Add and edit shapes

Shapes can help organise information, guide attention, or connect ideas. You can customise them by adding text, changing their colour and borders, resizing them, or adjusting their corners.

Ways to use shapes:

Combine them to build backgrounds or supporting graphics
Add text to create callouts or labels
Connect them with lines to create flowcharts

You’ll find a wide range of shapes in the

Elements tab, including basic shapes, polygons, arrows, flowchart shapes, speech bubbles, banners, and more.

Shapes are available to Free, Canva Pro, Canva Teams, Canva Enterprise, Canva Education, and Canva for Nonprofits users.

Add shapes

Browse or search Canva’s library to find a shape for your design.

From the editor side panel, select
Elements.
Under Browse categories, select Shapes.
Browse the available shapes, or use the search bar to find one.
Select a shape to add it to your design.

For more options like refining results and adjusting AI quality, see how to add, duplicate, and delete elements

You can also create custom shapes in design software like Affinity, then upload them to Canva as SVG files.

Edit shapes

Select the shape you want to edit.
To change shape borders, click on the
(Stroke style) from the toolbar. You can choose a border style and adjust the stroke weight.
To resize, drag the white circle handles on the corners to scale proportionally. Use the pill handles on the sides to scale asymmetrically.
To change the colour, select the Colour tile in the toolbar. You can choose a solid colour or a gradient.
To rotate, click
at the bottom of the shape and drag left or right.
To add text, double-click the shape and start typing. You can control the space between the text and the shape's edges, select
(Advanced settings) from the toolbar, and adjust the Padding slider.
For polygons, click
(Corners) to add more sides and to adjust corner rounding.
For stars, click
(Corners) to add more points and to adjust the Inner depth.
To change shape, select Edit from the toolbar, and select a new shape.

Limitations

Shapes can’t be flipped
Images can’t be added to shapes (use Frames instead)
Uploaded shapes (SVGs) can only be resized or recoloured — you can’t change corners, strokes, or the shape itself

Learn more about shapes and other elements

Want to learn how to use shapes and other similar elements in an interactive way? Select the image below to get started.

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