3 Easy Steps to Animate Text in Canva for Free in 2024

In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to animate text in Canva on both desktops and mobile phones.

I’ve updated this guide with steps on how to make text appear at different times without using animation effects, check them out below.

How to Animate Text in Canva on a Desktop

If you’ve been wondering why use Canva (a graphic design tool) to animate text. A big reason is that you can do that for free without buying software that cost an arm and a leg.

You can animate text elements in Canva by first adding text to your Canva design. Next, click the “Animate” button on the options bar just below the top menu bar.

Then, select any of the various animation options in the menu that slides out from the left. Then, adjust the animation styles in the individual settings.

In this example, I started with a free Canva template and changed the background to a free stock photo taken from the Canva photo library. Here are the steps:

Step 1: Select the Animate Button

The first step is to have all your text in one text box. Next, select the text box that you wish to animate. If you have successfully selected a text box you will see a border around the text.

Then, on the top right-hand side of the browser, select the “Animate” button just below Canva’s top toolbar. Or you can right click on your text box to select “Animate” on the pop-up menu.

Step 2: Select Your Desired Text Animation Style

Once the Animate option has been selected, a menu slides out from the left-hand side with a range of animation styles you can choose from.

There are 3 types of animation styles: Basic, Writing and Exaggerate.

If you wish to animate flipped text in Canva, there isn’t a direct tool or effect for that, but there is a workaround on how to flip text in Canva with third-party tools.

All animation styles are free to use, you don’t have to be a Canva Pro user to apply any of the styles.

In this example, I’ve selected “Wipe”, which is an animation style that can be found under the Basic animation category.

Once selected, you will see the animation taking effect immediately on the text of your Canva design.

Step 3: Adjust Your Desired Text Animation Settings

Next, you will see more options appearing under the selected animation. In this example, with the “Wipe” style selected, I’m able to animate the text at both the beginning and end of the animation or presentation.

You can also do so only at the beginning (On enter) or only at the end (On exit) of the animation.

For the free account, the available options are to select where the animation starts and ends, and to reverse the exit animation.

If you wish to adjust the speed and direction of the animation, you can only do that in the Pro version.

Similar to other animation styles, each individual style has its own settings available to use in the free Canva account. The settings with the crown icon are only for Pro users.

Every time you select an animation, you can see the preview on your Canva design.

But if you wish to view and replay the whole presentation with all the animated elements, you can do that by selecting the Play button on the top right-hand side of the browser, just next to the Share button.

How to Animate Text in Canva on Your Phone

Canva is clever to be able to replicate the same features and methods for you to animate your text in the Canva app just like how you do it on the desktop version.

Here’s how you animate text in Canva on your phone:

Step 1: Select the Animate Button

With your Canva design opened up on your phone, select the text that you wish to animate. Make sure there is a border around your text, that would mean that it’s been selected.

Next, go to the options at the bottom of the screen and scroll the options to the left so that you can see more options on the right. Select the “Animate” tool.

Step 2: Select Your Desired Text Animation Style

Once the Animate tool is selected, the bottom menu will expand upwards to reveal a wide range of animation styles.

You can browse the animation styles to select your desired text animation, or you may browse them by categories.

You can find the categories, All, Basic, Writing, and Exaggerate below the styles. Swipe the categories menu towards the left to view all four categories.

In this example, I selected “Writing”, which will pull up all the writing animation styles in the menu. Then, select any of the styles to apply to your text.

Step 3: Adjust Your Desired Text Animation Settings

Once you select an animation style, it will take effect on your text immediately. At the same time, you will see that the button will be greyed out and an icon of toggles appears with it.

Select it again and the menu changes to a set of settings of the selected style. In this example, the settings for the Ascend style will slide out from the bottom of the screen.

In this case, you can select either to animate the text at the beginning and end of the presentation or only at the beginning or only at the end of the presentation.

If you are a Canva Pro user, you can adjust the Speed and Writing Style as well.

How To Make Text Appear At Different Times In Canva

You can add animated text one after another such that at first, all text is not seen. Then, the first text fades in, stays there and the second text fades in, and so on. Until all texts have appeared, they then stay where they are.

Here are the steps to make them appear at different times:

Step 1: Show Timing

First, bring your cursor to the footer of your Canva editor and select the Show Pages tab.

This will bring up a section showing the thumbnails of your pages.

Then, select the first text you wish to animate and right-click on your cursor.

In the pop-up menu, select Show Timing.

A purple box appears above your Canva page thumbnail, the size of the box shows the duration or how long your animation will last.

Step 2: Adjust Text Duration

In my example, I don’t want any text to appear at the start. So none of the text should have it’s thumbnail the same size as the design’s thumbnail.

Since the first text will appear the earliest, click and drag the left-edge of the purple thumbnail of the first text to somewhere near the beginning.

Next, select the Duration button in the footer so that you can toggle the timeline from left to right or press the Play button to see the effect of your text animation.

Adust the sizes for the other text thumbnails based on their order of appearance. Make each of the text start later by making each of the thumbnail smaller than the other.

Thumbnail for the second text:

Thumbnail for the third text:

Thumbnail for the last text:

Here is the result of text animation, appearing one at a time:

Final Thoughts

You can simply create moving text or animated text with the free version of Canva with or without the animation effects. Just static text alone is too boring to read.

It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and leg to make your images and presentations more engaging and interesting.

Try this out on Canva and you will find it takes you more than half the time to do the same thing on PowerPoint!