How to create infographics in Canva to visually represent your data.

 
Have you ever been in a position where you need to get out a lot of information but don’t
understand an effective way to do it? 
Well, the answer to it is infographics. Infographics are the most beautiful and effective way
to transfer your extensive information. So, let’s understand what is infographics. Infographics
are used to represent your data visually in an attractive and easy way. Rather than giving a lot
of information in text for people to understand, it is better to give your information in an easy
and understandable way. 
The need for infographics 
Infographics are one of the most engaging contents that provide information about the whole
topic. They have the power to attract an audience and decrease bounce rate as they have the
ability to support SEO efforts.  
There is no doubt in the fact that people respond more to visual content. It is observed that a
human mostly remembers only 20% of the material we read. This is how our brain functions
as most of the information we read are lost in our daily life activities. But when we depend on
visuals, our brains are able to remember 90% of the information. So, this is the most effective
way of presenting your data and everyone can process it much faster. 
To represent your data in infographics, it is important to understand that what is the exact
information we want to put out. It should contain enough relevant information in an
interesting way, so, that readers could remember. There are different tools that are used to
make infographics. 
Free infographic toolmaker 
You all have heard about photoshop. For a very long time, whenever the word of designing
came to the surface, photoshop was the first word that came to mind. But now things have
changed. Technology has advanced and a number of different designing tools have been
made. Some of the designing tools which can be used to make free infographics are as
following: 

 Canva 

 Crello 

 DesignBold 

 Visually 

 Infogram 

 Venngage

Canva is one of the most popular and free tools nowadays. It is super popular because it is
easy to use and has a lot of material to carry on with. 
How to create infographics using Canva 
Canva has a huge database with a lot of free illustrations and images. It offers you pre-built
templates of different infographics in different formats such as PDF, JPG, or PNG. 
In order to build an infographic, the first step would be signing up on Canva in order to
generate a free account. You can sign up by using an email address, Facebook, or Google
account? After you sign up on Canva, you just need to get started. 
The homepage on Canva shows different templates which can be designed to create
anything. Once you log in to the account, the following steps should be followed to create
infographics. 
Choose your topic before designing anything, the most important part is brainstorming and
choosing your topic. The design and patterns of every topic vary. It is very important to
accurately know what information you want to transfer in your infographics. Whenever
designing an infographic, it is important to understand which template do you want. For
example, the infographics can be of different topics showing the following: 

 Reports: One of the most important infographic designs is for business reports.

Chance is that you might have a lot of data that is supposed to be analysed and
organized within a small proportion. This is the purpose of infographics. They can be
used to build an annual report showing different graphs, figures, and marketing data. 

 Survey Results: Instead of showing your results in numbers and written material, it is

effective in representing the concluded data by visuals. As it is said earlier that human
beings are visual creators, so, watching a well-designed and eye-catching infographic
would increase the reach of your information. 

 Timelines: This is an effective way of expressing your data rather than explaining the
history of events and how the brand evolved. As it is said earlier that infographics can
easily transform data into a visually attractive material than some boring reading
material. 

 Information: Providing data on some kind of information can be tricky because there

is a lot of information that needs to be put out. Infographics can be effectively used in
this case as we can limit the amount of information. Similarly, the difference between
most relevant and non-relevant information becomes clear and this promotes the
information more effectively. 
1. Lining up the Information 
As soon as you know what do you want in your infographics, it is needed that you evaluate
the relevance of information. Evaluating that whether you prefer image-heavy content or text-
heavy content is important while designing an infographic. It should also be known that how
would you like to present your data. There are different options such as bullets, charts, etc.
which can be used to present the data.
The layout of your infographic has a huge impact on how the audience views your
information. For example, if some company wants to present then sales rate during the year, a
different layout of infographic would be required. On the other hand, if a company wants to
provide information about how their company works, a different layout of the infographic
would be used. 
2. Organization of content 
Visual hierarchy is one of the most valuable things which should be kept in mind while
making one. It is known as the process in which data is arranged according to their
importance. This method makes sure that the audience does not miss any part and all key
points are delivered in order. Also, the elements and the content should be in a proper manner
to draw the attention of the audience. Always the audience tends to focus on the larger data
i.e., illustration, charts, or graphs). So, one should always place the most important content in
bold or timeline form. 
3. Choose a template
For creating an infographic, the first step is to know the dimensions you want. For this
purpose, you can choose any pre-built infographic template or custom size on a blank sheet.
Default size is 800 x 2000 px for infographics in canva. If you want to create an infographic
of a different size, you could choose the option to create your size before selecting a
template. 

