Are you looking for ways to improve productivity in 2023? Canva can be a great tool for creating stunning visuals and designs, but did you know it has Apps that can help boost your productivity even more? In this article, we'll explore and rate five user-friendly productivity Apps (including video demos) that are sure to make a difference in your workflow. From the new AI image generator Canva to easily creating great-looking charts and importing brand logos, these tools will give you the edge when it comes to staying organised and efficient as you work on projects.
Quick Links
An Overview of Canva
If you haven't discovered the amazing tool that is Canva yet, here's a quick overview. It's an amazing design platform that helps you automate creating stunning visuals with ease. It works with a drag-and-drop interface and features thousands of template designs and more than 8 million images to choose from. They have a free plan, giving you access to millions of images and templates that you can use to create social media posts, website images, beautiful documents and anything else where you need a touch of professionalism. Taking it up a notch, they offer premium images, templates and design elements that can be individually purchased or accessed as part of their Pro level subscription. (We have partnered up with them to give you a 30-day free trial of the Pro Plan, just click here to sign up). Designing with Canva makes project management easy, increasing time management, reducing your workload and freeing up valuable space on your calendar.
As well as the desktop version, they also offer a best-in-class mobile app that is the perfect productivity tool for those times when you need a graphic design but you don't have time to sit in front of a computer. With its easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface, creating visually stunning images on the go has never been easier! The mobile app is not only one of the best productivity apps out there, but it is also great for quickly generating graphics for your website or social media with company branding, increasing business productivity. Whether you are running a business or just looking to spruce up your socials, the mobile app (available as both iOS and Android Apps) can help any user make clear and stylish designs at blistering speeds.
It really is the perfect solution for small businesses looking to get more done in less time. Instead of spending precious hours wrestling with image editing and design software, the automated tools let you get the job done quickly and easily while still creating stunning designs. While the free plan is already amazing, investing in the Pro features can help your small business increase productivity, free up resources and get amazing results.
Exploring Apps that Increase Productivity
You are probably familiar with the basics of Canva such as adding images, using filters, layering elements and so on. But, did you know they have a whole bunch of really great apps that can take your productivity to the next level? We have been exploring the latest offerings, and have put together our shortlist of the best five productivity apps that you probably haven't heard of yet! Let's not wait any more, we'll jump in with the first one... the QR Code generator.
QR Code Generator
QR codes are the perfect way to give your audience a quick shortcut through the digital noise. In an instant, they can scan the code and access information - be it to a website, a coupon or simply more information about a product - eliminating the need for typing in URLs or seeking out specific documents. They can be used almost anywhere and everywhere; just look around stores, ads or even invoices and there's sure to be one. Adding a QR code to your promotional material can be a really easy way to share more information, get people to your website or create an interactive experience.
Luckily, there’s an app for just this! With the QR App, you can input any URL to create your QR. Customise the colours to match your branding and then add it to any design you want! Really easy, very convenient and a great way to get more visitors to your website.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Our rating: 3 out of 5
We love this App, it makes adding a basic QR code to any design a quick and easy process. QRs can do so much more than just direct to URLs, did you know you can create QRs that let people easily contact you through WhatsApp, send you an email, initiate a phone call or even let someone connect to WiFi? Another great alternative is the free Wix tool where you can do all of that and more! Check out the free Wix QR tool here.
Brandfetch - Easily add logos to your designs
Have you ever been halfway through a design and realised you need to add in a brand logo? Maybe to easily get your message across you need some social media icons or the logo of a brand you are talking about or promoting. If you can't find it in the graphics or image library, you end up interrupting your workflow and searching Google for that logo. Well, Brandfetch is a great integration that does that hard work for you!
Simply open up the Brandfetch App in the editor, find the brand logo from their pre-populated list, or enter the brand URL and let them fetch the logo for you!
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Our rating: 4 out of 5 - This App is great for streamlining workflows, although, we found that entering a URL doesn't always get results and not all brand logos are available through the App. But, great if you are looking for major brand logos.
Creating beautiful charts
Charts and graphs are without a doubt the easiest way to communicate data. There is a great App that makes creating charts really easy. Just input your data, pick the type of chart or graph you want to use, give it a design treatment and put it into your design! You can even link the charts to external data sources, like excel and Google sheets, so if you have a lot of data to display, this app makes your data super easy to import.
You can easily find the chart design tool under the elements tab. There's no video for this one, but here are 3 examples of a great way to use charts in your designs.
Our rating: 4 out of 5 - With great options for all types of charts and different creative ways to display data in an easy-to-read format the charts are definitely one of our favourite features. They could do with a bit of improvement around the data entry interface, but apart from that, we love them!
Draw - adding your personal touch
Ok... so how often have you spent forever looking for that perfect graphic to add to your image to make it pop? That perfectly shaped love heart or a couple of hand-drawn lines? This App has got the perfect customizable solution! You just open up the Draw app, and you can draw whatever you want onto the image! With a variety of drawing tools and full customisation over colours and transparency, all you need is your creative flair!
My freehand drawing skills aren't great, but I've tried my best in this video, if you are creative with great freehand drawing skills, this is the tool for you. Take a look at it in action...
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Our rating: 5 out of 5 - We couldn't ask for it to be any better! with a great selection of drawing styles and full customisation, we couldn't think of a single thing to improve with the Draw App.
Text to Image - AI image creation
If there is only one App from this list you add to your to-do list, this is it. Finding the right images is now even easier with the new Canva AI artificial intelligence text-to-image tool. Unlike other online ai image generator tools, this one is included in the Pro plan and requires no extra payment, which you can try for free for 30 days. To put that into perspective, other image automation tools, like Jasper Art, need an additional subscription of at least £20 per month! If you want to find out more about Jasper Art, we wrote this article about their AI image tool. It can generate images in the blink of an eye, so you don't have to wait around all day for your creative vision to become a reality.
Whatever you can imagine, you can ask the free ai image generator text-to-image tool to create. You might need to get a touch creative when writing your descriptions in the dashboard, but once you get them right, you just need to sit back and watch the art appear in front of your eyes! Take a look...
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Our rating: 5 out of 5 - 5 out of 5 isn't even enough for this amazing tool! It works really well. We have tried out other AI image tools, and the Canva ai generated images tool, which is included for free in the Pro plan is just as good, if not better than the others we have tried! If there's only one reason to subscribe, then this is it! Don't forget, you can get 30 days for free when you click our link.
So, there we have it, our top pick of productivity Apps to Skyrocket your creativity!
Canva is an amazing tool for increasing productivity, including easy charts, drawing tools and the ability to import brand logos. And with the Pro version comes even more, like AI image generator. These apps will help you maximise creativity as you work on projects more efficiently than ever before. Whether it's creating beautiful charts or adding your personal touch to images, Canva has all the features necessary for success in graphic design this year! Give it a try today and start making progress towards achieving your goals faster than ever before.
What's your favourite App? Is it on the list? Let us know in the comments! We'd love to hear from you.
Happy creating! :)
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