Downloaded design looks blurry
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) compress uploaded images and limit resolution to 1080p. This can make a design appear blurry, so even 4K outputs won’t retain their quality when shared.
My download looks blurry or pixelated
What can cause this
Your downloaded design may look blurry or pixelated because of its dimensions, the quality of uploaded images, the file type you chose, filters, or GIF limitations.
What to do
Check the design dimensions
Check your design’s dimensions before downloading. Designs smaller than 500 × 500 pixels (px) may look blurry when downloaded.
Check the quality of any uploaded images
If you’ve uploaded images to your Canva design, check if they’re high resolution. Low-quality images can look blurry or pixelated when downloaded. When possible, upload photos with a resolution of 300 dots per inch (DPI).
Choose a different file type
The file type you choose can affect your downloaded design’s quality.
- JPG: Best for images with smaller file sizes, such as web uploads.
- PNG: Best for line drawings, text, and icons. It’s also commonly used for web uploads.
- PDF Standard: Best for multi-page or text-heavy documents.
- PDF Print: Best for printing or downloading a high-quality version of your design. It’s the only file type that saves at professional print quality (300 DPI). Low-quality images may still look blurry in a PDF Print.
With Canva Pro, Canva Business, Canva Education, and Canva Nonprofits, you can increase the size and quality settings for JPG and PNG files to help reduce blurriness.
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and X may compress uploaded images, which can make your design look blurry.
For best results, download your design as a PNG before uploading it. PNG is also a good option for designs that use thin fonts.
If you have Canva Pro, Canva Business, Canva Education, or Canva for Nonprofits, you can also try to:
- Double your design’s dimensions using resize.
- Download the design as a JPG or PNG using the highest available Size and Quality settings. Select PNG or JPG from the file type dropdown, then choose your preferred settings.
Remove filters
If you've applied a filter to your image, try to remove the filter to see if the quality improves. Some filters have a ‘softening’ effect, which may cause a design to look blurry.
Use video format for GIF
If you've designed a GIF, we recommend downloading it in video format to retain the colors of your design.
The GIF file format has a hard-coded limitation of 256 colors. If you download a design as a GIF, it has an unavoidable loss of quality.
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