Create design

Create a Canva design.

Creates a new Canva design. To create a new design, you can either:

  • Use a preset design type.
  • Set height and width dimensions for a custom design.

Additionally, you can also provide the asset_id of an asset in the user's projects(opens in a new tab or window) to add to the new design. Currently, this only supports image assets. To list the assets in a folder in the user's projects, use the List folder items API.

HTTP method and URL path

POST https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs

This operation is rate limited to 20 requests per minute for each user of your integration.

Authentication

This endpoint requires a valid access token that acts on behalf of a user. The token must have the following scopes (permissions):

  • design:content:write

For more information, see Scopes.

Header parameters

Authorizationstring
REQUIRED

Provides credentials to authenticate the request, in the form of a Bearer token.

For example: Authorization: Bearer {token}

Content-Typestring
REQUIRED

Indicates the media type of the information sent in the request. This must be set to application/json.

For example: Content-Type: application/json

Body parameters

design_typeDesignTypeInput
OPTIONAL

The desired design type.

Properties of design_type
typestring
REQUIRED

This can be one of the following:

  • preset: Provide the common design type.
  • custom: Provide the width and height to define a custom design type.
namestring
SOMETIMES REQUIRED

The name of the design type. This can be one of the following:

widthinteger
SOMETIMES REQUIRED

The width of the design (in pixels). Minimum 40px, maximum 8000px.

heightinteger
SOMETIMES REQUIRED

The height of the design (in pixels). Minimum 40px, maximum 8000px.

asset_idstring
OPTIONAL

The ID of an asset to insert into the created design. Currently, this only supports image assets.

titlestring
OPTIONAL

The name of the design. Must be less than 256 characters.

Example request

Examples for using the /v1/designs endpoint:

curl --request POST 'https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {token}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
"design_type": {
"type": "preset",
"name": "doc"
},
"asset_id": "Msd59349ff",
"title": "My Holiday Presentation"
}'
SH
const fetch = require("node-fetch");
fetch("https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": "Bearer {token}",
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"design_type": {
"type": "preset",
"name": "doc"
},
"asset_id": "Msd59349ff",
"title": "My Holiday Presentation"
}),
})
.then(async (response) => {
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);
})
.catch(err => console.error(err));
JS
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.*;
public class ApiExample {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
HttpRequest request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
.uri(URI.create("https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs"))
.header("Authorization", "Bearer {token}")
.header("Content-Type", "application/json")
.method("POST", HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString("{\"design_type\": {\"type\": \"preset\", \"name\": \"doc\"}, \"asset_id\": \"Msd59349ff\", \"title\": \"My Holiday Presentation\"}"))
.build();
HttpResponse<String> response = HttpClient.newHttpClient().send(
request,
HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString()
);
System.out.println(response.body());
}
}
JAVA
import requests
headers = {
"Authorization": "Bearer {token}",
"Content-Type": "application/json"
}
data = {
"design_type": {
"type": "preset",
"name": "doc"
},
"asset_id": "Msd59349ff",
"title": "My Holiday Presentation"
}
response = requests.post("https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs",
headers=headers,
json=data
)
print(response.json())
PY
using System.Net.Http;
var client = new HttpClient();
var request = new HttpRequestMessage
{
Method = HttpMethod.Post,
RequestUri = new Uri("https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs"),
Headers =
{
{ "Authorization", "Bearer {token}" },
},
Content = new StringContent(
"{\"design_type\": {\"type\": \"preset\", \"name\": \"doc\"}, \"asset_id\": \"Msd59349ff\", \"title\": \"My Holiday Presentation\"}",
Encoding.UTF8,
"application/json"
),
};
using (var response = await client.SendAsync(request))
{
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
var body = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
Console.WriteLine(body);
};
CSHARP
package main
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
"strings"
)
func main() {
payload := strings.NewReader(`{
"design_type": {
"type": "preset",
"name": "doc"
},
"asset_id": "Msd59349ff",
"title": "My Holiday Presentation"
}`)
url := "https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs"
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, payload)
req.Header.Add("Authorization", "Bearer {token}")
req.Header.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
defer res.Body.Close()
body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
fmt.Println(string(body))
}
GO
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs",
CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
'Authorization: Bearer {token}',
'Content-Type: application/json',
),
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
"design_type" => [
"type" => "preset",
"name" => "doc"
],
"asset_id" => "Msd59349ff",
"title" => "My Holiday Presentation"
])
));
$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);
curl_close($curl);
if (empty($err)) {
echo $response;
} else {
echo "Error: " . $err;
}
PHP
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
url = URI('https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs')
http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request['Authorization'] = 'Bearer {token}'
request['Content-Type'] = 'application/json'
request.body = <<REQUEST_BODY
{
"design_type": {
"type": "preset",
"name": "doc"
},
"asset_id": "Msd59349ff",
"title": "My Holiday Presentation"
}
REQUEST_BODY
response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body
RUBY

Success response

If successful, the endpoint returns a 200 response with a JSON body with the following parameters:

designDesign

The design object, which contains metadata about the design.

Properties of design
idstring

The design ID.

ownerTeamUserSummary

Metadata for the user, consisting of the User ID and Team ID.

Properties of owner
user_idstring

The ID of the user.

team_idstring

The ID of the user's Canva Team.

urlsDesignLinks

A temporary set of URLs for viewing or editing the design.

Properties of urls
edit_urlstring

A temporary editing URL for the design.

This is not a permanent URL, it is only valid for 30 days.

view_urlstring

A temporary viewing URL for the design.

This is not a permanent URL, it is only valid for 30 days.

created_atinteger

When the design was created in Canva, as a Unix timestamp (in seconds since the Unix Epoch).

updated_atinteger

When the design was last updated in Canva, as a Unix timestamp (in seconds since the Unix Epoch).

titlestring
OPTIONAL

The design title.

thumbnailThumbnail
OPTIONAL

A thumbnail image representing the object.

Properties of thumbnail
widthinteger

The width of the thumbnail image in pixels.

heightinteger

The height of the thumbnail image in pixels.

urlstring

A URL for retrieving the thumbnail image. This URL expires after 15 minutes. This URL includes a query string that's required for retrieving the thumbnail.

page_countinteger
OPTIONAL

The total number of pages in the design. Some design types don't have pages (for example, Canva docs).

Example response

{
"design": {
"id": "DAFVztcvd9z",
"title": "My summer holiday",
"owner": {
"user_id": "auDAbliZ2rQNNOsUl5OLu",
"team_id": "Oi2RJILTrKk0KRhRUZozX"
},
"thumbnail": {
"width": 595,
"height": 335,
"url": "https://document-export.canva.com/Vczz9/zF9vzVtdADc/2/thumbnail/0001.png?<query-string>"
},
"urls": {
"edit_url": "https://www.canva.com/api/design/{token}/edit",
"view_url": "https://www.canva.com/api/design/{token}/view"
},
"created_at": 1377396000,
"updated_at": 1692928800,
"page_count": 5
}
}
JSON

Try it out

Step 1: Enter your access token

To get started, generate an access token or provide your own below