Canva, and Copyright: Essential Knowledge

Last year, someone reached out to me in a panic.

They had designed their own book cover in Canva and absolutely loved it. But when they uploaded it to KDP (Amazon’s print-on-demand service), the book was rejected due to a copyright infringement. They were given 48 hours to fix the issue, or their entire project would be removed.

Sadly, this isn’t an isolated story.

I regularly see posts from authors choosing to bypass professional designers in favour of Canva, usually to save money. And I understand why — self-publishing costs add up quickly. But part of what a good designer brings isn’t just visual skill; it’s an understanding of copyright, licensing, and print requirements. Getting those things right can save you a lot of time, stress, and money later on.

Canva and Copyright: It’s More Complicated Than It Looks

Canva’s terms of service are written in a way that makes it feel safe to proceed. And to be fair, Canva does a lot of work to manage an enormous library of fonts, images, and elements. But ultimately, they have to protect themselves legally. That means the responsibility often falls on you.

Some illustrations and assets are owned by large brands with dedicated legal teams. Canva addresses this with clauses like:
“[Brand name] content on Canva is for personal and educational use only and may not be used for any commercial purpose.”

In other words, you can’t use those assets on book covers or in interiors if you plan to sell your book and that includes anything inside the book as well.

Templates come with similar caveats. Many can only be used commercially if they are “significantly modified”, but Canva doesn’t clearly define what “significant” means. That grey area can leave authors exposed, and it’s not a sustainable long-term option if you’re serious about publishing.

Puzzle Books, Apps, and Third-Party Risks

If you’re creating puzzle books or using word searches and generators inside Canva, there’s another layer to consider. Many of these tools are built by third-party app developers, and Canva explicitly states that it is not responsible for those apps or their licensing with this statement ‘We cannot be held responsible for third-party apps, which have their own terms.’

In short, the responsibility to check usage rights is yours, and yes, those creators could pursue legal action if their terms are breached.

Canva Isn’t Really Built for Print

While Canva can technically be used for print, it’s not designed for the precision that book printing requires.

Print platforms like KDP and IngramSpark have very specific technical requirements for colour, bleed, spine width, resolution, and file setup. These aren’t arbitrary rules to cause frustration. Print is an exacting process and Canva leaves a lot of room for error, from spine calculations to export quality, which often leads to rejected files and angst.

Personally, I find Canva far more complicated for cover design than tools like InDesign or Affinity, which are built specifically for professional print work.

AI Images Aren’t “Free” Either

AI-generated art comes with its own risks. Even Canva acknowledges this with statements such as: “The legal ownership of AI-generated works is unclear. You may not be the copyright owner of the images that you create.”

AI tools scrape and learn from existing artwork created by real artists. Many of those creators are actively monitoring and pursuing copyright violations. While AI might feel like a shortcut, it can come with consequences down the line.

Where Canva Does Shine

I do use Canva — and Adobe Express — but only for digital content like social media graphics.

For example, when I create bespoke branding in Adobe Illustrator and by hand, Canva can be a great way for clients to reuse that branding easily across Instagram and other platforms. For that purpose, it’s fantastic.

Focus on What You Do Best

If you’re an author, your time is precious. Your real work is writing, publishing, and promoting your book — not untangling licensing terms or fighting file rejections.

If you want to understand the foundations of self-publishing properly, from writing tools to readiness, how to be online with your website and branding, I’d love to help.

Join Hello Lovely Learning’s, Self-Publishing Foundations, and learn how to self-publish with confidence (and avoid costly mistakes) or book a call with me to talk about how I can help you, as I did with this client by helping them to find legal images and reworking the cover design.

You don’t have to do everything yourself, but you do need the right knowledge to make informed choices.