How to Create Pinterest Pins in Canva That Actually Get Clicks
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Let me sit beside you for this one.
Not the corporate tutorial version. Not the step-by-step that assumes you are comfortable with design software and just need the technical details. The version where I take you through exactly what I do, why I make the choices I make, and what I learned the hard way so you do not have to.
Before I understood how to create pins that actually performed, I was making a very specific kind of mistake that I see constantly in beginner Pinterest accounts. The pins looked fine. They were not ugly. They were just forgettable. They did not stop the scroll. They did not communicate anything specific enough to make someone feel like clicking. And a pin that does not get clicked earns nothing for you regardless of how many impressions it receives.
The difference between a pin that gets scrolled past and a pin that gets clicked is almost never the quality of the idea behind it. It is almost always the execution of the design. And the design execution is entirely learnable, entirely achievable in Canva, and entirely within reach of someone who has never designed anything professionally in their life.
I know because that person was me.
Why Canva Is the Right Tool for Pinterest Pins
Canva is free to start, intuitive enough to learn in a single session, and powerful enough to produce genuinely professional-quality pin designs without any graphic design training.
The free version of Canva covers everything you need to create effective Pinterest pins. Canva Pro, which I use and pay for, adds access to a larger library of premium stock images, additional font choices, the Brand Kit feature that saves your colours and fonts for consistent use across designs, and the ability to resize designs across multiple formats efficiently. Pro is worth the investment once you are creating pins consistently but it is absolutely not required to start.
Everything in this guide works with the free version of Canva.
Opening Canva and Choosing the Right Pinterest Size
Go to canva.com and sign in or create your free account.
Once you are in your dashboard you have two ways to start a Pinterest pin design.
Option one: Click the Create a Design button in the top right corner. In the search bar that appears type Pinterest Pin. Canva will show you the standard Pinterest Pin template which is 1000 by 1500 pixels. Click it and a new design opens at the correct dimensions.
Option two: Click Custom Size in the same menu, enter 1000 as the width and 1500 as the height with pixels selected as the unit, and click Create New Design.
Both methods produce the same result. A blank canvas at 1000 by 1500 pixels which is the standard Pinterest pin ratio and the dimensions you should use for almost every pin you create.
Why these specific dimensions matter: Pinterest is a mobile-first platform. The majority of Pinterest users browse on their phones. The 2:3 ratio of a 1000 by 1500 pin takes up significantly more screen space on a phone than a square or horizontal image, which means it is physically larger and more visible in the feed. A pin that occupies more screen space has more opportunity to stop the scroll than one that occupies less.
There is a longer pin format used by some creators at 1000 by 2100 pixels. I use it occasionally but it is not where I would start. The standard 1000 by 1500 is the format to master first.
Understanding the Canva Interface Before You Design
Before you start placing elements I want to give you a quick orientation to the Canva workspace so you are not figuring out the interface while also trying to design.
The left sidebar is where all your design elements live. Templates gives you pre-designed layouts you can customise. Elements gives you shapes, lines, graphics, and frames. Text gives you text box options. Photos gives you access to Canva’s stock image library. Brand gives you your saved brand colours and fonts if you are using Canva Pro.
The top toolbar changes based on what element you have selected. When a text box is selected you see font, size, and formatting options. When an image is selected you see crop, effects, and filter options.
The canvas itself is where you build the design. Click anywhere to deselect everything and return to the blank canvas view.
The top right has the download button, the share options, and the present option. The download button is what you will use to export your finished pin.
Creating Your First Pinterest Pin Design
I am going to walk you through creating a text-overlay pin, which is the pin format I use most consistently for blog content because it works across every niche, requires no photography skills, and converts reliably when the text and design choices are made correctly.
Step one: Choose or create your background.
Click on the Background Color option at the bottom of the left sidebar or click on the background of your canvas. Choose your background colour from the colour picker. For most of my pins I use an off-white or cream background rather than a bright white because the warmth of the off-white is more visually inviting and more consistent with the HerDailySpace aesthetic.
