Which program should you use for designing wedding invitations? There are a few popular programs out there, so today I’ll talk about Canva vs. Adobe for wedding invites. 

We’ll cover:

• Using Adobe Creative Cloud for Invitation Design
• Using Canva for Wedding Invites
• Printing invites from Canva
• Printing invites from Adobe
• Which is better: Adobe or Canva?
• …and more! 

Using Adobe Creative Cloud for Invitation Design

Adobe Creative Cloud has long been the “industry standard” in graphic design. The best Adobe programs for invitations are Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop.

Most invitation designers prefer either Illustrator or InDesign as their main wedding invitation design program, and then use Photoshop to edit raster images (watercolors, photos, etc.). 

The Adobe Creative Cloud is extremely robust, and has been popular with graphic designers for decades now. There is nothing you need to do for invitation design that you can’t do in Adobe.

If you want to create a professional wedding stationery business, you will want to invest in the industry standard, which is Adobe. If you ever take classes, or ask for help from other designers – they will be teaching you in Adobe. All of my classes as a leading expert in invitation design are taught in Adobe. It is about the features, because Adobe programs are more robust than Canva, but even more than that it’s about speaking the same language as other designers, print shops, and teachers. 

Pros of Adobe for Invitation Design

There is a reason Adobe is the industry standard. Here are the pros of using Adobe Creative Cloud for stationery:

• You’re speaking the same language as everyone else in the industry
• The programs are made for professional graphic design
• Manage assets (photos, colors, etc.) between different programs with ease
• Adobe Creative Cloud suite has a program specializing in anything you might need to do
• Edit raster and vector graphics in the correct program
• A vast array of print settings when it’s time to print

Cons of Adobe for Invitation Design

There are only 2 main cons to using Adobe programs:

• The cost!
• The learning curve

I would argue that if you want to be a professional designer, investing in professional tools is always worth it. It’s hard to start a design business without the industry standard design software. You will make your money back in saved time and the cost of reprints if you set up your files incorrectly! 

The learning curve can be intimidating, that’s true! Many stationery designers are self-taught (I am!) and still create incredible work. We have a free class you can use to get started learning Adobe Illustrator, and our (affiliate) link will get you a discount on your membership when you sign up for the Adobe Creative Cloud!

Using Canva for Wedding Invites

If you’re designing your own wedding invites, Canva is a great tool! It’s designed to be accessible and easy to learn for amateur designers, and to make some tasks more simple and collaborative even for professional designers. 

I use Canva all the time for social media graphics and slideshow presentations. For your own wedding invites, there are tons of customizable templates and easy-to-use elements that will make designing invitations in Canva a breeze!

However, when you go to print your invitations, you may run into some limitations. Many print shops that I work with will not accept Canva files or charge a fee for converting them to the right files for printing. It turns out that making something that looks gorgeous on screen is one part of the job, but actually printing those things accurately is sometimes the more difficult part of the job. 

Printing invitations in Canva

Let’s talk about printing invites from Canva. There are a few reasons this can be tough:

• RGB vs. CMYK color space
• Vector vs. Raster images
• Trim Marks and Bleeds

RGB vs. CMYK Colors

The basic difference between RGB and CMYK colors is that RGB colors are meant for screens and CMYK colors are meant for printing. Here’s a much longer explanation if you are interested in printing colors! Canva uses entirely RGB colors, because it is meant for designing for screens. When you go to print your files, you’ll see that the option for downloading your file in CMYK is only for Canva Pro Accounts (hey, if you found this helpful, I’d love if you use my Canva Ambassador link to sign up for Pro!). 

I do want to be clear, though, that even if you download the files in CMYK, your colors may still look a bit different from screen to print. There are a few reasons for this.

First, the CMYK spectrum is a little more dull than the RGB spectrum. The colors that are possible on-screen are sometimes just not possible on paper (with standard printing, at least). Specifically, really bright colors and fuchsias / blues can print very differently than they look on screen.

Second, every printer mixes ink a little differently. Matching colors from screen to print is tough. Every printer will print CMYK colors slightly differently. I’d highly recommend printing some samples before printing your entire invitation order!

Vector vs. Raster Elements

A quick explanation is that vector elements are made with angles and math, whereas raster elements are made with a grid of pixels (probably what you think of when you think of zooming in really far on a picture!). Vector files can be blown up as big as you want without losing quality.

