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How to Add a Border in Canva

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Canva is a popular online design tool used by millions of internet publishers for creating aesthetically pleasing visual content.

Thanks to its wide array of easy-to-use features and forest of premade templates, anyone, new and experienced, with an internet connection can roll out professional-like designs in a few minutes.

As user-friendly as Canva design software is, one of the not-so-straightforward things to do on the platform is how to add borders to designs. Using borders in your designs is a great way to boost their aesthetic value.

Borders are a great tool for giving your designs bordered context, drawing attention to key details, and establishing visual equilibrium.

In the comprehensive guide, we’ll show you how to use Canva border and other snazzy ways to add a border in Canva to different design elements, images, videos, shapes, and texts.

Where is the Frame Option in Canva?

In Canva, the frame option can be found under the Elements tab. On the left panel of your editor, click on Elements and type Frames in the search bar.

Next, scroll down to the Frames category to browse through the available options. Choose the preferred frame you want to add to your design by clicking on it.

What You’ll Need to Add a Border in Canva

  • A Canva Account: To add a border to any design elements on Canva, you will need to sign up for a free or paid Canva account. If you are creating a paid account, follow this guide to see how you can benefit from claiming a Canva discount.
  • Your Design Element: You will need to have a design element, such as an image, text box, or shape, to which you wish to apply a border to. On Canva, you have the option of either creating a new design element or uploading one of your own.
  • Internet Access: Since Canva is an online design platform, you will need to be connected to the internet to add borders to your design.
  • Basic Design Knowledge: Even though Canva is a user-friendly design tool, it helps to have a fundamental understanding of design. Basic design knowledge such as color theory and layout principles can help you produce beyond-average designs.

How to Add a Border in Canva: 6 Smart Workarounds

The default border element in Canva is basic and can’t give you exactly what you want all the time. For this reason, you have to devise other means of adding borders by manipulating some other elements on Canva.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through some creative workarounds to add a border to your Canva design.

Your choice will depend on what you think will take the least amount of your time and be the easiest to implement for you. Here are 6 methods to add a border in Canva

  • Method #1: Use a Rectangle or Square to add a border in Canva
  • Method #2: Use Lines to Manually Add a Border in Canva
  • Method #3: Add a Border in Canva with Border Elements
  • Method #4: Use Frame to Add a Border in Canva
  • Method #5: Use Bordered Templates to Add a Border in Canva
  • Method #6: How to Add a Border to Texts in Canva

Method #1: Use a Rectangle or Square to add a border in Canva

Log in to your Canva account and create a new design or open an existing one.

You can upload your design file if you already have a specific file to add a border to in Canva. For this tutorial, we’ll select one of the Canva templates.

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Once the Canva editor opens, you can quickly customize the template. We simply change the color and the text of this template and here’s what we have;

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Now to add a border, go to the menu on the left panel and click on the Elements tab.

In the resulting search bar, enter Square or Rectangle. Alternatively, you can navigate to Elements>shapes & lines>Rectangle or Square.

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Next, choose a rectangle or square from the options that appear then drag and drop on your design. You can also double-click to load it to your design canvas.

Once you see it in the design editor, go to Border style settings on the top toolbar.

There, you select your border style and use the Border weight field to set the thickness. To round the edge of the border, use the Corner rounding settings.

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To change the color of the border, click on the Border color tool on the top toolbar. From the resulting window, you can select any of the available colors.

And if you want to add a custom color, click the Plus rainbow box to configure your color or add a color code.

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Next, you have to change the shape fill to color to transparent.

To do that, click on the Color Picker box on the editor toolbar. Once the color panel appears, choose Colors: none from the options.

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Now you have a plained bordered square or rectangle, the next step is to adjust the size of the square or rectangle to span your design perimeter.

Drag the small circle at the corners to stretch the shape accordingly.

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Use the small rounded-edge lines at the center of each side to stretch the rectangle or square up, down, right, and left to have it align on the design perimeter.

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And that’s it. You’ve successfully added a border to your Canva design using a square or rectangle.

As you can see this method is quite easy. But if you are interested in a more manual method than this, see the next.

Method #2: Use Lines to Manually Add a Border in Canva

For this method, we’ll use the same design as above. Say you are now on the editor page as above.

Navigate to the left panel and click on the Elements tab.

Next, enter lines in the search bar to see the variety of lines available in Canva. Alternatively, you can navigate to Elements>Lines & Shapes>Lines.

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Once you find a line you want to use for the border, double-click to load it on the editor. You can also drag and drop.

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Select the line and use the Line style tool on the editor toolbar to choose the style of your line.

Next, use the Line weight field to set the thickness of the line.

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Next to the Line style on the toolbar is the Line color box. Use it to change the color as we’ve done above.

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Once satisfied with the style, thickness, and color of your line, make copies of the line by right-clicking on it and selecting Duplicate from the options.

Make 4 duplicates to have a line for each side of your design.

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To make vertical lines, right-click on one of the horizontal lines and use the rotate icon (two circled arrows) to rotate it 90 degrees.

Repeat the process for a second line to make two vertical lines.

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Now you have 2 vertical lines and two horizontal lines. The next step is to place them at the edge of your design to form a border.

To do this drag the lines to position them on the four sides of your design accordingly. Use the Canva ruler to make sure that your lines align.

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And that’s about adding a border in Canva using lines.

If you are looking for a faster way to add borders in Canva, method #3 might just be right for you. Only that It’s less flexible. Let’s see.

Method #3: Add a Border in Canva with Border Elements

On your Canva editor screen, tap on the Elements tab on the left panel. In the search box that appears, enter Borders and you’ll see a list of available Canva borders.

Canva will also recommend border type under the search bar. You can click on any of the buttons to see what’s in.

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Scroll through the gallery of borders until you find one that’ll work for you.

Once you find a border you like, drag and drop or double-click to add it to the editor.

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If needed, as in our case, change the orientation of the border using the rotate icon (2 circled arrows). Simply drag and rotate 90 degrees.

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Next, stretch the border to meet the sides of your design using the small circle at the corner of the border.

Use the small rounded-edge lines at the center of each side to stretch the border to the design perimeter.

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To change the color of the border, click on the Edit image button on the toolbar and adjust the border Contrast, Saturation, and Brightness to your preference.

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Since the border is an image, there are other effects in the Edit image panel you can play with to give your border a better visual appeal.

Pretty straightforward, right? That’s how to quickly add a border in Canva using the border element. A similar approach to adding a border in Canva is to use frames. Let’s see.

Method #4: Use Frame to Add a Border in Canva

Start your design by selecting a template or uploading your design to the Canva editor.

Go to Elements on the left panel and search for Frames.

You can search for specific borders like photo frames, film strips, gold outlines, and more.

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Select a frame by double-clicking to add it to the editor screen.

Once there, rotate it 90 degrees as explained in method #3 above if needed. Then adjust its width and breadth to span your design.

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To change the frame color, click the Edit Image button on the toolbar and use the same steps used above to customize the appearance of your frame.

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And that’s all about adding a border in Canva using frames.

Method #5: Use Bordered Templates to Add a Border in Canva

Another easy way to add a border in Canva is by editing one of the existing Canva templates that have a border.

There are thousands of Canva templates with borders. You can manually explore them or use the search bar to quickly find a specific template type. Let’s go.

On your Canva homepage, click on the Templates tab on the left panel.

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Once the template gallery appears, enter Border into the search bar and hit enter.

Scroll through the result to find a bordered template you’d like to use. Click on the desired template to open the Canva editor screen.

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Next, select all the elements you don’t need on the template and click on the trash icon to remove them.

You can do this one by one or hold the Ctrl button as you click to select multiple elements.

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Once done, you’ll be left with only the border. Now you can create a new design or add an existing one to use the border with it.

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That’s all. You’ve successfully added a border in Canva with a template.

Method #6: How to Add a Border to Texts in Canva

All the methods we.ve covered so far in this guide will work fine for adding borders to images, shapes, and videos.

But adding a border to texts in Canva is entirely different. So how do that? Let’s find out.

We’ll continue with the text in our design.

Select the text you want to add a border to and click Effects on the editor toolbar.

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On the list of available effects, locate and select Splice. This will create a shadow with no transparency at a 45-degree angle off of your text.

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To create a text border out of it, make sure the Offset setting is set to 0.

You can leave the Direction setting as it is. Adjust the Thickness setting to what you like.

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Under these settings, scroll to the Color Picker and choose a color for the center of your text. We’ll use the same color as the background.

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If you’d like to change the border color, click on the Text color picker on the top toolbar and select any color you like.

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That’s all. Now you know how to add a border to text elements in Canva.

More Helpful Design Tutorials:

  • How to Add a Border in Google Docs: Looking to add some visual appeal to your Google Docs document? Learn how to add a border in Google Docs using three methods: using a table, the drawing tool, or pre-made image borders.
  • How to Use Frames in Canva: Discover the various options and techniques for using Canva frames and make your designs unique. This article teaches how to use frames in Canva with ease.
  • How to Make a Facebook Frame in Canva: Enhance your brand’s social presence with customized frame designs. Learn how to create a Facebook frame in Canva with our step-by-step guide.

Wrapping up

Adding a border to your design elements in Canva is a great way to make them stand out. With the 6 creative smart workarounds we’ve shown you in this guide, you have a variety of options for adding borders in Canva.

Whether you want to use rectangles, lines, frames, border elements, templates, or even add a border to text elements, now you know how to go about it.

You can also experiment with different border styles, colors, and thicknesses to create a design that is both eye-catching and professional-looking.

So what are you waiting for? Try out these methods in Canva and take your designs to the next level. If you need further assistance on borders or other Canva design know-how, feel free to reach out in the comment below.

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