Here's a guide that will be of interest to many creatives and other graphic arts professionals. The Ghent Workgroup (GWG), an international association specializing in the standardization of graphic workflows, has published a technical document dedicated to the generation of PDF files from Canva for professional use.
This guide, in English, published under the title Generating PDF Using Canva, is available free of charge. It describes the steps required to produce files suitable for printing or digital distribution.
The use of Canva in graphic design is growing rapidly, including for documents destined for print. The Canva platform has established itself in many creative environments. Freelance designers, marketing teams, teachers and small businesses all use it to produce posters, brochures, educational materials and digital content.
This democratization is changing production workflows. Printers are receiving more and more files generated by this type of tool. However, these documents do not always meet the technical requirements necessary for print production.
The Ghent Workgroup guide therefore provides detailed instructions on how to prepare these files correctly. It covers PDF generation, the parameters to be selected and the precautions to be taken before sending to production, such as crop marks and bleeds. In particular, it advises exporting from Canva in RGB and leaving the conversion to CMYK to the printer.
The guide was written by Koen Degrande, chairman of the Ghent Workgroup's Print and Design sub-committee. Koen Degrande works as a maintenance engineer for the Belgian company Lab9 Pro, which serves customers in the graphics and creative sectors.
The guide is based on this field experience. It describes the difficulties encountered when files from consumer design tools arrive in prepress workflows.
