Canva Vs. Designrr: Which is ideal for ebooks?

Ebooks continue to grow in popularity as a powerful medium for sharing ideas, stories, and information.

However, creating a professional, visually appealing ebook requires the right tools.

Today, I have 2 of the top contenders in ebook design are Designrr and Canva.

They each offer user-friendly interfaces and useful features to create stunning ebooks.

But how do you decide which is better for your needs?

In this guide, I will compare the features, pricing plans, templates, user interfaces, and importing content of both platforms (Designrr and Canva).

Let’s get started!

Introduction to Designrr and Canva

First, let’s briefly introduce these two platforms.

Designrr is a specialty ebook creation platform launched in 2011. It aims to make ebook design simple, even for non-designers.

With an intuitive drag-and-drop interface and various templates, anyone can create ebooks, lead magnets, workbooks, and more.

Designrr

Designrr also integrates with email marketing and payment platforms. It offers native exports for Kindle, PDF, LIVE eBooks, and other popular formats.

Canva debuted on 1 January 2013, according to Wikipedia, as a versatile graphic design platform for documents, presentations, social media, and more.

Canva provides easy-to-use design tools and a massive library of templates, fonts, images, and illustrations.

Canva

While not exclusively for ebooks, Canva enables users to design beautiful ebook covers, interior pages, graphics, and layouts.

The free version has limited features but paid plans to unlock more features..

Now, let’s deeply dive into the key differences between Designrr and Canva for ebook creation.

Purpose and Focus of Canva and Designrr

The core purpose of these platforms is a major differentiator.

As the name suggests, Designrr focuses on crafting ebooks and similar digital documents.

All its tools and features aim to optimize and simplify ebook publication. This includes templates sized for major e-readers, seamless PDF exports, audiobooks, and built-in distribution.

On the other hand, Canva offers a far broader scope. It functions as an all-in-one graphic design platform for various visual materials and documents, of which ebooks are just one option.

Canva prioritizes flexibility in designing social media posts, presentations, posters, resumes, etc.

While ebooks are supported, some features are not optimized for multi-page documents in Canva.

If ebooks are your primary focus, Designrr’s specialized toolkit can save time and effort.

But Canva’s versatility extends beyond ebooks to cover various design needs.

Cost Comparison

When evaluating cost, both platforms offer subscription plans to unlock more features.

Designrr Pricing

Designrr starts at $27 (one-time fee) for the basic plan. This enables basic ebook designing functions. Apart from that, Designrr offers annual plans.

Designrr one-time payment

Designrr Pro – $97/year. In the pro plan, you get more templates, features and customization options, and multiple import and export options.

Designrr Premium – $297/year. The Premium plan provides even more features, interactive table of contents and Kindle publishing.

You can explore Designrr Pricing here.

Canva Pricing

Canva has a robust free version with ample templates, images, and basic design tools.

Canva monthly pricing plan

Canva Pro

Paid plans start at $119.99 annually for the Canva Pro plan, adding extras like animated visuals and transparent backgrounds.

Canva Pro monthly plan costs $14.99/month for one person.

Canva for Teams

$300 per year for the first 5 people.

Canva for Enterprise targets teams and businesses.

Canva for Teams costs $29.99/month.

Canva Pricing Plans

For occasional ebook projects, Canva’s free version may suffice.

But for prolific creators, Designrr yearly subscriptions provide better value specifically for ebooks.

Canva shines for broad design work beyond ebook limitations.

Click Here to Read Designrr in-depth review!

Templates and Design Options

Both platforms aim to make design easy through templates. But they take different approaches.

Designrr Templates

Designrr is very template-driven. It offers numerous pre-built ebook templates covering different niches and styles.

These act as starting points to customize and insert your content. While you can build ebooks from a blank canvas, the templates save time and speed up design.

DesignrrTemplates

More layouts and styles are included in higher plans.

Canva eBook Templates

Canva provides templates too, but not focused solely on ebook formats. Its huge template library spans flyers, presentations, social posts, letterheads, and more.

For ebooks, Canva has cover templates and standard layouts like title pages.

However, interior templates are not designed for ebook dimensions. The broader scope gives more variety for different projects.

Regarding images, fonts, and other design assets, Canva has the edge in volume and diversity.

Its massive media library curates numerous stylish design elements. Plus, designing ebooks using Canva takes a lot of time.

Designrr includes sufficient options for most users, but its library has a more limited selection.

Here, the winner is Canva

Importing and Inserting Content

Efficiently populating your ebook with text content is vital. Designrr and Canva handle content insertion differently.

