Industry Trends

How to Print a Brochure from Canva: A Quality Inspector's Checklist

I work on the quality side of a packaging and short-run printing company. My job title isn't glamorous, but the checklist I use should interest you if you're about to send a cheap file to an expensive machine. Every week, I review maybe 15 to 25 customer files before they are released for production. In 2024, about 14% of the first uploads we received had to go back for corrections. They weren't ugly designs. They were file problems that someone could have caught in ten minutes.

If you searched for how to print a brochure from Canva, this is the process I run through before approving a file. It also applies to custom duck decals, labels for a personalized wooden jewelry box, and nearly any print piece that gets trimmed, folded, or die-cut.

Who should use this checklist

Use this when your printer hasn't provided a specific template or guideline. If the print shop gave you their own template, their rules come first. This checklist is a generic quality gate for Canva exports going to outside production—not a replacement for the prepress requirements at your specific supplier.

If you're ordering Canva Print's own products, many setup decisions are made inside their workflow. For external print shops, you're responsible for the file. That's where the list below saves money.

The six-step print checklist

1. Export a print PDF, not a screen file

In Canva, use Share, Download, then choose PDF Print. The regular PDF, PNG, or JPG export is designed for screens. PDF Print keeps the file closer to what a print engine expects. A PNG can work for a very simple sticker, but for a brochure it's the wrong tool.

This one frustrates me because the fix takes twenty seconds, and I still see it all the time. If the printer specifically asks for PNG for a small decal, fine. Otherwise, don't make layout decisions with a screen export. Canva's own help documentation points to PDF Print for outside printing, so this isn't just my opinion.

2. Check bleed before you upload

Bleed means the background extends beyond the final trim edge. Standard bleed for most commercial print is at least 3 mm, or one-eighth inch, on every side. If the background in your PDF stops exactly at the document edge, you have no bleed. The cutter won't hit the exact edge; it will shift by a fraction of a millimeter, and that edge will show a white line.

Keep text and logos at least 5 mm inside the trim line. This is especially important for labels. If you're printing labels for a personalized wooden jewelry box, a tiny application shift can cut off the first letter of a name. It looks like sloppy work, even though the print itself is fine.

One project in Q2 2024 was a set of custom duck decals for a mallard duck nesting box program. The artwork was beautiful, but the background ended at the edge. The decals would have had a thin white border around every shape. We caught it before cutting, and the designer added 3 mm of bleed.

3. Check image resolution at the final printed size

Print needs roughly 300 DPI at the final size. Screens only need 72 DPI. A photo that looks sharp on your monitor can look soft or blocky when it's stretched across a brochure panel.

I don't have hard data on how common low-res images are across the whole industry. In our own review queue, it's the third most common issue. You can catch it without special software: export the PDF Print file, zoom to 400%, and study the edges of photos and illustrations. If you see visible rectangles or jagged lines, print will too.

This matters for reference art too. If someone creates a poster from animal farm propaganda poster examples found on the web, the source image is often 500 pixels wide. That works for an article, not for an A3 print. Find or create a high-resolution version before you start layout.

4. Respect folds, scores, and die-cut lines

Brochures leave the printer flat but get folded later. A headline crossing a fold will crack. The repeated crease will wear away ink. A QR code placed too close to a fold can become unreadable because the crease distorts the quiet zone around it.

A restaurant table card project I checked had a QR code at the bottom edge, too close to the fold. The restaurant wanted to use the printed card to guide people searching for beijing duck seafood restaurant reviews to an actual review page. On the printed sample, the code looked fine, but the corner was too close to the bend. We moved it up, and the scan rate problem disappeared.

If your project has rounded corners, a punched hole, or a perforated tear-off, keep important elements off those areas.

5. Proofread the PDF, not just the Canva canvas

Canva lies to you, but not on purpose. The on-screen spacing doesn't show exactly how type lands on paper. Download the PDF Print file, open it at 100%, and read the whole thing. At least once, read it on paper if you can. Mistakes that hide on a bright screen show up on a folded page.

Check every link or QR code by actually scanning it from the proof. A QR code can look clean and still point to the wrong URL. If a brochure's job is to send customers to restaurant review sites, one wrong URL means every printed copy tells them to do something that doesn't work.

6. Order a printed proof for anything that matters

This is the first step people cut from the budget, and it's the one that prevents the most expensive mistakes. A digital PDF proof shows layout. A printed proof shows whether the colours look right on the actual paper, whether the trim is correct, and whether the finish feels right.

I don't recommend a physical proof for every single order. If you're printing 20 copies for an internal meeting, a hard proof may be overkill. For a client-facing brochure, a product label, or a custom decal order, the proof is cheaper than the reprint.

The three mistakes I still see

• Using PNG or regular PDF instead of PDF Print.
• Designing full-bleed backgrounds without bleed.
• Testing a QR or link only in the browser, not on the printed sample.

Five years ago, many print shops would have shrugged at a Canva file. In 2025, that's outdated. Canva can now produce files that work in professional print workflows. The fundamentals haven't changed, though: bleed, resolution, margins, and proofing still decide whether that file leaves the press looking clean or looking homemade.

What's changed is that you don't need decades of software training to get a file ready. You just need to follow the checklist.