Coil How-To's: Easily Create Click-Worthy Graphics
Alright Coilers. Sit up straight and listen up. It's graphics tutorial time. Are you a new publisher on Coil and are looking for assistance in creating super awesome graphics that catch your reader's attention? Hey, no slouching, time to learn. Get out a pen and pad or your Evernote app to take notes and lets jump right in...
To skip the reading, feel free to tune into this convienient video for your viewing pleasure. The beginning does not have good sound quality but improves after about 14 seconds:
First and foremost, go to Canva.com right now and sign up for the subscription. I believe it's around $13 a month but for as much as you'll be creating, it is more than worth the money. I used the free version for a while, but the paid version saves so much time which is precious when pumping out content like a machine. The Pro version also has a 30-day money-back guarantee if you don't dig it.
Canva is by far the easiest and most convienient tool that I have used in the history of being a creator and I would not want to go a day without it. I use the web version on my laptop 99% of the time and refer to the app on my phone every once in a while. People who mainly use their phones to create will enjoy the app.
Now that you have a Pro subscription, you will be able to take advantage of the neat features such as image resizing, background removal, file compression, and the premium photos library. Great, let's create some graphics like a boss!
Once logged into Canva, you will be dropped on the home screen which gives you the option of viewing all your past designs, a nice feature to quickly pick up where you left off. But, if you've never used Canva before, then you will not have any graphics listed yet.
Click on that blue box on the left that says “Create a design”. Once you do, it will ask you what size you want. When creating a header image for Coil, I always stick with one size which is 3200px x 1800px. If you want you can also use 1600 x 900 which will give you the same results.
Awesome, now your screen should look something like this...
When I am looking to create a new design, I sift through the pre-existing templates that Canva supplies for you. Using these templates saves a ton of work and time. Plus, there are so many that it's hard to run out of templates to use. Normally I like to choose a template that goes well with the article I am going to write.
Let's use the header image for this article as the example. For the Coil How-To's series, I keep the template the same but can make changes to it depending on what I'm inspired to do at the time.
Time to look for the template by scrolling down the page...
Now that we have located the template, we can select it and make edits to it. Most times the image / background is the one I go with, but you can feel free to add images of your own by clicking the “Uploads” tab on the bottom left of the screen. Honestly, Canva is so easy even your grandma could do it.
Once you click on the text, it normally comes as group. As shown above, you have the option of “ungrouping” the text so that you can move each one freely. I normally do this because I don't always like being confined to the group's line height and what not. For Coil How-To's, I decided to leave the main text the same and remove the top text area. The lower text is used to describe which edition it is.
For my header image for this article, I made the bottom text larger by selecting it and then choosing size 48 text. Anytime you want to make an edit to the text, all you need to do is select it, then choose an option at the top left navigation bar. You also have a HUGE list of fonts to choose from in the pro version.
The last thing I did was edit the background color to be different from my other 2 editions in this series. This one I made pink and blue which naturally ended up looking purple...
After you are satisfied with your design, it's time to download it. With the Canva Pro version, you have the option of compressing your file to take up less space on your computer and in your article without compromising the crispness of the design.
Now that you downloaded your image, you can open up a bottle of champagne and celebrate 🤩. Oh yeah, and also upload your creation to the Coil header image area.
Additional tip: I like to place my text and select images towards the center of my header image so that it shows up nice on the small thumbnails and also the main article itself. If important aspects of the image go outside that range, they will only show when people view the article from your profile page.
The image shown here is one of many that you could choose to make. I have been using Canva for months and have yet to exhaust the creative options inside that site. The pro version provides everything you would need and more. Don't skimp out and fork up the dough.
The resources provided in this article contain no affiliate links and only lead direct to the sites. No animals were harmed in the creation of this article.
Related articles:
✪ Coil How-To's: Compose an Eye-Catching Article Even If You're a Brand-New Creator
✪ Coil How-To’s: Quickly Get Set Up to Publish
✪ What Should My Header Image Size Be On Coil?
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