Getting a print-ready file out of Canva

Set the canvas to the sticker's real size in inches before you start, and download your design as PDF Print. Canva handles sticker artwork fine, and those two steps prevent the problems people usually hit. Both are easier to get right before you design than after.

Set the canvas to the real size first

This is the step that can't be fixed afterward. Canva works in pixels, and a design laid out on a default canvas and then blown up to sticker size arrives soft.

Start a custom size in inches, at the size you actually want the sticker. A 3" sticker is a 3" canvas. Do that and Canva exports at a resolution we can print. Skip it, and no export setting recovers the detail.

If you've already designed at the wrong size, it's usually quicker to resize the canvas and nudge things back into place than to send a soft file.

Export as PDF Print

Choose Download, then PDF Print. Don't use PNG, JPG, or PDF Standard.

PDF Print keeps the type sharp and embeds your fonts, which matters because Canva has no way to outline text. An embedded font prints as drawn. A missing font gets swapped for another one, and that's how a carefully spaced logo comes back looking wrong.

Tick the bleed option if Canva offers it, because it gives us color to work with at the edge. You don't need crop marks, because we draw the cut line ourselves.

Leave room at the edges

On a sticker, keep anything that must survive (text, logos, a phone number) at least 0.09" in from the edge of the design, and let any background color run 0.06" past it. On roll labels, let the background run 1/8" past the edge. Cutting has a tolerance, and that margin is what absorbs it. See bleed and safe area.

What Canva can't do, and doesn't need to

• A cut line. Canva can't make one, and you don't need it to. We draw the cut and show it on your proof.
• A white layer. For clear, holographic, glitter, or chrome stickers, choose a White Ink Backing option on the product page and we work the white out from your artwork. Canva has no way to build one.
• Enlarging later. PDF Print keeps Canva's text and shapes sharp, but photos and many graphics inside it are images with a fixed resolution. They're fine at the size you designed for, and only a problem if you later want the same design much larger.

The transparent background trap

Canva's transparent background is a Pro feature. Without it, a PNG exports with a white rectangle behind your design. We can usually take a plain background off for you, but it's simpler to send a file without one.

PDF Print avoids the problem. If you're sending a PNG and the background matters, check it on something dark before you send it. See transparent backgrounds.

If something isn't right, we'll tell you

Our team checks your file before it prints. If it's too soft at the size you ordered, or the background isn't what you meant, we say so on the proof rather than printing it and hoping.