Canva is famous for being a design platform where you can create a variety of visuals, from posters and flyers to cards and presentations. But it doesn’t end there. Canva is slowly becoming a Visual Worksuite, a platform that offers more formats, like Documents, etc.

Another tool that Canva offers is a powerful PDF editor that allows you to make changes to any PDF document quickly and easily. Canva’s PDF Editor makes it a breeze to edit PDFs and it’s free to use for everyone.

How Does It Work?

You can easily import any PDF to Canva and the app will transform the PDF into editable elements, ready for you to customize like any other design page on Canva. You can easily change, add, or delete text and images in the PDF or use other elements like drawing signatures, lines, shapes, etc.

All the Canva features that you are already used to – the huge library of images, icons, graphics, etc., font library, real-time collaboration, multi-device access, brand kit, etc. are all available.

In addition to that, the Canva PDF editor also sports other features you expect from a PDF Editor. You can easily merge two PDF files or reorganize the pages in the file. You can also split, extract, and insert pages to the PDF with the available tools.

Limitations of the Canva PDF Editor

Canva PDF Editor is still in beta and there are a few limitations you need to keep in mind while using it:

  • The maximum size of the PDF you’re importing can only be 15 MB.
  • The PDF can only have a maximum of 15 pages.
  • Some imported elements in the PDF can look different than the original PDF. While Canva tries to match every element during the conversion process, sometimes the matches can be less than exact. For example, the font can be slightly different.
  • Canva cannot break down flat images; hence, they remain uneditable. You can crop, flip, or remove the background of the image but you cannot edit the image itself. If the original image is a vector, then there’s a high chance of getting editable image colors.
  • There’s also no support for soft masks, shading, tiled patterns, JPEG 2000 or JBIG images, and color filters yet.

Using the Canva PDF Editor

Now, let’s get to the part about learning how to use the Canva PDF Editor to import and edit your PDF document.

Go to canva.com from your browser and click the ‘Upload’ button in the top-right corner of the screen.

Then, either drag and drop the PDF file in the ‘Drop your file’ here section or use the ‘Browse’ button to import the file to Canva.

Once your file is imported, go to ‘Projects’ from the menu on the left.

Then, click the thumbnail for the imported file on the right to edit it.

The PDF will load in the editor. You can customize the existing elements or enter new elements like text, images, etc. from the Canva toolbar.

Once you’re done editing the PDF, you can share the link to it with others or download it again as a PDF, PNG, JPG, or one of the other available file formats. Click the ‘Share’ button in the top-right corner.

Then click ‘Download’ from the expanded menu.

Select ‘PDF Standard’ or ‘PDF Print’ from the file type drop-down menu and click ‘Download’ to save the edited PDF file on your computer.

Canva’s PDF Editor is a powerful and easy-to-use tool for making changes to PDF documents. You can easily import your PDF files and edit them on any device. Its wide range of features also allows you to quickly and easily edit text, insert images, and add shapes, signatures, etc. to PDF documents.