Alternatively you can use a photograph as your background. Click Photos in the left sidebar, search for an image relevant to your pin topic, and drag it onto your canvas. Canva will automatically size it to fill the canvas. You can then adjust the transparency of the image if you want to overlay text on it by selecting the image and using the transparency slider that appears in the top toolbar.
Step two: Add your headline text.
Click Text in the left sidebar and select Add a Heading. A text box appears on the canvas. Type your pin headline.
This headline is the most important element of the pin. It is what stops the scroll. It needs to be specific, benefit-led, and written in the language your audience actually uses rather than in the language you would use to describe your content to a friend.
Click on the text to edit it. Use the top toolbar to adjust the font, size, and colour. We will cover font and colour choices in detail in the sections below.
Step three: Add your subheading or supporting text.
Under the main headline add a shorter supporting text element that provides context or specificity. If the headline is the thing that stops the scroll the subheading is the thing that confirms the reader has found what they are looking for and should click.
Step four: Add your brand URL.
At the bottom of every pin add your website URL in small text. This is both a discoverability signal and a brand building element. As your pins circulate across Pinterest your URL becomes associated with the content type and niche you are creating in.
Step five: Add any supporting graphic elements.
A divider line, a simple shape, a small icon, or a decorative element that is consistent with your brand aesthetic. These elements add visual polish without complicating the design. Use the Elements section of the left sidebar to find shapes and graphic elements.
Read related post: How to Use Pinterest to Grow Your Blog and Make Money
Colour Palettes That Convert on Pinterest
Colour is one of the most significant factors in whether a pin stops the scroll and one of the most misunderstood by beginner pin creators.
Warm neutrals perform consistently in the lifestyle, wellness, travel, and personal development niches that HerDailySpace operates in. Cream, off-white, warm beige, terracotta, dusty rose, and warm taupe are the colour palette that communicates the tone of this content to the right audience before they have read a single word.
High contrast between the background and the text is not optional. It is what makes the text legible at the small size at which pins are displayed in the feed on a phone screen. Dark text on a light background or light text on a dark background. Nothing in between that requires effort to read.
Your brand colours should appear consistently across your pins. When someone sees a HerDailySpace pin in their feed the colour palette communicates brand before the text is read. Consistent colour use builds the visual recognition that makes your pins increasingly identifiable as your account grows.
For HerDailySpace specifically the colour palette that works is terracotta or coral for the accent element, off-white or warm cream for backgrounds, near-black or warm dark brown for primary text, and soft blush as an occasional secondary element. These are the colours pulled directly from the website branding and applied consistently across all pin designs.
Colours to approach carefully on Pinterest:
Very light colours on a white background create insufficient contrast. A pale lavender on a white background barely registers in a feed dominated by higher-contrast designs. Very dark backgrounds can work beautifully but require white or very light text to maintain readability. Overly saturated neon colours can attract attention but frequently attract the wrong attention and repel the reader your content is actually for.
Read related post: How to Use Pinterest SEO to Get Your Pins Seen by Thousands of People
Fonts That Work for Pinterest Pins
Font choice communicates the personality of your content before the words themselves are processed. A heavy sans-serif communicates confidence and directness. A script or handwriting font communicates warmth and personality. A serif communicates sophistication and trust.
The combination that works across most of my pins is a script or display serif for the primary headline element and a clean sans-serif for the supporting text. This creates a visual hierarchy that guides the eye from the most important element, the headline, to the supporting information.
For HerDailySpace the combination I use is a warm script font for the headline and a clean sans-serif like DM Sans or Montserrat for the body text and URL. This matches the aesthetic of the website itself which creates visual consistency between the pins and the content readers arrive at when they click through.
Fonts to avoid entirely:
Any font that requires effort to read at small sizes. Pinterest pins are displayed at small scale in the feed. A decorative or heavily stylised font that is difficult to read at small scale will not communicate its message before the user has scrolled past it.
Comic Sans. Not because there is a design rule against it but because it communicates nothing that serves the audience and brand of any serious content creator.
The practical rule for font size is that your primary headline text should be readable when the pin image is displayed at roughly the size of a postage stamp. If it is legible at that scale it will be legible at every scale at which it will be displayed on Pinterest.
