Editing Graphics

1. If you don't have a Canva account yet, please create one. Students can get free access to pro features of Canva via Canva for Education, while non-students can create an account here.

2. Join the Effective Altruism Groups Team Canva Team by clicking this link. You can also invite other co-organizers of yours who will need graphics templates to this Canva team, either by giving them the link above (or having them clicking it), or doing the instructions here.

3. Navigate to the team folders. If your team has little graphic design experience, or little time, we recommend groups use the “EA Groups Default Designs” folder, which contain easy to use (and hard to mess up) designs.

4. Choose a design you like, hover to get the three dots, and click “Make a copy”.

5. Then edit.

6. Download graphics as a jpg or png file, and make sure to choose an appropriate file size. A small size will look okay on screens, but you’ll need a larger file size for printing posters.

7. Once you’ve downloaded the file, open it up on your computer and zoom in to check the resolution is okay for your purpose.

This video has tips on how to replace elements and images in the EA Groups Default Designs.

1. Go to https://designer.gravit.io and sign up - the free version has plenty of features, so it is unlikely you’ll need to buy the professional version. Gravit may prompt you to start a free trial - you can start one if you'd like, but you won't need to buy the professional version to edit the files.

2. Click on the gvdesign file of the image you want to modify from the Available Graphics page.

3. Edit it

4. Export your file into jpg, png or pdf, and use!

This video explains how to make new Gravit files, edit existing EA Gravit files, save, and export.

This video explains how to use Gravit to cut out a shape (e.g. if you want to cut around a photo of a speaker to put them on a different background).

The most common fonts used are Raleway and Roboto Slab, which is used in the text of some Effective Altruism logos.

If you are editing or creating in Gravit or Canva, these fonts are already installed. 

If you are creating files using apps on your computer (e.g. Photoshop, Publisher, Word) you need to download and install the fonts (download Raleway, download Roboto Slab) - instructions here.

If you are creating files using Google Docs, you can use these fonts and more by installing the Google Docs add-on “Extensis Fonts)“.

Some EA relevant stock images are available here.

Other places for finding great free stock images are:

• Unsplash

• Pexels

• Pixabay

You can also try Google image search. In the tools menu, click on “usage rights” and select “labeled for non-commercial reuse with modification” so that you only find images you can legally use.

Canva has a selection of free and editable photos you can use within your graphics. When creating a graphic, navigate to the left sidebar and click "elements". You can type in a search term and then click "photos" for readily usable images. 

You can also use these photos from EA groups around the world.

Note: Facebook seems to regularly change the ideal dimensions (and there is a range of contradictory advice out there).

• Facebook Group and Meetup Banner: 820 pixels wide by 462 pixels tall, however the top 48 pixels and bottom 48 pixels will be cropped off when facebook is viewed on a desktop. The entire image will be seen on mobile phones. This same size works for a meetup group banner, but meetup doesn’t crop the image, so you may wish to have a slightly different meetup image to utilise the space better.

• Facebook Page Banner: 820 pixels wide by 462 pixels tall (same as for groups), however the top 75 pixels and bottom 75 pixels will be cropped off when viewed on a desktop. The entire image will be seen on mobile phones.

• Facebook profile picture (for a page): 360 pixels by 360 pixels

• Facebook and Meetup Event Image: 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels tall

• Physical banners: Different printing companies have different options for banner dimensions. Before you edit an image, work out what banner stand you are using, and find the ratio of the width to the height of the banner that fits the stand.

Make the file as large as possible (the more pixels the better) to ensure your print is crisp.