Create design

Create a Canva design.

Creates a new Canva design. To create a new design, you can either:

  • Use a preset design type.
  • Set height and width dimensions for a custom design.

Additionally, you can also provide the asset_id of an asset in the user's projects(opens in a new tab or window) to add to the new design. Currently, this only supports image assets. To list the assets in a folder in the user's projects, use the List folder items API.

HTTP method and URL path

POST https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs

This operation is rate limited to 20 requests per minute for each user of your integration.

Authentication

This endpoint requires a valid access token that acts on behalf of a user. The token must have the following scopes (permissions):

  • design:content:write

For more information, see Scopes.

Header parameters

AuthorizationstringRequired

Provides credentials to authenticate the request, in the form of a Bearer token.

For example: Authorization: Bearer {token}

Content-TypestringRequired

Indicates the media type of the information sent in the request. This must be set to application/json.

For example: Content-Type: application/json

Body parameters

design_typeDesignTypeInputOptional

The desired design type.

typestringRequired

This can be one of the following:

  • preset: Provide the common design type.
  • custom: Provide the width and height to define a custom design type.
namestring
Sometimes required

The name of the design type.

Available values:

widthinteger
Sometimes required

The width of the design, in pixels.

Minimum: 40

Maximum: 8000

heightinteger
Sometimes required

The height of the design, in pixels.

Minimum: 40

Maximum: 8000

asset_idstringOptional

The ID of an asset to insert into the created design. Currently, this only supports image assets.

titlestringOptional

The name of the design.

Minimum length: 1

Maximum length: 255

Example request

Examples for using the /v1/designs endpoint:

curl --request POST 'https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {token}' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
"design_type": {
"type": "preset",
"name": "doc"
},
"asset_id": "Msd59349ff",
"title": "My Holiday Presentation"
}'
SH
const fetch = require("node-fetch");
fetch("https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": "Bearer {token}",
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"design_type": {
"type": "preset",
"name": "doc"
},
"asset_id": "Msd59349ff",
"title": "My Holiday Presentation"
}),
})
.then(async (response) => {
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);
})
.catch(err => console.error(err));
JS
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.*;
public class ApiExample {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
HttpRequest request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
.uri(URI.create("https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs"))
.header("Authorization", "Bearer {token}")
.header("Content-Type", "application/json")
.method("POST", HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString("{\"design_type\": {\"type\": \"preset\", \"name\": \"doc\"}, \"asset_id\": \"Msd59349ff\", \"title\": \"My Holiday Presentation\"}"))
.build();
HttpResponse<String> response = HttpClient.newHttpClient().send(
request,
HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString()
);
System.out.println(response.body());
}
}
JAVA
import requests
headers = {
"Authorization": "Bearer {token}",
"Content-Type": "application/json"
}
data = {
"design_type": {
"type": "preset",
"name": "doc"
},
"asset_id": "Msd59349ff",
"title": "My Holiday Presentation"
}
response = requests.post("https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs",
headers=headers,
json=data
)
print(response.json())
PY
using System.Net.Http;
var client = new HttpClient();
var request = new HttpRequestMessage
{
Method = HttpMethod.Post,
RequestUri = new Uri("https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs"),
Headers =
{
{ "Authorization", "Bearer {token}" },
},
Content = new StringContent(
"{\"design_type\": {\"type\": \"preset\", \"name\": \"doc\"}, \"asset_id\": \"Msd59349ff\", \"title\": \"My Holiday Presentation\"}",
Encoding.UTF8,
"application/json"
),
};
using (var response = await client.SendAsync(request))
{
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
var body = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
Console.WriteLine(body);
};
CSHARP
package main
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
"strings"
)
func main() {
payload := strings.NewReader(`{
"design_type": {
"type": "preset",
"name": "doc"
},
"asset_id": "Msd59349ff",
"title": "My Holiday Presentation"
}`)
url := "https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs"
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, payload)
req.Header.Add("Authorization", "Bearer {token}")
req.Header.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
defer res.Body.Close()
body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)
fmt.Println(string(body))
}
GO
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs",
CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
'Authorization: Bearer {token}',
'Content-Type: application/json',
),
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
"design_type" => [
"type" => "preset",
"name" => "doc"
],
"asset_id" => "Msd59349ff",
"title" => "My Holiday Presentation"
])
));
$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);
curl_close($curl);
if (empty($err)) {
echo $response;
} else {
echo "Error: " . $err;
}
PHP
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
url = URI('https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs')
http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request['Authorization'] = 'Bearer {token}'
request['Content-Type'] = 'application/json'
request.body = <<REQUEST_BODY
{
"design_type": {
"type": "preset",
"name": "doc"
},
"asset_id": "Msd59349ff",
"title": "My Holiday Presentation"
}
REQUEST_BODY
response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body
RUBY

