All the social media gurus are promoting carousels on Instagram like crazy! And I am here for it. But the carousel game has stepped up, and it is hard to stand out in a sea of aesthetic creations. That’s why I want to share my formula to create seamless carousels in Canva.
Carousels these days slide continuously, meaning elements and designs spill over to the next slide, i.e., seamlessly.
I highly recommend dipping your toes into this form of content. I find creating reels and shooting video content requires way more effort than creating carousels.
For this post, all examples will be based on a 5-slide carousel. Let’s jump into my quick and easy guide to creating carousels in Canva.
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A Beginner’s Guide to Creating Seamless Carousels In Canva
1. Create A Canvas
The first step to create seamless carousels in Canva is to create a blank design. The obvious choice is to open Canva and hit ‘create an Instagram post’, but that’s where you are going wrong.
WE GOTTA MATH
I know, I am not the biggest fan either. But in order to create a seamless carousel, we need to get the dimensions right.
- A normal post has a 4:5 ratio, i.e., 1080 pixels wide by 1350 pixels tall.
- We want our canvas wider to fit all the slides on one page.
HOW WE GONNA MATH?
- Decide how many slides you want in your carousel.
- Multiply that number by 1080.
- Your canvas will be ___ (the answer above) x 1350 pixels.
A LIL’ CHEATSHEET
- 3 slides = 3240 x 1350
- 4 slides = 4320 x 1350
- 5 slides = 5400 x 1350
- 6 slides = 6480 x 1350
- 7 slides = 7560 x 1350
- 8 slides = 8640 x 1350
OPEN THE DESIGN
Now that you know the dimension, you must open the design on Canva.
- Click ‘Create’ on Canva
- Choose ‘Custom size’
- Enter your width and height (make sure the unit is in ‘px’)
- Click ‘Create new design’
2. Add Guides
So, you are facing a daunting, long, blank canvas. What now?
Next, we need to add guidelines to block out every slide in your carousels, i.e., the margins where each slide starts and finishes.
THE PROCESS
- Navigate to ‘File’ in the top left
- Settings
- Add guides
- Here you want to select ‘custom’
- The rows should remain at zero
- As for the columns,
- Columns = the number of slides you have
- Gap = 0 px
- Margin = 0 px
- Click ‘Add guides’
3. Design
You should be looking at a white canvas with purple lines dictating the margins of each slide at this point.
Go about designing your carousel in your preferred style.
Personally, I like to keep my main message/idea on a single slide without bleeding over into the next for easy skimmability and readability.
Then I let decorations/photos bleed over into the next slide to create that seamless design.
4. Image Splitter
After designing, we need to split it into individual slides for your carousel. To do this, you will need an app that you can find on Canva.
THE PROCESS
- Navigate to ‘Apps’ on the left sidebar
- Search ‘Image Splitter’
- Open
- The Image Splitter app should open in your left sidebar
- Click ‘Export design’
- Choose PNG in the dropdown
- I don’t usually mess with the size slider. The image quality seems sufficient.
- Select the page you want to cut into slides and click ‘Done’.
- Export
- Now, for the split preset:
- Keep it at ‘Grid’
- Number of rows = 1
- Number of columns = the number of slides
- Split Image
5. Adding The Split Images To The Design
Your image is now split and open in preview mode on the left.
NEW PAGE
First of all, you can’t add the split images to your mega-wide design. We need the Instagram post size to make its grand return.
- Underneath the main design on your workspace, you will see a bar that says ‘+ Add page’. You want to click on the drop-down arrow.
- A bunch of options will appear.
- Select ‘Social Media’
- Followed by ‘Instagram Post (4:5)’
- A blank Instagram post-sized canvas will appear beneath your main design.
- Hip-hip-hooray, you are ready for the final steps!
SPLIT IMAGES MEET THE DESIGN
We are back on the left sidebar. I know, whiplash!
- Make sure you are on the blank page and not the main design.
- Click ‘Set background’ underneath image one in the sidebar.
- Select ‘+ Add page’ to add another Instagram post-sized blank page.
- Click ‘Set background’ under image two in the sidebar.
- Rinse and repeat until all your split images have their own page in your workspace.
If ‘Set background’ doesn’t work (it has happened to me before), click ‘Add to design’. The image will appear on your blank canvas. Right-click on the image and select ‘set image as background’.
6. Download
Your carousel is ready to download.
All that’s left is to click ‘share’ in the top right, download, choose PNG, select the pages, and download.
Do not select the mega-wide design. You only need to download the individual slides.
7. Upload To Instagram
You’ve made it!
- Hit the plus sign in the Instagram app.
- Check that it is on ‘post’.
- Select the first image of your carousel.
- There is a button to the right (middle-ish) that says ‘select’; press it. This will allow you to select multiple images.
- Tap the arrow in the top right to proceed.
- Add music.
- Write your description (keep keywords in mind for searchability and visibility).
- Navigate to ‘more options’ at the bottom.
- Scroll to ‘add alt text’: here you write a description of every image for the visually impaired. It is also another way to incorporate keywords.
- Share!
You are all set! Remember to share those carousels on TikTok too.
Final Thoughts
That’s a wrap on my system to create seamless carousels in Canva. I hope this helps you on your journey!
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Have a great day wherever you are in the world!
Love, Steph ♥
