Create a Typography Portrait Design in Canva

Calligram – A calligram is a type of visual poetry where the text is arranged in such a way that it forms a visual image. The design of the calligram can be related to the text’s content, enhancing the meaning of the words. It’s a fun and creative way to visually represent ideas or concepts. In Canva, you can create calligrams by arranging text elements and playing around with different font types, sizes, and colors.

Creating a typography portrait design in Canva can be fun and creative process. In this tutorial you will learn how to create a typography portrait design in Canva.

Open Canva and select the document type you want to work on. Here I choose the custom size of Width 550px and Height 700px.

Click on the Text tab on the editor side panel. Here I have selected Add a little bit of body text or choose a text style you like. .

Click on the text box to edit the text. Start typing your words into the text boxes with your own words. Then I select the Font Type – Canva Sans, Size – 10 and Alignment – Justified.

Let’s change the background color of the page as Black color and text color as White.

Now we can download this page as PNG format. After downloading we have to upload the png file into a free Online Photo Editor called “Photopea“

Open your web browser and go to photopea.com.

Once you’re on the photopea site, you can click, drag and drop our png file into it

Hence our png file open’s and it can be seen there.

We need to remove the transparency, So go to Select > Color Range

Change the value of Fuzziness to 13 and click OK

Hence the outcome will be as below

Next click on the “Magic Wand (W)” tool from the left toolbar. Select Refine Edge from the top tool bar.

Here change the Border value to 0 and click OK.

When you’re done editing, you can save this by clicking “File“, then “Export As“. You can choose the format you want to save your image in. I have saved and downloaded in PNG format. After this step now let’s go back to the Canva.

On the editor side panel, select Photos. Use the search bar at the top to type “pretty woman face” and press Enter. Browse through the results. When you find a photo that you like, click on it to add it to your design.

I have selected the below woman photo on a newly created page by clicking “+ Add new page”. Right-click on the photo, and select Set Image as Background or Replace Background.

Then click the woman photo and on the editor toolbar, select Edit photo. You’ll see available editing options on the side panel.

Under the Effects tab, go to the Filters section and select the “Noir” filter and apply it to your photo. It transforms the image into a black and white version, giving it a classic, vintage look.

Upload the PNG format file which you have downloaded from the Photopea editor. Just click on it and resize it according to your woman photo size.

Additionally we can reduce the Transparency of the photo for better visibility. And we are done! Once you’re happy with your design, click on ‘Download’ at the top right corner to save your work.