How To Highlight Text In Canva: A Step By Step Guide

There are lots of ways to highlight text in canva and I am going to show you the simple steps to do it with just a click or two. All the way up to the more detailed ones. Up until the last year or so, canva used to not have nearly the amount of options that it used to.

The canva design team has really done a great job in adding new features and a variety of tools.

The best part is all of these options I am going to show you can all be done without a pro canva account so you shouldn’t have an issue. If you don’t have an Canva account I highly recommend you grab one for free here to start creating images for your backyard farm.

Quick Canva Tip

Personally, I don’t like the canva mobile app. It’s okay but I feel very restricted with what I can do in it.

But the website on mobile does just fine in my opinion. So here is how I get the canva website on my phone home page and use it just like the app.

  • Go to canva.com on your phone browser. I use google chrome.
  • Then in the top right corner, you should see three dots. That will give you a drop-down menu.
  • Scroll all the way down until you see “add to home screen”
  • Click that and you can rename the site if you want.
  • Then tap “add” and you are all set.

First Option To Do A Traditional Highlight

1 – Open any new design and click the text tab on the left-hand side of the screen.

2 – Then click any of the single text box options to get some text on your page to work with.

Arrow showing the first step how to highlight text in canva

Before you used to have to layer text boxes over each other in order to create a highlight or shadow effect but not anymore.

3 – With your text box selected that you want highlighted click the EFFECTS panel in the top bar above your workspace.

Arrow showing the second step how to highlight text in canva

4 – Scroll down until you see an option called background. Click that and this is what you will see.

Arrow showing the fourth step how to highlight text in canva

This is the traditional bright ugly text highlight. Now if this is what you want to each his own but there are lots of other ways to make it look less harsh.

5 – (optional) If you click again into the EFFECTS option you can reduce the percentage of the highlight transparency and you can also change the highlight color there if you want to.

Arrow showing the 5th step how to highlight text in canva

So if you have a white background or are using another bright color and you don’t want it to be so bright this will soften the color. You can see what I mean below.

Using The Shadow Text Effects

Here is another great way to call some attention to specific words in your images. Whether you are making a presentation or marketing material for your farm business.

1 – Once again go back into the EFFECTS option and check out some of the other effects. The most useful one I think is the SHADOW effect.

2- You can change the transparency, color, direction the shadow goes and so much more. Play with it until you get the look you want.

text highlight options

Here is what a light font type looks like on a white background. But look at the difference in the new text box if I add a shadow under it.

adding a shadow to text

Even though it is still pretty light it is easier to see and makes it more attention-getting.

Adding Graphic Elements To Highlight

One of the reasons you might what to use this option is if you are putting text over top of your own image or stock photos to create marketing or branding material in your backyard farm business.

I am no design expert BUT I know what I like when I see it. Here is what putting different background elements can look like for your designs.

  • Click the elements tab in the side menu.
  • Then scroll down to lines and shapes.
  • If you see a regular square shape then click that one but if you don’t you may need to click the little arrow to see all the other shapes.
  • Scroll to see the one you are looking for. You can also use the search bar in canva that is right above literally any canva tab you are using.
  • Add the square graffic that will go behind the whole line of text.

You can change the size of the box to be the shape you want by dragging the sides in any direction.

Then with the item, you want to move from the top layer to the back you can click the three dots (MORE) then there should be an option that says POSITION. You can click that to then move the graphic one layer at a time.

Now you are going to get a new graphic box and put it over the words you want to emphasize.

Change the color using the color palette (that can be found by clicking the graphic and then clicking the little color box in the toolbar at the top of the screen) to a brighter color then move it to the back just behind the text you want with the positions tool.

These are the main ways you can highlight text elements in your projects. You can do all of them without a pro account.

If you are looking to jazz up a design with text here are some quick canva tips you can run through to create a design you love.

  • Change the color option of just a word or two by highlighting part of the text then click the color box to change the text color.
  • Test out different font styles.
  • Change the font size when you are wanting to enhance different words.
  • Use the highlighter effect.
  • Double-layer shapes to make the words pop.

There are a lot of different ways to design your canva projects. It truly is the graphic design software for people with no graphic design skills. just keep messing with it until you find a design looks great to you.

If you want some great canva brand kits Etsy is the place to get them. Here are some of my favorites and the ones that I have bought.

  • This blogging toolkit is absolutely beautiful. I love the designs in this one and make most of my slides from this one. – See it on etsy
  • This 1400+ Ultimate Social Media Bundle for CANVA – is a great price! See It on etsy
  • Here is a page full of great branding kits for Canva on etsy. – Check them all out on etsy

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