result in inappropriate images for younger students. In their terms of service, Canva require parental consent for use with students under age 13, so please bear that in mind before enabling Canva for your students.

If you do find any content that you feel is explicit or not safe for students 13 or over, you can report it to us and we will work with Canva to remove it.

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