When it comes to printing, you typically want to use vector elements. A vector file will be required for letterpress printing. Canva uses almost entirely raster images, so it’s hard to create files for letterpress printing in Canva, or for anything that needs to be blown up larger. 

You can download an SVG file from Canva if you need a vector, however it’s only an option on Canva Pro accounts, and you likely will need to do some cleanup on your files after downloading to get them fully prepared.

Trim Marks and Bleeds in Canva

Trim marks (or crop marks) tell you or your print shop where to cut to ensure your file is cut to the right size! Some printers require these and some do not.

“Bleeds” are anywhere the design bleeds off the edge of the page. Printers cannot print right up to the edge of the page accurately, so they print the design a little larger than you need it, and then cut it down to the final size. Here’s a longer explanation:

What’s the problem with bleeds and crop marks in Canva? They are both in one setting. You can turn on “crop marks + bleeds” when you download a file for print, however you cannot turn one on without the other. I work with many print shops that request files with a bleed but no crop marks – you simply cannot select that combination when you download a file from Canva.

Best Print Settings for Canva Invitations

While there are some issues when it comes to printing from Canva, these are my recommended settings to get the best results:

• Download
• PDF Print
• Check Crop Marks + Bleeds
• Check Flatten PDF
• Do not check Include Notes
• Select desired pages
• For “Color Profile” select CMYK (this is a Canva Pro only feature, but it’s arguably the MOST important setting to select)

Printing invites from Adobe

Printing invitations from Adobe is much easier than printing them from Canva, because there are way more settings to customize. My favorite program for invitations is Adobe Illustrator, so here are my recommended print settings when saving a PDF to print invitations from Illustrator:

• Outline all Text (select text, right-click, “Create Outlines”)
• Filed > Save as > Select PDF
• Select your desired artboard(s) and file name
• Click Save
• In the Dialog Box:
  • Start with “Illustrator Default”
  • Uncheck “Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities” (this isn’t entirely necessary but makes your file a little smaller!)
  • On the “Marks and Bleeds” tab, you can select if you want Crop Marks, Bleeds, etc. (use the settings your printer recommends: I typically do NOT select crop marks, but add 0.125” bleed on all 4 sides because this is what my Favorite Print Shop requires)

Wondering where to print your invitations? I want to share my Free Stationery Vendor Toolkit with you – this is all my favorite print shop recommendations, and includes discount codes you can use on your first order! 

Which is better: Adobe or Canva?

So which is better for designing wedding invites: Adobe or Canva? My opinion is that Canva is totally fine for designing your own invitations, or invitations for a friend. There are potentially some workarounds you’ll have to figure out for printing, or you can print directly through Canva to avoid those. 

However, once you decide you want to become a professional invitation designer – you’ll want to upgrade to Adobe Creative Cloud. There are simply things you’ll need to do eventually that you cannot do in Canva.

Things you Can do in Canva

• Layout elements and text
• Align, re-size, and re-color graphic artwork
• Use Bulk Create to set up guest addresses
• Customize invitation templates
• Upload your own custom fonts, images, and graphics to include in your designs
• Use “apps” to edit photos (remove background, etc.)

Adobe can do all of these things, except Adobe does not contain customizable templates – you can find these for purchase or for free to use in Adobe though! And there are many things Adobe can do that Canva can’t or can’t do very easily.

Adobe Features Not in Canva

• CMYK color designing
• Customize print settings
• Work with gradients, meshes, clipping masks, effects, etc.
• Draw shapes from scratch
• Edit shapes, anchor points, and raster images directly
• Work offline

I like to think of it like this: You can do a lot of easy, simple stuff in Canva. That’s great for one-time designers, it’s great for working on-the-go or templating things like social media graphics. On the other hand, you can do pretty much anything you want to do in Adobe. So it’s a lot more robust, but you have to learn how to do those things.

Many people confuse these programs, but in truth they are for different audiences and purposes. If you want to be a professional designer, Canva will start to feel limited very quickly. If you are just designing some things for fun, then Adobe might feel too expansive (and expensive!) for that end.

As a stationery designer, I’ve been using Adobe Creative Cloud for over a decade and nothing could replace it (especially Canva), but I do love Canva for social graphics, templates, and presentations!