Content Importing in Designrr

Designrr allows the direct import of Word documents or Medium/Blogspot blog posts into your ebook design. This automates content transfer so you don’t have to copy-paste everything manually.

The imported text is formatted and stylized based on your chosen template.

Designrr import feature

You can rearrange or edit the imported content easily. Designrr offers multiple ways to important content.

Content Importing Canva

Currently, Canva does not support direct content imports. You must add all text, chapters, and sections manually by typing or copy-pasting into text boxes.

For lengthier ebooks, this process takes more work. You also have flexibility in formatting, fonts, colors, and layouts for the inserted text.

But overall, Designrr’s import function accelerates workflow.

The winner is Designrr.

Number of Pages and Table of Contents

Ebooks come in all lengths, from short how-to guides to 100+ page reports or manuals. So page limits matter when choosing a design platform.

Designrr Page Limit

Designrr places no hard restrictions on ebook length. You can create extensively long documents spanning hundreds of pages if desired. The templates automatically adjust to add pages as you populate content.

Canva Page Limit

In Canva, the free plan caps you at 30 pages per document. If you want longer ebooks, a paid Canva Pro account supports up to 100 pages. However, you’ll need workarounds to assemble documents over 100 pages by merging separate PDF exports.

So Designrr gives more flexibility for lengthy ebooks.

Designrr enables you to automatically generate a clickable table of contents for navigating longer ebooks based on your chapter headings.

This is a huge asset for usability. With Canva, you must insert table of content pages manually.

Here the winner is Designrr.

Page Numbering and Export Options

Page numbering helps structure your ebook’s content.

Designrr

Designrr autonomously adds page numbers and applies consistent headers and footers based on your template.

Designrr Numbering and watermark feature

You can even add watermarks on your ebooks with one click.

Canva

In Canva, you must manually insert page numbers text boxes – this allows more customization but takes more effort. In Canva, you can add a watermark, but it is manual.

Both platforms allow PDF exports for digital distribution. But for publishing ebooks to major stores, you need reader-specific formats.

Designrr supports direct Kindle and ePub exports to publish on Amazon, Apple Books, Kobo, and more.

Designrr Publishing Option

With Canva, you must export PDF then use conversion tools to generate retail ebook files.

So Designrr integrates nicely for multi-channel ebook distribution.

Once again the winner is Designrr.

Flexibility and Element Positioning

While templates provide helpful headstarts, customization and layout adjustments are also crucial.

Canva Designing Elements

Canva gives fine-grained control over element positioning. You can drag visuals, text boxes, and shapes into place, then tweak them pixel-by-pixel for precision. This freeform flexibility empowers detailed design modifications.

Designrr Designing Elements

Designrr prioritizes ease and speed over precision. While elements can be moved, adjustments happen in set increments. For example, images can be aligned left, right or center – but not micro-adjusted.

Designrr constrains modifications to keep the template structure intact.

For those who desire total control over layouts, Canva enables more granular changes.

Designrr limits customization to maintain simplicity.

Here the winner is Canva.

Canva Vs. Designrr: Quick Comparison

Canva Vs. Designrr

Beyond core features, here are some other considerations:

FeaturesDesignrrCanva
Learning CurveDesignrr is easier for complete beginners to pick up.Canva has a broader scope which can mean a steeper initial learning curve.
Stock MediaBoth provide images and other design assets.Canva has a vastly bigger library, but some elements have usage restrictions.
SupportDesignrr offers LIVE chat support.Canva offers email support.
WorkstyleDesignrr’s structured templates suit those who value speed and simplicity.Canva’s flexibility benefits designers who want total creative control.
PricingStarts at $27 one-time fee.$14.99/month for single user.

The Bottom Line

So which platform wins – Designrr or Canva?

Here are some key takeaways:

  • Designrr is purpose-built for optimized ebook creation. Its specialized toolset streamlines ebook publication from start to finish.
  • Canva offers broader design scope. While you can use it for ebooks, it’s better suited for miscellaneous visual materials rather than long multi-page ebooks.
  • Designrr accelerates workflow through pre-built templates and content imports. Canva gives more control over custom layouts.
  • For Kindle or print publishing, Designrr integrates nicely for multi-format distribution.

The needs of each creator are unique.

Assess your priorities – if you want tailored tools to design ebooks efficiently, Designrr is tough to beat.

For wide-ranging design work beyond ebooks, Canva’s versatility makes it a top choice.

Hopefully this detailed comparison helps you pick the platform aligned with your goals and style!

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Designrr in-depth review!

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