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Is my Canva PDF ready to print?
Download your design from Canva as a PDF and open it here. In a few seconds you get one answer — ready, ready with notes, or fix this first — with the finished size, whether it has bleed, anything sitting too close to the cut, how sharp the photos will print, the page count and the colour mode. Where something needs changing, it says which setting in Canva.
1. Your Canva PDF
What it checks, and why each one matters
- Finished size. The size the piece is after cutting, named when it is a standard one — A4, A5, DL, a business card. Order it at this size: flyers, business cards and posters all start from the finished size.
- Bleed. Where a colour or photo runs to the edge, the file needs a few millimetres extra past the cut so no white line shows. A design with a white border all round needs none, and the check knows the difference.
- Too close to the cut. Cutting can move a millimetre or two, so words and logos should sit at least 4mm inside the edge. Anything closer is shaded on the preview.
- Photo resolution. Measured at the size each photo sits on the page. Anything A3 or smaller is read close up and judged at 300dpi; A2 and larger posters and banners, read from a metre or more, at 150.
- Pages. One page prints one side, two print front and back, more is a booklet or several designs.
- RGB or CMYK. Canva works in RGB, the colours of a screen. That prints fine; very bright colours can come out a touch duller. The check tells you which you have.
How to download from Canva for print
- Make the design the right size with bleed. The simplest way is to make the canvas 3mm bigger on every edge than the finished piece — a 90 × 55mm business card becomes 96 × 61mm, an A5 flyer 154 × 216mm. Our free print templates are already those sizes.
- Stretch any background colour or photo right to the edge of that bigger canvas, and keep text 4mm or more inside the finished size.
- Choose Share → Download → PDF Print. PDF Standard is made for screens and shrinks photos.
- Leave Crop marks and bleed switched off — your canvas already has the bleed. (If you designed at the finished size instead, switch it on. Use one or the other, never both: two bleeds shift where the file is cut.)
The Canva and Word setup guide has every Australian size in one table.
If it says “fix before printing”
It is almost always one setting — a missing bleed, two bleeds, or a photo saved from social media instead of the original. The result names the fix. If you would rather not touch it, send the file to the desk: fixing a file for print is part of what we do, free with every print order, and you see a proof before anything is printed either way.
Common questions
Why is there a white line around my Canva print?
The design had no bleed. A colour or photo that runs to the edge has to continue a few millimetres past the cut, because the cut can move slightly; without that extra, a thin white edge shows. Make the canvas 3mm bigger on every side and stretch the background to the new edge, or use Canva’s Crop marks and bleed option — not both.
Should I choose PDF Print or PDF Standard in Canva?
PDF Print. PDF Standard is made for screens and compresses photos, which is the most common reason a Canva file prints soft.
Does Canva export in CMYK?
Canva works in RGB, and an RGB PDF prints perfectly well: it is converted to CMYK, the four inks a press uses, before printing. Very bright blues, greens and pinks can come out slightly duller than on screen. If an exact brand colour matters, say so when you order.
Should I tick “Crop marks and bleed”?
Only if your canvas is the finished size. If you made the canvas the bleed size — 3mm bigger on every edge, like our templates — leave it off, because it adds a second bleed and the file is cut in the wrong place. This checker spots the two-bleed mistake and tells you.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The PDF is opened and checked by your own browser and never leaves your device, the same as every free tool on this site.
Related
Free print templates
Every size already has the bleed built in, so a Canva canvas made to match is ready to download.
Canva and Word setup
The canvas size for every Australian print size, and how to download for print.
Bleed and trim, explained
What bleed is, why the safe area exists, and how much each product needs.
Automated · not a substitute for a person
If what comes out is not right, send it to us
These tools run on their own in your browser, and automatic is not the same as correct. A trace can miss a curve or turn a smooth arc into short straight segments. A cut contour can clip a tight corner. Bleed can be added to a file that was never built to carry it, and a check can pass artwork that still has something wrong with it only a person would notice. Treat what comes out as a starting point, not a proof.
If you are not happy with the result, send it to us and we will set the artwork up properly — free when you print the job with us. No setup fee, nothing to pay for the time. We would far rather spend twenty minutes on a file than have you print something you are not pleased with, and you still see a proof before anything runs. If you are printing it somewhere else, we will still set it up — that is artwork setup, at a fixed price from $29.
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