Create a Clickable PDF Image with Canva

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UPDATED: I created a new guide to make a clickable holiday gift guide using the best affiliate plugin out there on the market. Be sure to check out my most recent tutorial for how to create a clickable digital gift guide to increase affiliate earnings today. 

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I recently got the gift guide bug and wanted a way to feature some products for the holidays. I thought about a clickable image because I love being able to create and use clickable images within a blog post.

 

While the idea of a clickable image was great in theory, I have never been that good at image mapping. I wanted to find an easier to me way to create clickable collages and that’s when clickable PDF creation in Canva was brought to my attention. Not quite sure how I find this option, but so happy I did.

How to make Clickable Gift Guide

This post will still put you through the steps of creating a clickable gift guide using Canva. The only downside is that I can’t feature my clickable image any longer, due to removing the plugin I used to put a PDF on a WordPress blog.

Can you add hyperlinks in Canva?

Yes! You can add hyperlinks in Canva! This tutorial to learn how to make a clickable gift guide, using Canva is still applicable as of December 2019. Please follow my step by step instructions or watch the YouTube video below to make your clickable images today.

How to Create a Clickable PDF in Canva

The first step would be to visit Canva.com and sign into the account. You would select Blog Graphic as the option.

Once you have selected the Blog Graphic option. You will then need to select an image to use on the PDF you will be creating or simply upload images that you want to link. See the first image in this blog post as a reference for a collage type Blog Graphic with a collage of products that were uploaded to Canva for use in this clickable PDF tutorial.

The next step would be to upload any product images that you wish to use in your clickable PDF creation through Canva. On the left-hand side you can select to “upload your own images”. Do so now, please.

Moving onto the next step in Creating a clickable PDF through Canva.com, this is the step where you will insert each image and make it look pretty. This is an art so it’s up to you to determine how you want the images to appear. Sometimes we can’t fit as many products as we desired, so play with it and resize images as needed to suit what you like best.

The fifth step in creating a clickable PDF document in Canva.com is to select each image, one by one. If you look in the screen capture below you will see the little “link” on the right-hand side. What you will do is select by clicking on one image, then click the link and insert the URL you wish to have someone land on when they click that particular image. Repeat this process for all images within the collage that you want to be clickable.

Moving onto the next step … now that you have linked all of your images, you can click on them and click the link again to confirm the URL held properly. Just a nice gesture to make sure each image was linked properly.

Now you will want to save this clickable PDF to your computer. The file type needs to be PDF in order for the links to hold when you download the document. See below the option I use, PDF Standard for the file type. This will save to your computer as a clickable PDF file.

Next, I always save a PNG image option too which is what you will find at the top of this tutorial blog post. It doesn’t have clickable images, but it is a nice Pinterest friendly image for social shares.

As you will see Canva.com will notify you that saving as a PNG or JPG will not hold the links but that’s okay so as long as you have downloaded this as a PDF File already.

Next up you will need to have a plugin to embed the PDF into your blog post. You can click here to see my first attempt at doing this and embedding a PDF into a blog post. I am sure you can ask around for other ideas on what plugin to use for this, but I personally recommend the free Embed Any Document plugin.

12/19/2019 UPDATE: I no longer use the Embed Any Document plugin as it was causing issues with other functions of my blog. If you have another plugin that works for this, do leave a comment so I can check it out.

FAQ Clickable PDF with Canva

How do I create a clickable link in Canva?

While logged into Canva, you’ll want to finish your photo design. Then click the link image in the upper right-hand column and type the link you want to hyperlink to your clickable image in Canva.

Can you make a PDF clickable?

Now you will want to save this clickable PDF to your computer. The file type needs to be PDF in order for the links to hold when you download the document. See below the option I use, PDF Standard for the file type. This will save to your computer as a clickable PDF file.

How do I embed a Canva in an email?

On the search bar, type “embed.” Click  Embed. For your design to be embedded, it will be made public. Click Embed to confirm. This means to see on the right-hand side the option to “share” or ‘save publicly, and then you can embed a Canva creation in an email.