Where to Find Images for Your Pinterest Pins
Canva’s built-in photo library is the most immediately accessible source and for most beginner pin creators it is sufficient. The free version of Canva includes a large library of stock images. Canva Pro expands this significantly. Use the search bar in the Photos section of the left sidebar to find images relevant to your pin topic.
Unsplash and Pexels are free stock photo platforms with genuinely high-quality photography. Both have Canva integrations that allow you to search and import from these libraries directly within Canva through the More section of the left sidebar.
Your own photography is the most powerful option when it is available because it is authentic to your specific experience and cannot be found on any other account. Genuine photographs from your travels, your home, your daily life produce pins that are uniquely yours and that communicate a level of authenticity that stock photography cannot replicate.
For HerDailySpace travel pins I use my own photographs from the destinations I have visited wherever possible. The specific quality of a photograph from Nungwi Beach taken during an actual visit is different from a stock image of a generic tropical beach and readers respond to that difference even if they cannot articulate why.
When choosing images for text-overlay pins select images that have a clear area, either a portion of sky, a plain wall, a stretch of water, or a similarly uncomplicated section of the frame, where your text can sit without competing with the image detail for readability. An image that is detailed in every part of the frame is difficult to overlay text on legibly.
How to Write Text Overlays That Get Clicks
The text on your pin is the element that most directly determines whether someone clicks. The design stops the scroll. The text earns the click.
Be specific not general. A pin that says Travel Tips generates less curiosity and less clicks than a pin that says What I Pack for Every Solo Trip to Zanzibar (And What I Wish I Had Left at Home). The specific version tells the reader exactly what they will find when they click. The general version could mean anything and therefore signals nothing.
Lead with the reader’s outcome or the reader’s problem, not your topic. Instead of My Blogging Journey write How I Made My First $1000 Blogging in Month 9 After 8 Months of Nothing. Instead of About Affiliate Marketing write The Affiliate Mistake That Cost Me 6 Months of Commission. The reader’s interest is in what the content gives them, not in your description of what it is about.
Use numbers where they are genuine. Numbers in pin headlines, five things, twelve mistakes, one change, communicate specificity and deliverability. The reader knows exactly how much they are getting before they click.
Match the language your audience actually searches. The words on your pin should be the words your ideal reader would type into the Pinterest search bar. If your reader searches vacation nails that last your pin should say vacation nails that last rather than achieving a long-wearing holiday manicure. The search language is the conversion language.
Keep it readable. Three to five words for the primary headline element. Supporting text that adds context rather than repeating the headline. URL at the bottom. Resist the urge to fill every inch of the pin with text. White space, or in this case your background colour space, is an element of design that communicates confidence rather than representing a gap to fill.
My Exact Canva Workflow for Creating Pinterest Pins
I want to give you the specific workflow I actually follow rather than a theoretical process because the specific version is more useful.
I create pins in batches, not individually. When I sit down to create Pinterest content I create between five and twelve pins in a single session rather than one pin at a time. This approach takes advantage of the creative focus of a single session and builds a consistent visual output more efficiently than single-pin creation spread across multiple sessions.
I start from a template rather than from scratch every time. I have a master pin template saved in Canva that contains my background colour, my font choices already set, my brand URL in the correct position, and my colour palette saved in the design. Every new pin starts as a duplicate of this template rather than from a blank canvas. This maintains visual consistency across my pins and reduces the setup time for each individual design.
To duplicate a design in Canva, open your existing pin design, click the three dots in the top right of the design thumbnail in your homepage, and select Duplicate. The duplicated version opens in a new tab with all elements intact ready for you to modify the specific text and image.
I write all my headlines before I design anything. Before opening Canva I have a list of the specific text that will go on each pin. Deciding what the pin will say and then designing around that decision produces better results than designing a beautiful layout and then trying to fit text into it.
I use Canva’s presentation view to review before downloading. Before exporting any pin I switch to the full-screen preview mode to see how the design looks without the surrounding Canva interface. This step catches readability issues, alignment problems, and design choices that looked right in the editing view but do not hold up in the preview.
