When you need a client, colleague, or collaborator to look at a design — not edit it, not comment on it, just view it — a Public View Link is the cleanest way to share. The recipient can open it in any browser without a Canva account, and nothing in the design can be touched.
It takes a few clicks to set up, and this tutorial walks through exactly where to find it and how to generate one. There’s also a note at the end about tracking whether your shared links have actually been viewed, which is worth knowing if you share designs with clients regularly.
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Transcript
Canva gives you several different ways to share a design depending on what you need. Sometimes you want collaboration. Sometimes you want comments. And sometimes you simply want someone to view the finished design without being able to change anything.
A wedding professional might need a client to review a décor presentation. A realtor might want to send a buyer’s guide without giving editing access. A consultant might share a proposal for approval. In each case, the goal is the same — someone needs to see the design, not edit it.
In all of these situations, creating a Public View Link is the simplest way to share your design while ensuring that no editing access is provided.
To create one, start by opening the design you’d like to share. In the top right corner of the editor, click the Share button, which will open the sharing panel.
Scroll toward the bottom of that panel and look for Public View Link. If you don’t see it right away, click See all to expand the full list of options. Then select Public View Link and choose Create Public View Link. Canva will generate a link that lets anyone view your design in their browser.
Once the link is created, click Copy link and paste it wherever you need to share it, whether that’s an email, a client portal, a message, or your website. The recipient will be able to open the design and scroll through it without needing a Canva account, and without being able to edit or comment on anything.
One thing worth knowing if you share designs this way regularly — Canva also gives you ways to track whether your links have actually been viewed.
Canva offers ways to track engagement using analytics and multiple share links, depending on how you distribute your design. I have separate tutorials that walk through how to track views with multiple Canva share links and how to use Canva’s analytics tools to monitor design engagement, and you can find links to those below this video.
Creating a Public View Link takes just a few clicks, but it gives you a much more controlled way to share your work, so it gets seen exactly as you intended.