Success response

If successful, the endpoint returns a 200 response with a JSON body with the following parameters:

designDesign

The design object, which contains metadata about the design.

idstring

The design ID.

ownerTeamUserSummary

Metadata for the user, consisting of the User ID and Team ID.

user_idstring

The ID of the user.

team_idstring

The ID of the user's Canva Team.

urlsDesignLinks

A temporary set of URLs for viewing or editing the design.

edit_urlstring

A temporary editing URL for the design. This URL is only accessible to the user that made the API request, and is designed to support return navigation workflows.

This is not a permanent URL, it is only valid for 30 days.

view_urlstring

A temporary viewing URL for the design. This URL is only accessible to the user that made the API request, and is designed to support return navigation workflows.

This is not a permanent URL, it is only valid for 30 days.

created_atinteger

When the design was created in Canva, as a Unix timestamp (in seconds since the Unix Epoch).

updated_atinteger

When the design was last updated in Canva, as a Unix timestamp (in seconds since the Unix Epoch).

titlestringOptional

The design title.

thumbnailThumbnailOptional

A thumbnail image representing the object.

widthinteger

The width of the thumbnail image in pixels.

heightinteger

The height of the thumbnail image in pixels.

urlstring

A URL for retrieving the thumbnail image. This URL expires after 15 minutes. This URL includes a query string that's required for retrieving the thumbnail.

page_countintegerOptional

The total number of pages in the design. Some design types don't have pages (for example, Canva docs).

Example response

{
"design": {
"id": "DAFVztcvd9z",
"title": "My summer holiday",
"owner": {
"user_id": "auDAbliZ2rQNNOsUl5OLu",
"team_id": "Oi2RJILTrKk0KRhRUZozX"
},
"thumbnail": {
"width": 595,
"height": 335,
"url": "https://document-export.canva.com/Vczz9/zF9vzVtdADc/2/thumbnail/0001.png?<query-string>"
},
"urls": {
"edit_url": "https://www.canva.com/api/design/eyJhbGciOiJkaXIiLCJlbmMiOiJBMjU2R0NNIiwiZXhwaXJ5IjoxNzQyMDk5NDAzMDc5fQ..GKLx2hrJa3wSSDKQ.hk3HA59qJyxehR-ejzt2DThBW0cbRdMBz7Fb5uCpwD-4o485pCf4kcXt_ypUYX0qMHVeZ131YvfwGPIhbk-C245D8c12IIJSDbZUZTS7WiCOJZQ.sNz3mPSQxsETBvl_-upMYA/edit",
"view_url": "https://www.canva.com/api/design/eyJhbGciOiJkaXIiLCJlbmMiOiJBMjU2R0NNIiwiZXhwaXJ5IjoxNzQyMDk5NDAzMDc5fQ..GKLx2hrJa3wSSDKQ.hk3HA59qJyxehR-ejzt2DThBW0cbRdMBz7Fb5uCpwD-4o485pCf4kcXt_ypUYX0qMHVeZ131YvfwGPIhbk-C245D8c12IIJSDbZUZTS7WiCOJZQ.sNz3mPSQxsETBvl_-upMYA/view"
},
"created_at": 1377396000,
"updated_at": 1692928800,
"page_count": 5
}
}
JSON

Try it out

Step 1: Enter your access token

To get started, generate an access token or provide your own below