How to Create an eBook in Canva for Free

In this tutorial, I am going to show how to create an eBook in Canva for free.

Canva is an very popular online design and publishing tool that lets you create resume, infographics, Instagram post, Facebook post, YouTube thumbnails, blog banners, brochure and more.

And of course, not to forget, eBooks.

You may feel that creating a professionally looking eBook on your own is hard, but there are plenty of popular eBook creator tools that can help you create a professionally looking eBook with ease.

And one such tool is Canva.

The key features that makes Canva one of the best free eBook maker are:

• Hundreds of customizable pre-designed eBook templates
• Hundreds of customizable pre-designed eBook Cover templates
• Hundreds of thousands of free images, icons, illustrations and other graphics
• Easy to use drag-and-drop editor to customize eBook templates
• 5GB of cloud storage under the free plan

All the above features are included in the Canva free plan. Of course, if you upgrade to its paid plans, you get more advanced features and access to premium templates, millions of premium stock photos, videos, audio and graphics.

Let's get started with the tutorial and see how to create an eBook with this amazing free tool called Canva.

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If you like to watch a video on this topic, you can check out this video from my YouTube Channel. The video is in Hindi language. English language users can follow the English sub-titles included in the video.

How to Create an eBook in Canva Step by Step

Visit Canva.com and sign up for the free account using your email id. You can also sign up using your Facebook or Google account.

Once you login to your Canva account, you can see a search bar at the top.

Enter "ebook" in the search bar. Canva will automatically suggest eBook Cover for your search term. However, instead of clicking on it, just press the Enter key. We will use the eBook Cover option later in this article.

So, just enter the term - ebook, in the search bar and press Enter.

Canva will display eBook templates related to different categories (see the above image) that includes layouts for every style and theme. When you hover the mouse over these templates, you will notice following four options:

1. Whether the template is free or paid. There are many free templates that you can use for your eBook.
2. Whether the eBook template has single page or multiple pages. Since your eBook will consist of multiple pages, select the template which offers at least 4 pages. (You can definitely add more pages inside the Canva editor.)
3. Preview option to see the template in action.
4. Whether customization option is available for the template. It will allow you to edit each and every element of the template to design the eBook in your own way.

As seen in the above image, click the three-dot icon and select Preview this template to preview it on the large screen. Alternatively, you can click Use this template to directly use it.

So, ideally, in Step 1, you'll select a template which is free, has multiple pages and offer customization option. Once you find the template of your choice, click on Use this template, it will open the Canva Editor.

Let's move ahead to Step number 2.

Please see the above image, to get familiar with the Canva Editor interface. On the left side of the editor, you get the following option:

• Templates. Here you can see the template you've chosen for your eBook. In case you decide to change the template, you can search for different templates here. Just enter your search term and press Enter. Canva will display a range of different templates to choose from.
• Elements. Canva elements lets you add lines & shapes, graphics, photos, video, audio, charts, frames, grids and more. To add any element, just click on the element and drag it inside the main window.

• Uploads. Though Canva offers lots of free images, graphics and other elements, it is flexible enough to allow you to add your own images or graphics even in the free plan. Click on the Upload Media to add your images/graphics from your computer.
• Text. Want to add some fancy looking attractive text in your eBook, Canva excels here too. Under the Text option, you get lots of free as well as paid pre-made text template. If you choose paid text, then it may cost you anywhere starting from $1 per template. Hover the mouse over the text element to see whether it is marked Pro (paid) or Free.

• Styles. Canva lets you add color patterns to your eBook design. You can select a pre-designed sets of color and fonts. You can choose to apply the changes to only one page or on all the pages of your eBook.

• Background and other important elements. You can select the Background option to add custom background to your eBook. Under More option, you get option to integrate your Canva account with important tools and websites like - Facebook, Pexels, Pixabay, Emoji, Giphy, Google Drive, Instagram and others.

As I said earlier, each template is highly customizable. For example, if you want to make changes to the home page, you can change - text, images, font, color and others, to make your own design.

Canva gives you endless possibilities to tweak and make changes to your eBook as per your requirement.

You can even upload your brand logo, color or font to give it a brand identity reflecting your business.

You're not only limited to only 4 pages of your template. To add more pages you can either (1) add a new page or (2) add a duplicate page and customize it.

Once you're ready with your eBook, you can click the Download button at the top and select PDF Standard (small file size, multiple pages)or PDF Print (high quality, multiple pages) from the File type. Make sure that all the pages are selected under Select pages.

Now click on Download to save the eBook on your computer.

After completing your eBook, now it's time to create an awesome looking cover using a popular eBook cover creator. And the tool that I personally use and recommend to my readers is my favorite - Canva.

Visit the home page of Canva and enter the term "ebook" in the search bar. Canva will automatically suggest eBook Cover for your search term. Select it and Canva will show you lots of pre-made ebook cover template ready for you to customize.

Select any template of your choice and customize it as per your requirement using the drag-and-drop editor offered by the Canva tool.

Also Check: Amazing eBook landing page design

Few Important Things to Consider

Number of Pages

By default, Canva allow you to create an eBook with up to 100 pages. If you need more pages in your eBook, you will have to create another eBook following the same process as mentioned above.

Then you can merge the two eBooks downloaded in PDF format using free tools like SmallPDF.com or Sodapdf.com.

Importing Content

If you have your content ready with Microsoft Word or Google Docs or even blog post, you can't import it directly into Canva.

If you need the ability to import your content, you can consider using Designrr which is a paid tool. You can learn more about it here - Designrr Review, where I have explained all its features & benefits, pros and cons, price, alternatives and more.

With Canva, the only option you have is to copy your content and paste it in the Canva editor.

Page Numbering

Canva doesn't automatically add page numbers in your eBook. To enter page number, you would have to enter it manually on all the pages.

To add or not to add page number, you would have to consider two following things:

1. If you want your eBook to have fixed layout (fixed height & width) then you may add page number to it.
2. However, if you want your eBook to change shape according to the device you read it on, then not adding page number may be a good idea.

Table of Content

A table of content is a list, usually added at the beginning of an eBook, which outlines the chapters with their corresponding page numbers. Apart from chapter names, one may also include bullet points of the sub-chapter headings or subsection headings in the table of contents.

Adding table of content serves two purposes:

• It gives your readers an idea of how the eBook is structured
• A table of content contain hyperlinks to important part/sections of an eBook. These hyperlinks allows your readers to quickly access these specific sections of the eBook.

In Canva, search for the term - table of content. It will display hundreds of free/paid table of content. Select the one that fits your requirement and make changes in the editor. Once you're ready with the changes, download it and add it to your eBook.

eBook Formats

Canva allows to download an eBook in the following format - PNG, JPG, PDF Standard, PDF Print, MP4 Video and GIF. Pro plan allows to download in SVG format also.

As you can see above, Canva doesn't support formats like - ePub or Mobi. However, you can make use for free online tools to convert your PDF into these formats.

For example, you can use the PDF to ePub converter tool to convert your eBook in PDF format to ePub format.

Wrapping Up

I hope this article has helped you to learn how to create an eBook in Canva and that too for free.

Canva is a versatile tool to create social media graphics, documents, presentations, banners, Pinterest pins, YouTube thumbnails and other visual content like eBooks.

Whether you're looking to create eBook for your project work or as a lead magnet for your blog or online business, Canva can be a perfect list building tool for you. And it is totally free.

You only pay when you use any premium items - images, graphics, icons and others, in your eBook.

Thus, there is no need to use any complicated graphic designer software or hire any graphic designer to create your eBook.

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Get started with Canva today.