Guide

Making great slides with Canva

A sign is not a poster and not a presentation. People see it for a few seconds, from across a room, while walking. Here is how to design for that in Canva, and how to bring it into Simpleshow.

1Start at the right size

Pick the size before you design anything. Changing it later means redoing the layout.

1920 × 1080The standard. A wide TV or monitor. In Canva, choose Presentation (16:9).

3840 × 2160Extra sharp on a 4K TV that people stand close to. Bigger files, so use it where detail matters.

1080 × 1920A screen mounted on its side, like a lobby or wayfinding panel.

The shape matters more than the size. A design that is a different shape from the screen is shown whole, with bars at the edges. Simpleshow never crops a Canva design, because cropping cuts words off. A bigger design of the wrong shape still has the bars.

The same wide screen. Left: a square design, with bars at the sides. Right: a 16:9 design, which fills it.

Checking on a computer? Press F in the Simpleshow player to go full screen. A browser window with tabs and an address bar is wider than 16:9, so it shows bars that a real TV will not.

2One idea per page

Every page of your Canva design becomes one slide. So make a page for each thing you want to say, rather than one crowded page. Five simple pages beat one busy one every time.

3Write for across a room

A headline of about seven words or fewer. Most people will read the headline and nothing else.
Big text. A common rule of thumb for signs is about an inch of letter height for every ten feet people will be from the screen. On a 1920 × 1080 design, keep headlines above 100 pixels tall and nothing below about 40.
Bold, simple fonts. Two fonts at most: one for headlines, one for everything else. Thin and script fonts disappear at a distance.
Say what to do. "Scan for the spec sheet" works better than a clever line with no next step.

4Make it easy to see

Strong contrast. Light text on a dark background, or dark on light. Nothing mid-grey on mid-grey.
Text over a photo needs help. Put a dark shape or a gradient behind the words, or use a calm part of the photo.
Two or three colours. Your brand colours, used the same way on every page. If you have Canva Pro, its Brand Kit keeps your colours, fonts and logo one click away.
Leave the edges clear. Keep words and logos a little in from every edge. Some TVs trim the edges of the picture.
Keep the bottom-left corner fairly clear if your logo is turned on in Simpleshow's Brand settings: that is where it goes.

5Leave the clever parts to Simpleshow

Canva makes the pictures. Simpleshow makes the screen do things a poster cannot, so mix the two:

Do not put QR codes in your Canva design. A QR printed in the picture is just a picture. Add a Simpleshow QR code slide instead, and every scan becomes an entry or a lead you can see.
Live polls and flash giveaways are Simpleshow slides too. Put one between your Canva pages.
Motion comes from Simpleshow. Canva animations and videos do not come across: each page arrives as a still picture. Simpleshow adds the movement, with its transitions between slides.

6Bring it into Simpleshow

In Simpleshow, open a channel and choose Import from Canva.
Connect Canva the first time. Canva connects whichever account you are signed into at canva.com, so sign in there with the right one first.
Find your design and click it. Each page becomes a slide.
Add your QR, poll or giveaway slides between them, then Save.

Changed the design in Canva? Import it again. The screen shows the pages as they were when you imported them, so a change in Canva does not reach the wall on its own.

7A quick check before you save

The design is the same shape as the screen (usually 1920 × 1080).
Every page has one idea and a short headline.
You could read the headline from the back of the room.
No QR codes in the design: they are Simpleshow slides.
Words and logos stay clear of the edges.
You watched it once in the player, full screen.