On September 25th, 2024, we released v2 of the Apps SDK. To learn what’s new and how to upgrade, see Migration FAQ and Migration guide.

Designs

An introduction to designs in the Apps SDK.

In Canva, users can create designs. These designs have pages and those pages contain the various ingredients that make up the design, such as images and text.

Design types

Canva supports a range of design types, each of which is intended for specific use-cases. For example, there's a design type for Instagram posts and a design type for postcards.

The design types themselves fall into the following categories:

  • Fixed design types, which refer to design types that have fixed dimensions — that is, the dimensions are set to a specific width and height. This is the most common category of design type.
  • Responsive design types, which refer to design types that have responsive dimensions — that is, the dimensions adjust to the content of the design. The only example of a responsive design type is a document.

Apps are compatible with all design types, but some methods are only available for certain categories.

Where possible, apps should determine the context in which an app is running and either call the compatible method or make it obvious when a certain feature isn't available. To learn more, see Feature support.

Design IDs

All designs have a unique ID. Apps can access this ID and use it to store information that's associated with the design — for example, to save the user's settings on a per-design basis. To learn more, see Using design IDs.

Interacting with designs

Apps can interact with designs in a variety of ways, such as by: