Intermediate
40 mins
Teacher/Student led
+70 XP
What you need:
Chromebook/Laptop/PC
Canva account (school email)

Editing Images with Canva, Part 2: Layers, Export and the Honest Edit

Students layer text over their image, export it in the right format, then judge their own edits against whether the result still represents what was there.

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    1 - Start ~3 mins

    Today you will start a new design with a new photo, add a line of text to it and save it as a finished file. Then you will think about a question this course keeps coming back to.

    A finished design: a long pier under a cloudy sky, with the words Morning on the water in white on a dark see-through box

    Your practice photo for today

    Open the practice photo, then right-click it and choose Save image as.

    Photo: "Scenic view of a long pier in Ireland" by Raul Ling, via Pexels.

    Today’s question

    Which of your edits are fair, and which one could mislead somebody, making them believe something that is not true?

    2 - What Layering Means ~5 mins

    Each thing you add sits on its own layer, and the order of the layers decides what is in front.

    LayerTypically holds
    TopText, so nothing covers it
    MiddleA shape behind the text, to make it readable
    BottomThe background image
    Why it matters

    Each layer stays separate, so you can move or delete one without changing the others.

    3 - Hands-on: Text Over Your Image ~12 mins

    Make a new design with today's photo, then add a line of text to it and make it easy to read. To do this, you will put a see-through box behind the words.

    4 - Hands-on: Export It Properly ~8 mins

    The file format you choose decides what your saved file can do, so look at the table first.

    FormatUse it for
    PNGHigher quality, and the only one that keeps a transparent background.
    JPGSmaller files, fine for photographs going online.
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