All posts tagged: Canva

This free design tool replaced my Canva Pro subscription overnight

This free design tool replaced my Canva Pro subscription overnight

Published by skeptic

Canva Pro is one of the subscriptions I’ve had for a while. It has helped me do more than just create designs and edit photos; I’ve also hosted websites and presented PPTs using the platform. Lately, however, I have been thinking about whether I am using the Canva Pro subscription to its fullest and whether I can find cheaper alternatives for the things I do in Canva Pro. While I could find many Canva alternatives, answering the big questions meant I would have to stop using Canva for at least a short while. Only then would I be able to find whether the alternative was worth it. When I came across a viable, free alternative to Canva Pro, I decided to proceed with this experiment. Related Why Photoshop Is More Value Than Canva Pro for Creatives Why settle for templates? I canceled Canva Pro and felt nothing Turns out, most of what I was paying for just sat there Photo by Ruby Helyer, author. No attribution required.Credit: Ruby Helyer / MakeUseOf Like most people, I upgraded …

Canva doubles down on AI and marketing automation with Simtheory, Ortto acquisitions

Canva doubles down on AI and marketing automation with Simtheory, Ortto acquisitions

Published by skeptic

Canva announced on Wednesday the dual acquisition of Simtheory, an AI collaboration and agent management platform, and Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation company. The financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. Canva says the acquisitions are part of its continued investment in AI and marketing infrastructure.  Both companies were founded by Chris and Mike Sharkey, previously founders of vacation rental service Stayz, which was acquired by Fairfax Media. The pair will join Canva in leadership roles across the company’s AI and marketing technology teams. Canva says the acquisitions add strengths in agentic AI, data infrastructure, marketing automation, and customer engagement, helping Canva evolve from a design tool into a system where teams do all of their work from start to finish. The additions extend Canva’s capabilities across the full workflow, from early ideas to campaign scaling and measurement. Image Credits:Simtheory Simtheory’s platform helps teams use AI to build assistants that understand their business, work across tools, and handle real tasks. Simtheory lets teams apply the latest models across diverse use cases and …

Canva acquires startups working on animation and marketing

Canva acquires startups working on animation and marketing

Published by skeptic

On Monday, creative suite maker Canva announced the dual acquisition of startups Cavalry, which works on animation, and Mango AI, which works on improving ad performance. UK-based Cavalry works on 2D motion animation for different verticals such as advertising, marketing, gaming, and generative art. Canva said that Cavalry’s tooling will add to the existing capabilities of Affinity, Canva’s professional creative editing suite for photos, vectors, and layouts, which it acquired in 2024 Canva revamped Affinity’s design last year and made it free for all users. The company said that since then, people have downloaded the software over five million times. Affinity has the capabilities of photos, vector, and layout editing. With this acquisition, Canva wants to add motion editing to its suite. “By bringing Cavalry alongside Affinity, we’re closing that [motion editing] gap and unlocking a complete professional suite spanning photo, vector, layout, and now motion editing,” the company said in a blog post. “Together, these tools form the foundation of a full-stack Creative OS for professional work, while preserving the depth and control professional creatives …

Claude AI Now Lets You Use Slack, Figma, and Canva Within the Chat

Claude AI Now Lets You Use Slack, Figma, and Canva Within the Chat

Published by skeptic

Anthropic has announced new interactive tools in Claude that let users open and interact with other services and apps directly within the AI chat interface via the web and Mac app. The update offers real-time collaboration with third-party apps like Asana, Slack, Figma, Canva, and more without requiring users to switch between tabs or apps. The feature is powered by MCP Apps, a new extension to the Model Context Protocol that lets any MCP server deliver an interactive interface within supporting AI products. Anthropic open-sourced MCP last year as a universal standard for connecting tools to AI applications. Per Anthropic’s announcement, here’s what you can now do directly in Claude: Amplitude – Build analytics charts, then explore trends and adjust parameters interactively to uncover hidden insights. Asana – Turn chats into projects, tasks, and timelines your team can see and execute in Asana. Box – Search for files, preview documents inline, then extract insights and ask questions about your content. Canva – Create presentation outlines, then customize branding and design in real-time to produce client-ready …