I download as PNG for static pins. In the export options select PNG as the file type for static pins. PNG maintains image quality better than JPEG for designs with text and flat colour elements.
Mistakes Beginners Make With Pinterest Pin Design
Too much text on one pin. A pin is not a blog post. It is an invitation to click a blog post. The text should be enough to communicate what the reader will find when they click and no more. Every additional word competes for attention with the words that actually matter.
Inconsistent design across pins. A Pinterest account that looks like it was designed by ten different people in ten different aesthetics builds no visual brand recognition. Viewers cannot learn to recognise your content before they have read the account name if every pin looks different. Choose your colour palette, your fonts, and your design style and apply them consistently.
Text that is too small to read in the feed. The pin is displayed very small in the Pinterest feed on a mobile phone. Text that looks perfectly readable in the Canva editor can be illegible at feed display size. Your headline text should be large enough to read when you hold your phone at arm’s length and look at a pin displayed at roughly one-third of the screen width.
Using images that compete with the text. A busy, detailed, high-contrast image used as a background behind text creates a visual conflict where neither the image nor the text reads clearly. Either use a clean, simple image with a clear area for text, or add a semi-transparent overlay between the image and the text to create the contrast needed for readability.
Creating one design variation per blog post. One pin per post is where Pinterest traffic stays small. Five to ten pin variations per post is where Pinterest traffic builds. Different images, different headline angles, different colour combinations pointing to the same blog post multiply the number of people who will discover that content through Pinterest search.
Ignoring the pin description entirely. The text you see on the pin is only part of what Pinterest uses to understand and distribute your content. The pin description, which you add when you publish the pin to Pinterest, contains the additional keyword information that makes your pin discoverable in search. A beautifully designed pin with no description or a generic description is significantly less discoverable than the same pin with a keyword-rich description.
Your Pinterest Pin Design Checklist
Before you publish any pin run through this list.
Is the text readable at small scale. Does the pin communicate one specific, clear idea. Do the colours align with your brand palette. Is there sufficient contrast between the text and the background. Does the headline lead with the reader’s outcome rather than your topic description. Is your website URL visible at the bottom. Does this pin look like it belongs to the same brand as your other pins.
If the answer to all of these is yes the pin is ready to publish.
Read related post: The Best SEO Checklist I Use Before Publishing Every Blog Post
The Canva Template You Can Start With Today
The fastest path to your first well-designed pin is to start from a template rather than from a blank canvas.
Within Canva search Pinterest Pin in the template search bar. You will see hundreds of pre-designed templates across different aesthetics. Find one that is closest to the colour palette and font style you want for your brand, click on it to open it, and modify the text and colours to match your specific pin content and your brand.
Do not overthink the first template. The purpose of the first pin is to start the habit and learn the tools. The tenth pin will be better than the first. The fiftieth will be better than the tenth. The improvement happens through the doing, not through the planning of the perfect first design.
Faq
What size should Pinterest pins be in Canva?
The standard Pinterest pin size is 1000 by 1500 pixels in a 2:3 ratio. This is the size Canva automatically uses when you select the Pinterest Pin template. It is the format that takes up the most screen space in the Pinterest mobile feed and is the size I use for the majority of my pins.
Do I need Canva Pro to create good Pinterest pins?
No. The free version of Canva contains everything you need to create professional-quality Pinterest pins. Canva Pro adds premium stock images, additional fonts, the Brand Kit feature for saving your colours and fonts, and the ability to resize designs efficiently. These features are useful but not required to start creating effective pins.
How long should it take to create a Pinterest pin?
Once you have a template established and your headlines written in advance, creating a new pin from your template should take between five and fifteen minutes. The first pins you create will take longer as you learn the tools. Batch creation, making multiple pins in one sitting, is significantly more time-efficient than creating pins individually.
What makes a Pinterest pin go viral?
Specificity in the headline, high contrast between text and background, a topic with genuine search demand on Pinterest, and a design that is visually distinctive without being cluttered. There is no formula for a viral pin specifically but the pins that perform best consistently share those qualities.
