Want to make a Canva template match your brand's unique style? Whether you want to overhaul a design or just tweak a few details, knowing how to customize templates quickly will speed up your content creation.

In this post, we’ll help you master the basics of rebranding the templates in our kits—with a few mind-blowing tricks to help you iterate designs quickly!

Replace Photos

Drag & Drop

All of our templates are designed with Frames. This enables you to replace any image by simply dragging and dropping a new one into the Frame element.

We use free stock images from Pexels. You can keep the one in the template, replace it with a Canva stock image, or upload your own unique photos.

What if drag & drop isn't working?

If your photo is hidden behind another element (like a border or texture), you'll need to bring it to the front to edit it.

To do this, click any object and select Position in the Edit Panel. This opens the Layer Panel. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Opt+1 or Alt+1.

Simply drag your image to the top of the layer stack, replace it, then drag it back to its original position.

Now make it perfect

To get your new image framed just right, double click the Frame element. Now you can scale your image up or down and reposition the image.

You may also want to tweak your photo’s colors to better fit your brand. Click the photo & Edit to open up the Image adjustments, Filters, & Effects.

Color Update

Shuffle your Brand Kit

If you’ve already created a Brand Kit with your Canva Pro account, you can apply your brand colors in one click. Open the side panel, and find your Brand tab. Under Colors you’ll find your saved color palette.

Hover over your palette and select Shuffle. This will change the colors in your selected design. Don’t like the remix it gave you? Keep clicking Shuffle to see more alts. (It’s pretty addictive tbh).

Apply colors to page

This is a hidden trick that took me WAY too long to discover. Ready to have your mind blown?

Upload an image that has your desired brand colors in it. This can be an color palette you grabbed off of Pinterest or a brand image you’ve created previously.

Add the image to your Canva design. Then Right click > Apply colors to page.

This is a great way to pressure test your color palette to see if it will work across your entire brand.

Steal a color palette from another design

Know nothing about color theory? You can quickly grab a color palette from any design on Canva.

Select Design > Templates in the Side Panel and pick a favorite template. Then click the three dots in the upper right corner & select Apply Colors Only. Like magic, Canva will apply those colors to your design.

Similarly, you can navigate to Design > Styles > Color palettes to summon the same magic.

Font Update

The straightforward way

Select any type element & click Font in the Edit Panel to bring up the Font Panel. Now you can select any font on Canva to update. You can easily update ALL of the fonts at once by selecting the purple “Change All” button that appears at the bottom of the panel.

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Using your Brand Kit

If you’ve created a Brand Kit with your Canva Pro account, you can select your saved fonts. To set this up, go to the Canva homepage & click Menu > Brand > Brand Kit. Under Fonts you can set your defaults for later.

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Add a custom font

Is your favorite font not on Canva? You can upload your own. At the bottom of the Font Panel select the Upload a font button to add your own Open Type Font (.otf), True Type Font (.ttf), or Web Open Font Format (.woff).

Can’t tell serif from sans-serif?

Don’t worry, I’ve got you. Luckily the same trick for updating color palettes applies to fonts.

Select Design > Templates in the Side Panel and pick a template with nice fonts. Then click the three dots in the upper right corner & select Apply Text Only.  Similarly, you can navigate to Design > Styles > Font sets.

More resources

Feel like a Canva Pro already? I hope these tips empower you to update your templates quickly and get started building your brand.

There's certainly more to learn, but if you run into any roadblocks, you can easily find help through a quick YouTube search or by visiting the Canva Tutorials page.