Canva vs Microsoft PowerPoint graphic design: which one is the best?

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You must have not thought about this but these tools are loved by so many, either a designer, a teacher or a blogger could fit between them. So, the question is “in terms of design, can you chose Canva or PowerPoint graphic design?”.

I can’t say that I have solid foundation in both Canva and PowerPoint but I use them often to be able to judge. I used both of them on my blog and social Media accounts.

My answer is very simple, To chose whether it’s canva or PowerPoint you use in graphic design it all depends on different factors but I would say Canva is best for Library and PowerPoint is best for options and Manipulation.

Should you even compare Canva and PowerPoint graphic design abilities?

Why would you even bother asking for this question, can’t you just choose randomly and say “Okay, I’m on this and here we go!”. That’s not how it works for all of us.

People must be convinced enough to be able to adopt something. You can’t choose randomly because that’s what our tastes prohibit us to do, then, you will see some bloggers choose to go for WordPress and others Blogspot.

The same for Canva and PowerPoint, each provides the features the other doesn’t have which is why each one has a point at which the odds are in its favor. Right?

So, the comparison is strongly needed for you to choose wisely and correctly. I see that when I read blogs depending on a topic I’m searching I prefer posts with best designs (Probably you too!).

Before differentiating these things let me show why I didn’t choose the following tools randomly. They have similar characteristics that approve them to be compared.

Similarities

Basic skills: These are the tools people who have few to no knowledge about designing graphics can use, they require basic skills. Don’t worry all you need is a few days of practice learning how to manipulate text, shapes and images and boom! You are a graphic design Savvy. They don’t have a high learning curve as long as you practice!

Simple designs: You can see when you open them, not like high-level tools like Adobe Illustrator. They possess simple user interfaces, you can locate almost every stuff in the basic menu. If you want shapes, Images, and so forth.

Differences

Accessibility: Let me make this straight, on this point I would choose PowerPoint. Why? If you look at the accessibility both across the devices and the mode of accessing the tool, PowerPoint is outranking Canva because it is available on any device and OS you can think of Linux, Windows, MacOS, android and iOS. This is actually different from Canva which gets lost on Windows.

In terms of accessibility mode, always Canva is down to that because you can’t have access to the tool if you don’t have an internet access whereas PPT is available both online and offline. Don’t think about using Canva when you don’t have access to the internet.

All the apps have mobile apps that are accessible on all platforms; iOS and Android, here Canva is easy to use compared to PPT which from my experience is not handy to use while designing graphics.

Library: I can’t say too much about this because everyone knows that one of the powerful weapons Canva uses is a big library. Even the free users get tons of elements (shapes and icons) as well as stock images.

The only drawback is that you sometimes get this in limited quantity due to that it’s free of course, but you can get unlimited features and elements through its premium subscription.

You can get CANVA PRO here!

Interface: Simple answer answer is that they both easy to navigate but, I can’t give you this answer because it vague (no clarifications), but let me differentiate those two. PowerPoint has a simple interface but it has a slight difficult to navigate menu compared to Canva.

Which is the best between Canva and PowerPoint in graphic design?

As I have used both of the tools so far in different circumstances whether to design Pinterest pins or blog banners, they all have done great work for me. But at any cost, among the the good ones there has to be the best so the same for this battle.

Regarding the best, I first have to consider the answer based on what I have designed (the outcomes) and here Canva wins because you have two (2) different qualities of images to download both Jpg. and Png., PNG has a high quality whereas JPG has a medium quality.

Okay, I don’t say that PowerPoint hasn’t this option too, but it is hard to realize the difference between the PNG or JPG generated by PowerPoint! It becomes weak on this side.

Secondly, Canva has various sizes of dimensions to choose from whether you want a Pinterest pin, Facebook Image, Twitter Image, Blog banner and so on…

Canva is actually made for Content creators whether the materials they provide, easiness of learning it, it all shows how well the owners of the tool have specifically thought about digital content creators and solved their problems in deep. That’s why they have tons of templates.

Compared to PowerPoint which is a presentation tool than a design nevertheless, it has the abilities to create more if it is being used by someone knowledgeable about the tool. Basically, templates of Microsoft PowerPoint are made just for presentation.

In PPT you will be required to start from scratch to start adding each image and shape, but canva can provide you a chance to have a design done and make few changes in a matter of minutes. Here Canva wins on time optimization!

Conclusion

These tools are both powerful and easy to use, but as far as we are concerned with what’s the best. You have to choose according to what suits your needs and saves you time and energy.

What I can recommend you is to use Canva if you want well designed post banners and graphics, and it has a large library of resources including icons, images and so on.

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Comments

  1. I personally use Canva for most of my website graphics, or anything else really. I’ve rarely ever used Powerpoint but I think it could be worth the try now 😃

    1. Yes! Most of the time Canva ends up winning the battle but PowerPoint has some advantages too.

  2. As good as Canva it still lacks an important feature set that even the Microsoft apps of Word, PowerPoint and Publisher possess–Vector-style drawing tools (PowerPoint also has the extremely useful Merge Shapes feature set).
    Canva will not be able to seriously challenge comparison with the MS apps–and certainly not ultra-powerful graphic design applications like Adobe Illustrator, GIMP, Affinity Designer, etc.–until its developers include such indispensable tools in its arsenal of design weapons.

    1. Sean, Thank you for the feedback. That is a good point, Canva has to consider this as a serious matter for those who are familiar with vectors. I have realized that within Canva you can’t create complex shapes as you want.

      1. Sean Kevin Riley

        Thanks for the follow-up comment. If you email me I can show you what I can do with just MS PowerPoint & Publisher.

        Blessings.