Imagine you’re a small business owner giving a presentation to a group of potential clients. You’ve just wrapped up explaining the benefits of your service, and now you want to guide your audience to a free downloadable resource on your website.
Instead of asking them to manually type out a long web address, you could simply display a QR code on the final slide, allowing them to scan it with their phones and be directed instantly to the resource.
QR codes make it incredibly easy for your audience to access information quickly, and creating a customized QR code in Canva takes only a few minutes.
Resources Mentioned
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Transcript
Steps to Create a QR Code in Canva
Here’s how to do it:
Begin by logging into your Canva account. You can either start a new custom design by clicking Create a Design and selecting a size that fits your needs, or open an existing project if you want to incorporate the QR code into something you’re already working on, like a presentation.
Once you’ve opened your design, head over to the Apps option on the left-hand side of the screen. You’re going to search for the “QR code” app that looks like this, and click on it.
Note that there are probably going to be a lot of app results for QR code, and you can certainly explore these other options as well, but the basic QR code app is what I like to use.
A field will show up here where you can enter the URL you want your QR code to direct to, or you can paste in the URL of the page or resource you want your audience to visit.
This could be a website, a landing page, a PDF download, or even your social media profile. Once you’ve entered the URL, click Generate Code. Canva will instantly create a QR code and place it on your design.
Customizing Your QR Code
One of the benefits of Canva’s QR code generator is the ability to customize the look of your QR code to match your brand or design theme.
Once you’ve generated the basic QR code with your desired URL, you’ll notice a Customize option in the app panel. Click this to reveal additional customization options for color and margin.
Customizing the Background Colour
After expanding the customization panel, you’ll see an option to change the background color, and you can input your desired colour hex code here to exactly match your brand colours.
Typically, a light-colored background works best, especially when paired with a darker foreground. The background should be kept simple and not overly busy to avoid interfering with the scannability of the code.
Customizing the Foreground Colour
You’ll also see an option to change the foreground color, which controls the color of the QR code itself, that is the dots and squares. Again you can choose a color from Canva’s palette, or if you have specific brand colors, you can enter your hex code.
Make sure that the color you choose provides enough contrast with the background to keep the code easily scannable.
Customizing the Margin Size
Finally, you can also customize the Margin Size, which determines how much white space is around the QR code.
You can use the margin slider in the customization panel to increase or decrease the space around the code and note that a slightly larger margin helps when placing the QR code on a busy background, again to ensure it’s scannable.
Apply Your Customizations
Once you’ve customized the background color, foreground color, and margin size to your liking, click the Update Code button. This will apply all your changes to the QR code in your design.
Customizing your QR code this way ensures that it not only functions effectively but also integrates seamlessly into your overall design, reinforcing your brand identity.
But don’t forget to test your customized QR code with a mobile device before finalizing the design, especially after making visual changes!
Once your QR code is integrated into your design, you can download the final file in your preferred format. If it’s part of a presentation, consider downloading it as a PDF or sharing it directly through Canva’s presentation mode.
By adding a customized QR code, you’re making it easier for your audience to take the next step.
Whether it’s accessing a resource, signing up for a newsletter, or visiting your website, the barrier of manual entry is removed, offering a seamless and professional experience.
