Print files from Canva, Word and PowerPoint: what goes wrong and how to avoid it
A large share of the files uploaded to an online print service were never made in a design program. They come out of Canva, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Google Docs, because that is what the person had. There is nothing wrong with that. A flyer laid out in PowerPoint prints perfectly well if the file is exported properly. The trouble is that these tools were built for screens, and each of them hides a few defaults that produce a blurry logo, a white edge or a colour shift on paper. This guide goes through each tool, the settings that matter, and how to check the exported PDF before you order.
Four things every print file needs, whatever made it
- The right page size. An A5 flyer needs an A5 page, not an A4 page with the design in the middle. Set the document size before you start; resizing at the end stretches everything.
- Bleed. Any colour or image that reaches the edge must extend 3 mm past it, so the guillotine has room. Office tools do not add bleed automatically, and this is the single most common reason files get sent back.
- Images at print resolution. 300 pixels per inch at the printed size. A 1000-pixel-wide photo prints cleanly at about 85 mm wide and no more.
- Fonts embedded. The PDF must carry its fonts. Most exporters do this, but a few settings turn it off.
How you get each of these differs by tool.
Canva
Canva is the easiest of the three to get right because it has a print-aware export. When you download, choose PDF Print, not PDF Standard. Then tick Crop marks and bleed, and choose CMYK as the colour profile if your plan offers it (free plans export RGB, which the printer will convert; the result is fine for most jobs but bright greens and oranges will dull).
Two Canva-specific traps:
- Canva adds bleed by extending the canvas, but it does not extend your images for you. Drag any edge-to-edge photo or background out past the dashed bleed line before exporting, or you will get a white sliver on one edge.
- Stock photos on a free plan carry a watermark until licensed. It looks faint on screen and prints clearly. Check every image before you export.
Custom sizes are set under Resize or when creating the design; use millimetres, and enter the trimmed size (the bleed is added at export). For a folded leaflet, set up the flat size and draw guide lines at the folds; Canva has no fold tool, so keep text at least 5 mm from each fold line.
Microsoft Word
Word can produce a decent print PDF, but it fights you on page size and bleed. Set the page size under Layout, Size, More Paper Sizes, and enter the trimmed size plus 6 mm in each direction (so an A5 flyer becomes 154 x 216 mm). Set all margins to 3 mm and design to the edge of the page; the outer 3 mm is your bleed. Tell the printer in the order notes that bleed is included and the page is oversize by 6 mm, or they may trim the document size exactly and lose your bleed.
Export with File, Save As, PDF, and under Options choose PDF/A or leave the default but make sure "ISO 19005-1 compliant" is either on or the image quality is set to "Standard (publishing online and printing)". The "Minimum size" option downsamples every photo to screen resolution and is the reason so many Word-made flyers print soft.
Word images are the biggest problem. Word compresses pictures on save by default; turn this off under File, Options, Advanced, Image Size and Quality, and tick "Do not compress images in file" before you place anything. A logo pasted from a website will be 72 ppi no matter what you do afterwards; ask for the original file.
PowerPoint and Google Slides
PowerPoint is a surprisingly good layout tool for single-page items. The slide size is set under Design, Slide Size, Custom, and it accepts millimetres. As with Word, make the slide 6 mm bigger than the trimmed size and design to the edge.
Export with File, Export, Create PDF/XPS, and choose "Standard" quality. Do not print to PDF through a virtual printer; that route rasterises text on some systems and drops transparency. PowerPoint also has a hidden setting that limits exported image resolution to 220 ppi: File, Options, Advanced, "Default resolution" should be set to "High fidelity" before you export. It is off by default and it is why gradients and photos out of PowerPoint often look slightly coarse.
Google Slides exports via File, Download, PDF. There is no quality setting and images are exported at their placed resolution, which is usually fine. Page size is under File, Page setup, Custom, and it accepts centimetres. Google Slides cannot add bleed marks, so use the oversize-page method and note it in the order.
Checking the PDF before you upload
Open the exported PDF in Acrobat Reader or any viewer and look at four things.
| Check | How | What you want to see |
|---|---|---|
| Page size | File, Properties, or Document Properties | Trimmed size plus 6 mm, or trimmed size with marks |
| Image sharpness | Zoom to 300 percent on a photo | Smooth edges, no visible pixels |
| Fonts | Properties, Fonts tab | Every font listed as "Embedded" or "Embedded Subset" |
| Edge colour | Look at the corners at 100 percent | Colour runs past where the trim will be, no white lines |
If a font shows as not embedded, the usual cause is a system font with licensing restrictions. Replace it with a similar font that embeds, or convert the text to an image at 600 ppi as a last resort. Our guide to embedding and outlining fonts explains what the viewer shows and why text sometimes shifts between machines.
Colour is the one thing you cannot fully check on screen. All three tools work in RGB, and the printer converts to CMYK. Expect vivid blues to go slightly purple and bright greens to dull; if a brand colour matters, give the CMYK values in your order notes and we will match to them rather than to the file. The article on ICC profiles and soft proofing covers why the conversion behaves the way it does.
What we do with office-tool files
Every file uploaded to our digital printing service goes through a preflight check before anything is printed. For files from Canva, Word and PowerPoint we specifically look for missing bleed, low-resolution images, RGB colour that will shift badly, and text too close to the trim. If something needs fixing, you get a note and a marked-up proof rather than a rejection; simple fixes such as extending a background or adding bleed to a solid colour we do on our side at no charge. Anything that would change your design, such as replacing a soft logo, we ask about first.
If you would rather send the original file than a PDF, that works too for Word and PowerPoint documents; we export it on our systems with the correct settings and send you a proof to approve. Canva designs can be shared with us by link. The full range of digital and colour work is listed on the digital and colour printing page, and if you are unsure whether a file will work, the fastest route is to upload it and ask through the contact page before you place the order. Checking takes minutes; a reprint takes days.
