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Connect API — Designs
Designs Overview
The Canva Connect APIs for managing designs.
The designs endpoint lets you interact with the designs present in a user's content library. For more information about Canva designs, see Canva concepts.
Designs APIs
- Create design: Create a new Canva design.
- List designs: List all the user's designs.
- Get design: Get the metadata for one of the user's designs.
- Get design pages: Get the metadata for pages in a design.
- Get design export formats: Get the export formats available for a design.
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 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.
NOTE: Blank designs created with this API are automatically deleted if they're not edited within 7 days. These blank designs bypass the user's Canva trash and are permanently deleted.
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 and authorization
This endpoint requires a valid access token that acts on behalf of a user.
Scopes
The access token must have all the following scopes (permissions):
design:content:write
Header parameters
<Prop.List> <Prop name="Authorization" type="string" required> Provides credentials to authenticate the request, in the form of a Bearer token.
For example: `Authorization: Bearer {token}`
</Prop>
<Prop name="Content-Type" type="string" required> Indicates the media type of the information sent in the request. This must be set to application/json.
For example: `Content-Type: application/json`
</Prop> </Prop.List>
Body parameters
<Tabs> <Tab name="type_and_asset"> For backward compatibility, if type isn't specified in the request, the request type will be assumed to be type_and_asset.
<Prop.List>
<Prop name="type" type="string" required>
For backward compatibility, if `type` isn't specified in the request, the request type will be assumed to be `type_and_asset`.
</Prop>
<Prop name="design_type" type="DesignTypeInput">
The desired design type.
<Tabs>
<Tab name="preset">
Provide the common design type.
<Prop.List>
<Prop name="type" type="string" required>
<Prop.Extras>
**Available values:** The only valid value is `preset`.
</Prop.Extras>
</Prop>
<Prop name="name" type="string" required>
The name of the design type.
<Prop.Extras>
**Available values:**
* `doc`: A Canva doc; a document for Canva's online text editor.
* `email`: An email; for creating email campaign designs.
* `presentation`: A presentation; lets you create and collaborate for presenting to an audience.
* `whiteboard`: A whiteboard; a design which gives you infinite space to collaborate.
</Prop.Extras>
</Prop>
</Prop.List>
</Tab>
<Tab name="custom">
Provide the width and height to define a custom design type.
<Prop.List>
<Prop name="type" type="string" required>
<Prop.Extras>
**Available values:** The only valid value is `custom`.
</Prop.Extras>
</Prop>
<Prop name="width" type="integer" required>
The width of the design, in pixels.
<Prop.Extras>
**Minimum:** `40`
**Maximum:** `8000`
</Prop.Extras>
</Prop>
<Prop name="height" type="integer" required>
The height of the design, in pixels.
<Prop.Extras>
**Minimum:** `40`
**Maximum:** `8000`
</Prop.Extras>
</Prop>
</Prop.List>
</Tab>
</Tabs>
</Prop>
<Prop name="asset_id" type="string">
The ID of an asset to insert into the created design. Currently, this only supports image assets.
</Prop>
<Prop name="title" type="string">
The name of the design.
<Prop.Extras>
**Minimum length:** `1`
**Maximum length:** `255`
</Prop.Extras>
</Prop>
</Prop.List>
</Tab> </Tabs>
Example request
Examples for using the /v1/designs endpoint:
<Tabs storageKey="example.language" disableContentTransition> <Tab name="cURL"> sh curl --request POST 'https://api.canva.com/rest/v1/designs' \ --header 'Authorization: Bearer {token}' \ --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \ --data '{ "type": "type_and_asset", "design_type": { "type": "preset", "name": "doc" }, "asset_id": "Msd59349ff", "title": "My Holiday Presentation" }' </Tab>
<Tab name="Node.js"> ```js 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({
"type": "type_and_asset",
"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));
```
</Tab>
<Tab name="Java"> ```java 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("{\"type\": \"type_and_asset\", \"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());
}
}
```
</Tab>
<Tab name="Python"> ```py import requests
headers = {
"Authorization": "Bearer {token}",
"Content-Type": "application/json"
}
data = {
"type": "type_and_asset",
"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())
```
</Tab>
<Tab name="C#"> ```csharp 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(
"{\"type\": \"type_and_asset\", \"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);
};
```
</Tab>
<Tab name="Go"> ```go package main
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
"strings"
)
func main() {
payload := strings.NewReader(`{
"type": "type_and_asset",
"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))
}
```
</Tab>
<Tab name="PHP"> ```php $curl = curl_init(); curl_setopt_array($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([ "type" => "type_and_asset", "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;
}
```
</Tab>
<Tab name="Ruby"> ```ruby 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
{
"type": "type_and_asset",
"design_type": {
"type": "preset",
"name": "doc"
},
"asset_id": "Msd59349ff",
"title": "My Holiday Presentation"
}
REQUEST_BODY
response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body
```
</Tab> </Tabs>
Success response
If successful, the endpoint returns a 200 response with a JSON body with the following parameters:
<Prop.List> <Prop name="design" type="Design" required mode="output"> The design object, which contains metadata about the design.
<PillAccordion title={<>Properties of <strong>design</strong></>} defaultExpanded={true}>
<Prop.List>
<Prop name="id" type="string" required mode="output">
The design ID.
</Prop>
<Prop name="owner" type="TeamUserSummary" required mode="output">
Metadata for the user, consisting of the User ID and Team ID.
<PillAccordion title={<>Properties of <strong>owner</strong></>}>
<Prop.List>
<Prop name="user_id" type="string" required mode="output">
The ID of the user.
</Prop>
<Prop name="team_id" type="string" required mode="output">
The ID of the user's Canva Team.
</Prop>
</Prop.List>
</PillAccordion>
</Prop>
<Prop name="urls" type="DesignLinks" required mode="output">
A temporary set of URLs for viewing or editing the design.
<PillAccordion title={<>Properties of <strong>urls</strong></>}>
<Prop.List>
<Prop name="edit_url" type="string" required mode="output">
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.
NOTE: This is not a permanent URL, it is only valid for 30 days.
</Prop>
<Prop name="view_url" type="string" required mode="output">
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.
NOTE: This is not a permanent URL, it is only valid for 30 days.
</Prop>
</Prop.List>
</PillAccordion>
</Prop>
<Prop name="created_at" type="integer" required mode="output">
When the design was created in Canva, as a Unix timestamp (in seconds since the Unix
Epoch).
</Prop>
<Prop name="updated_at" type="integer" required mode="output">
When the design was last updated in Canva, as a Unix timestamp (in seconds since the
Unix Epoch).
</Prop>
<Prop name="title" type="string" mode="output">
The design title.
</Prop>
<Prop name="thumbnail" type="Thumbnail" mode="output">
A thumbnail image representing the object.
<PillAccordion title={<>Properties of <strong>thumbnail</strong></>}>
<Prop.List>
<Prop name="width" type="integer" required mode="output">
The width of the thumbnail image in pixels.
</Prop>
<Prop name="height" type="integer" required mode="output">
The height of the thumbnail image in pixels.
</Prop>
<Prop name="url" type="string" required mode="output">
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.
</Prop>
</Prop.List>
</PillAccordion>
</Prop>
<Prop name="page_count" type="integer" mode="output">
The total number of pages in the design. Some design types don't have pages (for example, Canva docs).
</Prop>
</Prop.List>
</PillAccordion>
</Prop> </Prop.List>
Example response
json
{
"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
}
}