Why Are My Canva Images Blurry? [Explained]

Images on Canva can appear blurry sometimes if you use the wrong settings or upload low-quality images.

This can negatively impact your final designs. Needless to say, there’s no worse feeling than seeing your hard work go down the drain.

Considering how popular and easy-to-use Canva is, blurry images can be a huge setback for frequent users of this platform.

While you can use other advanced tools like Photoshop to polish up your images, not everyone can afford it. Some users even find the learning curve too steep.

In this article, we will explore the reasons behind your blurry Canva images and provide you with quick fixes to the problem.

So if you are putting off that Canva project due to image issues, don’t do it just yet. Read this first.

Also Read: Can You Use Canva Images For Commercial Use?

Reasons for Blurry Canva Images

Your Canva images could be blurry for the following reasons.

Low-Quality Images Used in the Design

The quality of the photos you upload from your device is one of the primary causes of blurry Canva images. Canva works with what it’s given and while it tries its best to display the best bits of your photos in your design clearly, it is limited by the data you feed it.

Poor-quality pictures frequently lack the clarity and detail needed for a clean output and that will reflect in the final results.

Images Are Not Scaled Properly

Canva offers you multiple image scaling options and each is suitable for different roles depending on what you want to create. Improper scaling will lead to a lot of hazy images. If you overscale or underscale an image, it may lose clarity and become pixelated.

It’s essential to use your images with their original aspect ratios if you want to prevent potential distortions and blurriness.

Images Are Compressed Too Much

Canva automatically compresses images to optimize file sizes for editing and quick loading. This is very beneficial for your productivity in the long run, especially if you’re working on tight deadlines.

However, trouble starts when you load an already compressed file, forcing it to be compressed again. This becomes too much and leads to visible image degradation.

Design Is Exported in a Low Resolution

Using the wrong export settings is another major cause of blurry Canva photos. Canva provides multiple export resolutions and you can even tweak them further for optimal results.

The entire design with images may appear fuzzy if you download or save it in a lesser resolution than your original photographs.

For example, exporting an image with a resolution of 72 DPI (Dots Per Inch) from an original image with a resolution of 300 DPI will erase key details and make it very blurry.

How To Fix Blurry Canva Images?

You can avoid blurry images on Canva by doing the following.

Use High-Quality Images in the Design

The sharpness of your Canva designs is greatly influenced by the caliber of your source pictures. Using high-resolution photos is essential if you want the final results to match the quality of the source material.

Nothing you do will matter or change things in the end if the initial images are of low quality. There’s no magical tool in Canva that will restore sharpness to an image.

Some helpful tips to keep in mind include the following.

• Upload images with the highest resolution possible. 300 DPI should be the bare minimum as they have more pixels and they won’t lose much of that even when Canva automatically compresses them.
• Upload the right image formats like JPEG and PNG as they’re the best at nailing clarity in photos better than other formats like GIFs.

Scale Images Properly

Scaling your images the right way is another trick you can use to ensure the final result isn’t affected by blurriness. While Canva allows you to reposition and resize your images with a few simple clicks, knowing what you’re doing is far more important.

Some tips you can adhere to include the following.

• Know the exact size you want to scale your images to. Header images won’t be scaled the same way a profile image gets scaled because both are different shapes. Knowing beforehand what you want the end result to look like gives you a better idea.
• Use the scaling grids provided by Canva by adjusting the size while pulling from the corner handles. Knowing shortcuts like the Shift key also helps to maintain the aspect ratio of the image and prevent undesired distortions.
• Never stretch the images too much, especially when you’re making an image bigger. Even a high-resolution photo will start looking blurry if you blow it up too much. It’s better if you use a bigger image in its original size rather than making a smaller one bigger.

Avoid Compressing Images Too Much

Compressing an already compressed file is the fastest way to distort a perfectly good image on Canva. As we’ve already mentioned, the platform automatically compresses an image to make loading times much faster.

So allow it to do the compression on its own by loading an original image in its full size rather than compressing it yourself.

Some of the things you can do to avoid over-compressing your photos include the following.

• Choose the biggest version of the image you want to use in your design. Canva will automatically compress it based on those dimensions while minimizing loss of clarity as much as possible.
• Make use of the quality slider on Canva to increase the quality of the image before downloading it. Avoid lower-quality settings as they prioritize file sizes at the expense of quality. You can experiment with different settings until you find the one that suits your needs better.

Also Read: Can You Sell Canva Designs On Etsy?

Export Design in a Higher Resolution

Always export your Canva images in the highest possible resolution to maintain and even increase clarity. This is very important if you plan to create a physical printout of your designs because blurriness is easier to direct on physical than on digital materials.

A valuable tip to abide by.

• Choose 300 DPI for physical prints and a minimum of 96 DPI for digital designs. This is to ensure there’s a balance between quality and size so that you don’t end up making your website slow with heavy images.
• Choose different output formats depending on what you’re making. For physical prints, export the final design either in PNG or PDF. If you’re making web design materials, then JPEG will be a better fit as they’re smaller and load much faster.

Conclusion

As you can see, blurry images are a direct result of using low-quality source material to begin with. But once you switch to uploading high-quality images, you don’t have to worry much about the end result.

Make use of Canva’s automatic compression, export the final results in the right formats, and always use the biggest and sharpest images you can find.

Try these tips next time your image designs come out wrong.