Canva is, without a doubt, one of the best, free online image creation sites.
They have tons of stock photos, shapes, beautiful fonts, and you can create very modern graphics for your site without any design experience.
But do you fully understand their terms for commercial projects?
Many people don’t, and I guarantee there are some using Canva images illegally without realizing it.
I know of a blogger who was sued for $8,000 over improper use of an image. (Not by Canva.) So you should never assume that “free” means you can do anything you please.
There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about using images from free stock photo and image creation sites.
You have to read the fine print.
Thank goodness for people like Nicholette Styles and Patrice Perkins who really helped clarify Canva’s very lengthy terms for me.
Both consulted with legal experts to help make sense of the legal gibble gabble.
I’ll do my best to summarize the main points I learned from them.
You Cannot Use Canva For a Trademarked Logo
The key word here is “trademarked.”
If you want to create an image with your site title on it that may change over time (colors, fonts, etc.), then that’s not technically a logo.
However, if you use Canva to create a unique mark or symbol that you plan to have trademarked to use permanently, then that is against their terms.
So let’s say you use one of their shapes for your logo, and you want to register your design with the Trademark Patent Office.
You cannot do this because this image would be legally set in stone by the trademark.
Using Canva Images in Books You Sell
Yes, you can use Canva images in your books (print or digital) that you sell, BUT just make sure you read the rules for the elements in your image.
If you use one of their stock images, then there are terms you have to abide by.
So let’s say you’re creating a title image for a book you want to sell, and use one of their $1.00 stock photo images.
You are more than welcome to sell the book with the $1 stock image you bought.
However…
- You can only use that image in ONE design (unless you buy a Multi Use License).
- If you sell/distribute more than 2000 copies of your book, you need to upgrade to the Multi-Use License
- If you sell/distribute more than 250,000 copies, you need an Extended License
You can read about all their licenses here.
Using Canva Images for Resale on T-Shirts
According to Lee Torrens, the Marketplace director at Canva, you can use Canva elements on T-shirts as of Fall, 2016.
However, you have to purchase an extended license ($100) for the elements you want to use.
Keep in mind, if you use Canva to create an image that is comprised of images you own rights to yourself, then you don’t need to purchase a license. The license is only required if you use Canva elements.
What’s Not Clear to Me
One thing I couldn’t confirm was the use of the free elements.
Their license agreement references the stock photo images. Canva purchases a license for these from other image sites.
But what about the free backgrounds and shapes that Canva provides? I was not able to get a clear understanding about the terms for these.
For example, if you create a title image for an ebook you’re selling, but you ONLY use text and free backgrounds (no stock photos), would you need to buy a multi-use license if you sell more than 2,000 copies?
Could you create a T-shirt design with one of the free background elements and sell it?
My guess is that if you’re selling something that uses any of their elements, the same terms would apply.
I tried reaching out to Canva, but haven’t heard back.
Photoshop Will Always Be My #1 Choice
One thing’s for sure. If you create your images from scratch, you never have to worry about rights.
Photoshop is, without a doubt, one of the best investments I’ve made in my business.
Not only has it given me 100% creative control, but I’ve been able to make thousands of dollars in passive income by selling T-shirts online since 2011.
Big shout out to my former Team Lead for FORCING me to learn it at my old 9 to 5 when I really didn’t want to. I had no idea how much it would help me in my business years later. 🙂
Just remember, if you add fonts or patterns to Photoshop, you still have to read the license for those!
I love Canva for certain projects, but nothing will replace good ole’ Photoshop as far as I’m concerned!
However, with so many people making money from Teespring, Zazzle, Spreadshirt and Merch, it’s great that you can now use Canva’s Extended License. Yay! 🙂
Hi! So I contacted the Canva team about selling my printed books and I had bought a few premium elements under multi use license thinking I was safe as long as I did not sell over 250k copies but according to the responses if i want to sell anything using their paid elements I must purchase the extended use? Did this policy changed over the last few years to ur knowledge? Thank you for time.
