How to use Flourish and Canva to enhance your digital projects

The Flourish integration with Canva makes it easy to combine data visualization with interactive content. Whether you're creating an internal presentation, social media post, portfolio website, or a PDF-like document, read our step-by-step guide on how to enhance your digital projects using both tools. 

In this article

Get started with Flourish and Canva

1
Make sure that you have an account for both Canva and Flourish.
2
Think about the project you would like to create. Are you working on an interactive report, a social media post or a presentation? Depending on the nature of your project, you may benefit from using different Flourish templates and features. Click here to learn how to choose the right chart type for your data.

TIP: Did you know that Flourish offers more than 30 different types of charts and maps? Explore our Examples page or take a look at some of our blog posts if you are looking for inspiration.

3
Once you have chosen your visualization, you can add it to a Canva project straight away. We recommend doing this to ensure that your chart elements are accessible and readable when embedded in Canva.

4
You can add a Flourish visualization or story to Canva in two ways – through the Export & publish button in the Flourish editor, or by using the Flourish app within Canva.
  • To add your chart to Canva directly from Flourish, click on the Export & publish button in the right-hand corner of the editor, and select Add to a Canva presentation.
  • To add Flourish charts within the Canva app, you need to install the Flourish app.

    • To install the Flourish app, open an existing Canva design or create a new one. Then, from the panel on the left-hand side, choose Apps and search for Flourish. The extension should pop up and prompt you to connect both tools. Once you do this, you should have access to all of your Flourish visualizations straight away and can drop them into any Canva design.

    TIP: You can add both published and unpublished Flourish projects to Canva.

5
Once you import a Flourish visualization into Canva, you can make changes quickly and efficiently. You don't even have to leave Canva – simply click on the visualization and choose Edit in the top left-hand corner to adjust your Flourish chart.

That's it! You can now create stunning digital data projects. Read the section below for some useful Flourish x Canva tips and tricks.

Flourish x Canva tips and tricks

We've compiled some of the most frequently used Flourish features that work really well when combined with Canva. Below, you'll learn how to create dashboard-like presentations, add autoplaying Flourish stories, enhance your charts with annotations and labels, and others.

In this section

Create a dashboard using Flourish charts

If you are just starting with Flourish, you should be aware that the tool's real power is in data storytelling. However, sometimes all you need is to see KPIs and stats at a glance, almost as if you are looking at a dashboard.

The GIF above uses a Canva website template with three Flourish visualizations added – a Gantt chart, as well as a donut and a stacked column chart. Read more about our Line, bar, pie template here.

To create a similar dashboard-like report:

1
Create a Canva presentation or try Canva's new website creator. Both options are great for creating interactive data reports. However, an additional benefit of the Canva sites is that you can customize the URL and even publish a site behind a password!

2
Search Canva's extensive website template library to find a template you like, or start a website from scratch.

3
Add your Flourish visualizations to any page you wish and resize them appropriately.


Use autoplaying Flourish stories instead of GIFs

Creating the perfect GIF that's both high-quality and small in size can be very time-consuming. Fortunately, Flourish suggests a much easier alternative to regular videos or GIFs – autoplaying and looping stories! See an example of an autoplaying story below:

To use autoplaying stories in Canva projects:

1
Follow our step-by-step guide on how to create a Flourish autoplaying and looping story.

TIP: If you are using the autoplaying story as a GIF alternative, make sure that you have turned on the Loop option. For best results, you can also disable the story navigation.

2
Add your finished story to your Canva project as you would normally do.

NOTE: Please note that this method of replacing GIFs is only suitable for online presentations. Downloading your Canva project that contains autoplaying stories as a PDF, GIF or mp4 would not export the Flourish visualization.

Enhance your charts with annotations, labels and stickers

When adapting Flourish content for different mediums, you may benefit from using Canva's rich library of graphics and elements to improve your charts even further. In the example below, you can see how we used Flourish and Canva to adapt Flourish visualizations for social media.

To add graphic elements to a Flourish visualization and story:

1
Add your Flourish project to Canva, as you would normally do.
2
From the Canva panel on the left-hand side, search for any element you would like to add to your project – that could be an arrow, a sticker, or any other shape. You can also upload your own media.

3
You can also enhance or replicate chart elements, such as the titles and legends. In the example below, we recreated the Survey legend with Canva, to ensure we are using all available space appropriately.

4
Once you're happy with your post, download your project as a PNG or present online.

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