How to Evenly Space Elements in Canva — Pro Tips

Having a hard time evenly spacing your lines, shapes, and other elements in Canva?

Well, if you have a keen eye for it, you can most definitely go with manually placing your Canva elements with the guidelines to help you.

But, if you’re doing work that requires utmost precision, eyeballing won’t make the cut. 

Thankfully, Canva listens to their users as they placed a nifty spacer in the tool for everyone to fully enjoy.

So, if you’re ecstatic to learn how to evenly space Canva elements, keep reading!

 

How to Evenly Space Elements in Canva

To evenly space elements in Canva, you first need to highlight all of the elements you need to align by clicking on them. After which, tap the “Position” tab on the editor toolbar. Head to the “Space Evenly” option and choose whether to space elements vertically or horizontally.

 

Spacing Elements Evenly in Canva: The How-tos

As mentioned earlier, spacing elements evenly in Canva isn’t such a big problem, especially to newbie users.

All you need to do is know how to activate such a feature and use it to your utmost advantage.

So, here’s how you get started with the spacing feature in Canva:

Step 1: Open an existing file or create a new one from Canva’s home page by tapping on the purple “Create a New Design” button.

Step 2: Head over to the “Elements” tab and search for the “Lines” menu by scrolling down or encoding the word itself on the search bar. 

For example purposes, we’ll simply use lines, but you can use this feature for other Canva elements as well.

Step 3: Choose what line type you’ll use and click on it. Adjust the line’s thickness depending on how you like it.

Step 4: Create more lines by duplicating them. You can use one of these three methods to duplicate elements:

• Highlight the line, press Ctrl/Cmd and C simultaneously, then press Ctrl/Cmd and V together on another area of the canvas to paste the new line, 
• Tap on the line while dragging the line up, down, or sideways to duplicate it, or
• Clicking on the line and pressing Ctrl/Cmd and D simultaneously.

Whatever Canva keyboard shortcut you choose, the most important thing is you make multiple copies of the line or element.

Step 5: Select all the lines that you’ve created either by tapping on them individually while pressing on the Shift key, or dragging the cursor across them to highlight all of them in one go.

Step 6: Once all the lines you’d like to use are highlighted, head over to the editor toolbar and tap on the “Position” button.

Step 7: In the dropdown menu that appears, head to the “Space Evenly” option. You will then see three spacing choices available: Vertically, Horizontally, and Tidy Up. 

Step 8: Tap on the “Horizontally” spacing option if you want an even alignment of the lines from end to end.

Step 9: Click on the “Vertically” spacing option to even out the spaces between upper and lower lines.

You can even tap on the “Tidy up” option if you want to polish the spacing between the lines.

And, with just a mere click on your mouse, you can ensure the even spacing of your elements on your design. 

What’s more, you can use this fun tool for shapes and other graphics found in Canva’s element gallery. 

But, what if something’s wrong with Canva, and that the “Evenly Spacing” feature’s not working? 

Are there other ways for you to ensure even spacing of all the elements you’re using?

 

Other Alignment Options in Canva

As everyone knows already, the swiftest way to align and ensure even spacing among your elements in Canva is through the “Evenly Spacing” option in the “Position” tab.

But, long before this feature’s part of Canva’s arsenal of tools, ensuring even spacing is such a chore.

Yet, as the “Evenly Spacing” option wasn’t out yet, most of the Canva users then had to be creative in using a workaround.

So, if you’re curious enough to learn about other means of spacing your elements, better stay tuned.

 

Method 1: Use of the Square

For newbies, you’ll think squares merely are for decorative purposes such as placeholders and color filler for text boxes. 

You can even use squares as frames for a fun element to your design.

So, here’s how we use the square to even out the spacing between elements:

Step 1: On the editor page, head to the left-sided Canva menu and tap on “Elements”

Step 2: On the search bar that appears, encode the term “Square.” 

Step 3: Tap on the square shape (even the simplest square design will do — after all, you’ll only use this element for spacing purposes) to make it appear on the canvas.

Step 4: Resize the square by dragging the white circles on its corners downward. Adjust accordingly and change its color depending on your preference.

Step 5: Drag and place the square in between the lines or elements to check for their spacing. Think of the square as your guide in this task. Then delete it once you’re satisfied with the spacing.

But, if you find this method a bit cumbersome, then perhaps the second method will be much easier for you.

 

Method 2: Multiple Rectangles as Spacing Guides

Step 1: On Canva’s left-side menu, head to the “Elements” menu.

Step 2: In the “Elements” gallery, scroll down to “Shapes” and tap on the rectangle that you’d want to use as your spacing guide.

Step 3: Resize the rectangle by dragging the white circles and handles until you get the desired shape size.

Step 4: Create copies of the newly-resized rectangle depending on how many rows of elements you’d want to check their spacing out.

Refer to the keyboard shortcuts mentioned earlier in this text for ways on how to create multiple copies of a particular element.

Step 5: Place the rectangles in between the elements for a visual check on their spacing. Adjust the elements accordingly.

Step 6: Once satisfied with the elements’ spacing, then delete the rectangles from the design.

Quite tasking, right? 

However, there’s still one tactic that you should know about. 

 

Method 3: Purple Guidelines

Step 1: Add elements to your design by heading over the “Elements” option in the left-side menu.

Step 2: Scroll down the Elements gallery to search for the graphics you’ll need, or encode the term in the search bar.

Step 3: Click on the elements you’d like to add to make them appear on the canvas.

Step 4: Position one of the elements accordingly on how you want them to appear on your design. 

Step 5: Tap on another element on the canvas and place it beside the first element you’ve positioned earlier. Purple lines will then appear to guide you with the alignment. 

But, what you don’t know is that these purple lines can also be used for spacing. Simply drag the elements nearer until you get the spacing you want. Think of it like a modified eyeballing technique.

But, lucky you, you won’t need to undergo these 3 processes just to ensure proper spacing of your elements. 

You’d have to thank Canva’s developers for making our lives easier on this task. 

But these 3 methods are good-to-know tactics should you find the spacing feature not working.

 

Frequently Asked Questions about How to Evenly Space Elements in Canva

 

Can you activate the spacing feature if you click on one element only?

Unfortunately, you cannot use the spacing feature in Canva if you only select one, or even two elements. You have to select at least elements for you to activate such a feature.

 

Why won’t the spacing feature appear?

If you can’t find the spacing feature in the “Position” menu, it’s probably because you didn’t select enough elements to activate it. For this feature to appear, you need to choose at least 3 elements.

 

Is it possible to dictate how much spacing you want in between elements?

Though you use Canva’s spacing feature, you cannot adjust how much the space is between the elements manually. There’s currently no option for that. You can only choose whether to space the elements horizontally or vertically.