Intermediate

40 mins

Teacher/Student led

+65 XP

Pupils work on their own device

What you need:
Chromebook/Laptop/PC
Canva account (school email)

Editing Images with Canva, Part 2: Layers, Export and the Honest Edit

Students layer text over their image, export it in the right format, then judge their own edits against whether the result still represents what was there. This lesson counts towards outcome 3.8: students use these editing skills to build their digital montage in the montage lessons that follow.

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1 Start
2 What Layering Means
3 Hands-on: Text Over Your Image
4 Hands-on: Export It Properly
5 Your Turn: the Honest Edit
Quiz

1 - Start ~3 mins

Illustration for Start Open the design you made last lesson, the image you cropped, resized and adjusted.

Today you will add text to it and save it as a finished file. Then you will think about a question this course keeps coming back to.

Missed Part 1, or your design did not save?

Open this finished Part 1 design, then right-click it and choose Save image as. In Canva, click Create, then Custom size, and make a design 800 wide and 600 high. Click Uploads, then Upload files, pick the picture you saved, and drag it onto your canvas.

Today’s question

Which of your edits are fair, and which one could mislead somebody, making them believe something untrue?

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - What Layering Means ~5 mins

Everything you add sits on its own layer. Layers stack like sheets of paper, and the order decides what is in front.

Layer	Typically holds
Top	Text, so nothing covers it
Middle	A shape behind the text, to make it readable
Bottom	The background image

Why it matters

Because each layer is separate, you can move or delete one without changing the others.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Hands-on: Text Over Your Image ~12 mins

Add a line of text to your image and make it easy to read. To do this, you will put a shape behind it.

+15 XP

4 - Hands-on: Export It Properly ~8 mins

Now export your design as a file. The format, or type of file, decides what it can do.

Format	Use it for
PNG	Higher quality, and the only one that keeps a transparent background.
JPG	Smaller files, fine for photographs going online.

+15 XP

5 - Your Turn: the Honest Edit ~10 mins

Now you will judge the choices you made.

Look back at your design and list every change you made, such as the crop, the resize, the filter, the brightness and contrast, and the text you added.

Ask	About which edit?
Does this still accurately represent what was actually there?
Could somebody seeing only my version believe something untrue?
Did I use anyone else’s image, and have I credited it?

Write your answers in the box called Enter Your Work at the bottom of this step. The questions are already there.

Before you finish, check

You can name one of your edits that is clearly fair and say why. You can also name one that could mislead somebody and say how. If you cannot find one, describe an edit you could have made that would have gone too far.

+10 XP

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