4. Select the style 

As soon as you select the size you want, canva starts working and shows different options of
layout for you to choose. These layouts can act as the base of the infographic. There is a huge
number of layout styles in canva but almost 50 of these hundreds of designs are mostly
customized. Canva provides users with both free content along premium content such as
templates. But it should be noted that most of the templates present on the site are free. Every
category on canva has several options which include visual graphics, elements, designs, fonts,
etc. 
You would learn how to make perfect templates by spending some time on the site. 
 5. Fonts and Background Customization 
When you have selected a certain template, the next work to do is choosing the background
of the template. Every piece of information requires different kinds of background styles and
colors to make it attractive. Similarly, there is a large variety of fonts in canva to choose
from. Font should be chosen according to the type of context. For example, a medical
infographic would require serious color and style of background and the fonts should also be
chosen sensitively to represent the information effectively. 
For changing the background style and colors, you need to click on the icon which is present
on the left toolbar. Once you click that icon, it starts showing you different background
patterns, styles, and solid colors. Different minimalist patterns long with macro-photography
are present in this option. You can choose whatever background goes best with your brand
and information to ensure interesting creation. 
Once you have selected the background pattern and color, you need to choose the best font
style that goes with your background and content. For viewing different fonts, you need to
click on the text icon and multiple free and premium fonts would appear. You can choose any
text font you like. After selecting a font style, you can change the font size and the colors of
text to your own choice. While selecting the font, canva gives the option that whether your
text is a heading, sub-heading, or a text body. By selecting the type of text, the style and text
size is auto-adjusted. 
On the other hand, canva provides you with more than 20 filter options that can be applied to
your uploaded images or stock of canva images. Along with that, brightness, saturation, and
contrast could also be adjusted as required. 

6. Graphical Elements
Canva provides you with countless graphical elements. These days graphical elements play
an important role in making the content more interesting. The graphical elements on canva
are categorized by it to choose from different options. These elements are divided into
“grids”, “shapes”, “charts”, “grids”, icons”, and “illustrations”. You can find a different icon
for each niche in the section of elements. There is a vast variety of elements that can be added
to make your infographics more impressive. 
For selecting an element. You have to simply click on the one you want and it would appear
on your infographic. Elements can be resized and adjusted to your infographic requirement. 
Also, if you are in search of any specific element, you can type it in the search box given to
filter your results. 
The first look of an infographic should be eye-capturing to engage the readers. Adding these
graphical elements could be a great idea to do so. This is also one of the reasons canva is
ranked as the best free infographic tool as it provides its users with a variety of elements and
content to work with. 
 7. Download the file 
Once you are satisfied with the content on your infographic, it's time for you to save your file
and go on with it. For saving your file, you need to click on the arrow sign on the top right
corner of canva. When you will click on the arrow, it would suggest you the type of file you
should download. It suggests those types which would present your infographic in the best
manner. For example, if you have added any animation in your infographics, canva would
suggest you download it in mp4 to show the animations. But you can choose any form of the
file you want to download such as JPG, PNG, PDF, etc. 
Canva also allows you to share any format of your file with other social media sites such as
Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail. This allows a person to increase social media interaction by
sharing infographics directly to the sites. 
Infographic in the time of need 
Sometimes, infographics are made only to represent your data in an orderly manner.
Whereas, on the other hand, they can be the source of spreading out important information.
For this purpose, an infographic has become a need of the hour as it only contains specific
information. There is no excessive data on infographics which is a plus-point. Therefore, let's
understand that these infographics can be a time-saver. 
Conclusion 
Canva is considered the most popular free tool for infographics. It can be used easily by
selecting an infographic pre-build template and by changing its color, size, elements, and
background accordingly to need. This tool is one of the most efficient tools for generating
high-quality and engaging designs of infographics. Social media holds great power today.
Engaging infographics designed on canva can be used in the production of blocks making it
super simple and cost-effective. Therefore, it is highly suggested and rated as one of the most
important tools not only for designing infographics but also for designing business cards,
invitations, posts, etc. So, if you have been thinking about getting your information out in the
most effective way, then canva is your answer.