I think it’s always been like that for stock images.
I also used Canva for making beautiful PPT’s.
Thanks Lisa,
You scared the crap out of me with this article.
This is why I guess is best to have a designer.
I have designed tons of logos through Canva.
I have no plans to trademark the images yet but when I do decide to do it, I will have to amend my logo.
I think I need to bookmark this page because I will certainly come back to it.
A common error… and possibly a costly one if you’re unlucky. Thanks for sharing this Lisa 🙂
—>”One thing’s for sure. If you create your images from scratch, you never have to worry about rights.”
I had no idea. Thanks for bringing this up. I use Canva all the time. I hope it is okay to use an image on a blog or in a infographic. How about if I use the infographic several times?
By the way, I love the Tools section of your site. Those tools look awesome. I want to try some (or maybe most) of them out. Thank you.
I may have to invest in Photoshop.
Free is not always as free as it sounds.
Thanks
Thanks lisa for sharing this nice article about canva. Canva is great tool i think. I use this frequently. Sometimes, it is needed to edit in the image, or add some text in the image or edit the text on the image. For all purpose, canva is a great tool. Thanks for giving this helpful article. Happy new year 2017
For a blogger from all the way from Africa (Nigeria), do you think I’ll be in trouble for using any image (from any source at all) on my blog? Is there any penalty for this? I ask because I’ve used random images from google search for my blog posts without checking for copyright stuff etc.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the great article, I really like your writing skills and your blog design. Canva is my favorite tool make ads banners, logo and infographics.
I am also a blogger and I am running a movie website these days hdwale .com but a little problem is here, I’m unable to find a good host for my high traffic website.
Lisa, can you help me to find it out? Please tell me through a comment or you can mail me anytime.
Thanks in advance!
Hi Vijay,
I have found the hosting of SiteGround to be very good. As a bonus, they include the first year SSL Certificate in their hosting package. Which, becomes more important later this year (2017). Why? Because as of November websites still with an Http: URL (as opposed to Https:) are likely to get a non-secure pop-up showing up for searches done on google chrome.
Very Informative Post About Canva,No Doubt Photoshop Is The Best Editer but for mobile or tab user picsart is most popular <3
Thanks !
Ooooh this just saved somebody’s a****! Not me, since I only use Canva’s free stuff or $1.00 images for occasional blog posts. I hadn’t even given thought to using it for T-shirts and logos. Definitely, will share this timely, yet timeless info. Big Ups to you as always!
Alice!! So great to hear from you, girl! Yes, a lot of people just assume free means “do whatever” but bloggers have been penalized heavily for illegal use of images so thought I’d spread the word. 🙂
Thanks a lot for this awareness Lisa. As an inexperienced blogger, I also lack knowledge in image creation. Yet, always wanted to give a professional touch to my website. Canva has been one of my fav. And, I seriously was unaware of the facts you brought to light.
Phewwww!
Hi,
what steps I did in order to get a picture without violating copyright?
Thanks
Just make sure you read the terms of use to ensure you are using it properly.
Hi, Lisa. What about Pixaby. Their images are marked:
CC0 Public Domain
Free for commercial use
No attribution required
Does this mean we can use the images on a website without copyright infringement?
Yes. To my knowledge you can.
Yep thanks for the article.
Please remind artists and persons who are using their own creativity that they cannot use images or pieces of images by photographers or 2 D artists in their work that are copied because they like the work! The big misnomer is that they only used a % of the work. There is no such law. Remember the artist who got sued because he copied a photo done by another artist in his work when President Obama ran for POTUS?
Erlene
I strongly agree. with a little touch of photoshop all could be more beautiful and you do not have to pay more
Hi Lisa,
Are there any rights governing the use of powerpoint online pictures too? I can see nobody is talking about that – could this be due to its limited creative control?
