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How to Create a Poster with our Family Tree Builder
How to Create a Poster with our Family Tree Builder

Build your family tree in MyCanvas to create and print projects.

Katelyn avatar
Written by Katelyn
Updated over a week ago

Learn how to use the MyCanvas Family Tree Builder to turn your family tree into custom Family History Prints. In this article, we cover:

  • The types of family tree posters we offer

  • How to build your family tree in MyCanvas

  • How to navigate the tree builder

  • How to create a poster with the tree you've built

Poster Types

Before building your family tree, please take note of the poster types we offer and the maximum number of generations that can be printed.

Standard Tree

Combination Tree

Descendant Tree

Building Your Tree

To begin building your tree, head to https://www.mycanvas.com/family-tree-poster and click Continue.

Click the 'Create a New Family Tree' button.

Name your new family tree. Then, add details for the starting person for your tree. Click the 'Start a new tree' button.

You'll see that a profile has been created for the starting person. Now, it's time to expand the tree! Click the + symbol on the top right of the profile to add a relation.

Once you've selected a parental or spouse relation, a new blank profile will appear.

Editing a Person

Click on a profile to add/edit a name, photo, and other data. Enter the name, gender, status, and events for each new person as you've done for the starting person. You'll notice that when adding a spouse, you can enter the marriage place/date. This marriage event will be added to both spouses' profiles.

Uploading a Profile Photo

You can add a profile photo for each person in your tree. Upload a photo from your device under the Photos Tab. We accept JPG and PNG files. You have the ability to change or remove the photo, but you cannot make adjustments to the appearance of the photo at this stage. Don't worry if it appears off-center like the photo below - you'll be able to adjust the crop of the photo on your poster, later.

Changing a Relation

Use the Relations tab to adjust where the person is within your tree. Select the correct father and mother for the person in the dropdown menus.

Deleting a Person

If you've added a person to your tree by accident, you can delete the person by clicking on their profile and selecting "Delete Person".

Adding Descendants

After creating a couple, you now have the option to add the couple's children to the tree.

Continue to add people until you're satisfied with the completion of your tree. Once the tree is completed, click the Done button.

Navigation Tips

Click and drag your cursor to navigate around the tree. Scroll up and down to zoom in and out.

The box in the lower-left corner of the tree builder will show you which part of the tree you're viewing. You can zoom in and out of the builder by clicking the + and - buttons. The button above the zoom tool will center your tree on your screen.

Expand Hidden Relations

As you build your tree, your screen may not display everyone you've added so far. If this button appears on a profile, you may click on it to expand their relations.

You can locate a person you've added to your tree using the Search Bar.

Saving Your Tree

Your changes are automatically saved as you build your tree. If you'd like to continue editing your tree, you can find it at https://www.mycanvas.com/user/trees.

Creating Your Poster

When you are ready to create your poster, click the "Done" button in the top-right of the builder. Select your family tree and the starting person for your poster. If you are creating a combination tree poster, be sure to select both the starting person and their spouse. The name card will turn blue when selected.

Then, go on to choose a standard, combination, or descendant poster and the number of generations to display.

Select "Preview your creation" to view your poster!

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