If you are a content creator online, be it blogging, making logos, web design, or anything else in this sphere, you have probably heard of Canva. Canva is a website that provides templates and tools for all your web designing needs. 

While you are using all of these amazing templates, fonts, shapes, and backgrounds, you may be wondering if any of this is copyrighted. After all, you are most likely going to use these tools for your online business. 

The answer is yes, all Canva stock images, elements, and templates are copyrighted. However, you can easily acquire a license for every image you use.  

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Acquiring a License 

Don’t worry. Getting a license for an image isn’t nearly as daunting as it sounds. It simply depends on whether you are using Canva’s free content or are paying a monthly subscription. 

If you are not paying for Canva, you are limited to the amount of content you can use. However, if you have access to an image or template, you have that license by default. If you would like access to a “Pro” image, you simply pay $1. 

If you are paying the $9.99/month for the Pro version, you have unlimited access to all templates, images, and elements without having to pay extra. There are more advanced plans beyond the Pro that will dictate how many people can use your account. 

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Canva Do’s 

When using Canva to promote your business, be sure to thoroughly read their Terms & Conditions before using their content for your platform. 

The concept of Canva is to provide templates, images, and elements that you can build on to create your own unique content. Start by downloading your own images and stock photos in order to edit them, add new themes, create captions, and more. 

If you don’t have your own stock photo to start with, use one of Canva’s many templates to build on, add your own color themes and fonts, and turn it into something that represents your brand or product.  

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Canva Don’t 

You’ll notice that the paragraph above is all about taking Canva stock photos and CHANGING them. Once you have taken a Canva template, image or element and changed it, it becomes a completely new photo for you to do with what you will. 

What Canva does NOT appreciate is you downloading their templates and stock photos as-is to use or sell on your own website or social media. At that point, the template is still in its original form and is therefore still Canva property. 

While their Terms & Conditions go into more detail, the concept is simple. Canva uses their templates to gain customers and make money. If you take their unaltered templates and use them to make yourself money, you are taking money away from them and essentially stealing. 

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Logos are No-Go’s 

If you are using Canva to create a logo for your brand, you will be very limited in what content you are able to use. You can use basic shapes, colors, and fonts. However, you are NOT allowed to use stock photos, images, or anything else they provide. 

This is because you can’t copyright content that is already copyrighted. If you plan on copyrighting your logo (which all business owners should), you can’t do so with any media that is recognizably Canva. And anyway, you wouldn’t want to! Since you can’t copyright Canva content, anything you use for your logo can also be used by anyone using the site. This means that you run the risk of having a generic logo that could look similar to everyone else’s. 

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Conclusion 

There are indeed legal restrictions when using Canva. However, these rules are not at all meant to limit your creativity. In fact, they are meant to stimulate it! Canva encourages you to take their stock photos and templates and run with them. Edit them however you want, change colors, drag, stretch, add captions, add logos, the sky is the limit! As long as you are changing their baseline images, you can use them however you want. 

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