Thanks for the update!
Does Powerpoint have stock photos? Are you talking about the shapes?
No, I was talking about the “Bing Images” that could be inserted as online pictures into shapes or boxes e.t.c.
Thanks.
Hi Lisa.
I always try to use my own images/photos and icon provided by the company where I bought the premium template in my web blog.
I relize that everything free we find online is not fully free, as you describe here, there are some terms and conditions that we should obey. The fact is many of us rarely go to the terms and conditions before using the free services.
Hi Lisa,
This is the main reason I buy all of my images from Fotolia. Sure, it’s an expense, but I can rest assured that I can do whatever I want with the image (um, except resell them, LOL.)
Cheers,
Mitch
Yep! I completely agree. I have a yearly subscription to iStock for any stock photos I use (like the pic in this post for example). Always better to be safe.
As a web designer, I too was using Fotolia Stock Images, however, Fotolia has been purchased by Adobe and since have increased the prices.
Canva is great and offers many free images, but sometimes you need the right image for the right project and dishing out a few bucks make “cents” (Boom, that just happend! 🙂
Adobe Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC (CC stands for “Creative Cloud”) is my #1 choice for photo creation and/or editing. We use it in-house and for our clients when designing and creating their Website and Brands. In a perfect world, I would suggest signing up for both Canva and Photoshop.
As far as finding stock images, it’s always best to buy your images as you need them. Try not to spend more than $5 per image. Many pics nowadays can be purchased for about $1 each. trust me its worth the hassle, and also, it’s nice to support the Photographers and Artists.
One more thing…..
“Where to find a good stock image website? ” Well… just like anything else search for it on google it. You will find more than you can shake a stick at.
Hey Lisa, why not create a blog post about “Top 21 Free/Low-Cost Stock Image Websites”.
Maybe we can all help build the post by sharing websites that we all use that offer free/or low cost good quality images.
What do you guys think?
Great idea, Mark! Appreciate your input. 🙂
Thank you SO much for creating this post. I use Canva for my blog images and my digital journal covers. I think I may need to take a crash course in Photoshop!
Hey Barbara!
Photoshop gets such a bad wrap. It’s really not hard to learn, especially for creating blog and social media images.
Photoshop was originally designed for editing photos and there are a LOT of complex features for that. (I don’t use it for that much.) But as far as creating images like you see at the top of this post, it’s super simple and I love the creative control.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for sharing this very important piece of legal knowledge with us.
Now I know that I have to be very careful when I use freebie images/photos online.
You are right! The best and safest bet is to use Photoshop to create your own logo and images. That is what I am trying to learn to do now, and I have come to realize that we can use Photoshop to do so many amazing things that many people are not aware of.
Thanks once again and wish you success in whatever you do.
Kwame
Yep, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or GIMP. A lot of people love GIMP but I think because I learned PS first, I found GIMP to be confusing. And I’ve heard GIMP users say the same thing about PS. So I guess it depends on what you learn first.
Aloha Lisa!
Thanks for the update. Yeah, we constantly have to be aware of rights, as just as “there’s no excuse for ignorance of the law” as the officer is writing you a ticket… same applies to our biz online.
thanks for the heads up
xo, darlene
Hey Darlene! Hope things are going well with you and your courses.
Yes, we can’t take these free sites for granted. No one likes reading confusing terms, but if you’re using these sites commercially, you have to.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hey Lisa,
I know this post is from 2016 but I created a kid journal book using canva and the stock images as part of my canva pro subscription.
My question is if I plan on selling not more than 2000 copies of the book can I sell this book that I created on canva with the stock images I had right to use under my subscription?
I hope to hear from you soon because I am panicking now ? I spent countless hours creating over 200 pages book and now it might all go to waste ??
Hi,
To be honest, their terms are very confusing and it’s hard to find a contact person. Someone just told me you can only use one image per commercial project. I had no idea this was the case. Did you try reaching out to them?