This has been happening to me more and more lately. A client will send a Canva link and say something like “just use this,” and then I have to figure out what I actually have to work with.
Sometimes it is view-only, so I cannot edit anything. Sometimes I can edit, but then I am not sure whether I should be making changes in their file or taking a copy for myself. And then there are the surprises: brand kit colours that do not match the files they sent before, fonts that are not available in my account, or images that look fine on screen but fall apart when I try to download a usable version.
I have started asking a few questions before I touch anything: can I get edit access or a copy of my own, what do they actually need back from me, and are there any brand assets I should be using instead of what is in the file. It helps, but I still feel like I am guessing half the time.
What do you do first when a Canva link lands in your inbox? Do you work in their file, make a copy, or ask for proper files straight away? I am curious how other people handle the awkward middle ground where the link is convenient for the client but not really a proper handoff.
What Smurf said.
Though you may still be in for a world of crap with a PDF too.
We don’t even have a Canva account. I’ve yet to have a client send a link to a Canva file. If I can’t download a file from any resource, we have them put it in our Dropbox link. End of story.
So far, I’ve only encountered clients twice who have thrown Canva into the mix. One wanted the final results back in Canva, so I turned it down. The second was a promotional booklet with sponsor logos. Some of those logos were Canva files, so I asked for PDFs. It worked, but some of the PDFs were a mangled mess when I opened them in Illustrator.
I have no interest in working in a closed, consumer-grade platform. I’m semi-retired now anyway, so I feel no pressure to do so. Going forward, I’m considering telling clients that there’s a minimum $200 fee for any Canva asset that’s tossed into the project. I’ve been taking a similar approach for years when rebuilding logos for clients who send me low-res JPEGs instead of the vector art they can no longer find and never knew what to do with anyway.
Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the different angles here.
Smurf2, asking for a PDF first is a solid baseline — at least then I have something fixed to work from instead of a live file that can keep changing under me. PrintDriver, I take your point too: a PDF is no guarantee, and it sounds like you have avoided the whole Canva question by simply not having an account, which is fair enough.
Just-B, your $200 minimum fee idea really stuck with me. It puts a price on the extra cleanup work instead of just absorbing it, and the sponsor logo example shows why — a mangled PDF from Canva can take longer to rebuild than starting from scratch. I like that it also makes the client think twice before tossing a half-finished file over.
I think I am landing somewhere in the middle: ask for the PDF or proper source files first, and if all they have is the Canva link, be upfront that it may take longer and cost more. Thanks again for sharing how you each handle it.
It’s standard to ask for a PDF. If someone sends me a word document, even me opening that can cause shifts in the text, images, sizes etc. as I don’t have the same version of Word they have so things do shift. So a PDF makes it easier to see what they see their end.
Same goes for anything really. And the fixed fee for non-standard file formats is pretty normal. Whether it’s a logo, or a Canva file, or a badly made PDF.
I can show the client how it outputs and explain why their PDF looks good on screen but doesn’t meet the output requirements and that it needs to be rebuilt and there’s fee for that.
Doesn’t matter if it’s a PDF, jpeg file, Canva file - if it’s not going to come out right it’s not going to come out right. They have a choice - go with what they supplied or me. Or let me fix it for a fee and have it look good.
Usually they go for the fixed fee fixups. But on occassion they just ask to print what they supplied and they sign the waiver saying the quality of output is not my responsibility and they waive their right to a reprint due to poor quality. But of course we’ll do everything we can to make it output better, but not too much. We try. But no guarantee.
That waiver point is really useful, Smurf2, and it is the part I had not thought through properly. Showing the client how their file actually outputs, rather than just telling them it will not work, makes the choice concrete for them.
I am going to borrow that framing: fix it for the fee and have it look right, or print as supplied with no reprint guarantee. It keeps the decision with the client, but it also protects me from being blamed for a file I did not build. Do you put that waiver in writing every time, even for small jobs, or is it more of a verbal agreement unless the print run is a big one?