Crello is a user-friendly online design service that gives you access to thousands of free templates.
All of the designs available on Crello are high-quality images and videos that were created by professionals. They can be used for print, for social media, for websites, for online ads, for marketing, for events, and more.
You can sign up to Crello free of charge and start using their designs immediately. Premium plans are available that additional functionality too.
Let’s take a closer look at what Crello offers.
What Can You Do with Crello?
Crello calls their service a “Visual Editor”.
It’s a good name for their tool because on the internet today, everything is visual. Gone are the days of generating traffic by publishing thousands of words of text. Today, you need to grab the attention of internet users by using images, audio, animations, videos, and more.
Internet users get bommbarded with content every day. It’s information overload.
This is why your content needs to stand out.
Step forward Crello.
Crello was launched by the stock image website Depositphotos. Their background in the design industry allows Crello to give users access to a huge archive of premium designs.
The whole process of creating designs is straight-forward.
You first have to browse their extensive catalogue of images, animations, and videos. Once you have found the design you want to use, you can then modify it.
You can change every aspect of a design. This includes colours, fonts, effects, transparency, layers, and more.
Ultimately, what Crello allows you to do is create professional designs with ease. You do not have to be a designer in order to create something special. Nor do you need to spend a lot of time changing a design.
It’s an affordable solution for creating beautiful images for online use. Whether you are a website owner who is looking to enhance articles, an online shop owner that wants to increase sales, or a social media manager that wants to attract subscribers, Crello will save you time and money.
To illustrate what Crello can do, let us look at how the whole process works.
Getting Started with Crello
The first thing you need to do is sign up for a Crello account.
Signing up is 100% free. All you have to do is enter your email address and your desired password. If you prefer, you can use your Facebook or Google account to sign up.
Ater signing up you will be taken to the “Create a Design” page.
The top of the page shows some example design formats. Underneath there is an option to set dimensions and below that is a gallery to inspire you.
From the “Create a Design” page you can click to view all 40 formats. Doing so takes you to a page that shows all design formats.
The formats are divided into different sections: Animated post, social media posts, blogging, covers and headers, marketing materials, evnts, and advertising.
You will find a number of formats under each section. For example, in the marketing material section you will find posters, flyers, A4 prints, presentations, gift certificates, postcards, business cards, and more.
The “My Projects” page lists all of the designs you have worked on.
It will show final designs you used, designs that you are still working on, and designs you selected and decided not to use.
From here designs can be shared, duplicated, and deleted.
Choosing the right design is incredibly important. To help you find inspiration, Crello have an inspiration page that lists many great designs. The designs are divided into relevant categories.
As soon as you find a design you like, click on it to load the Crello visual editor.
The help and support link in the main menu will load up the Crello help centre. An FAQ is here together with guides and tutorials.
Support tickets can be created here if you cannot find an answer to your problem.
In the account settings area you can change your profile picture, modify your personal information, change your subscription plan, enter billing information, and check promo codes.
You can reach this section at any time from the main Crello menu.
As you can see, Crello is easy to navigate and quick to use.
Now that you know how to select a design, let us take a closer look at how to modify a design once you have selected it.
Creating Professional Designs with Crello
When you have found a design you like, you simply need to click on it to be taken to the visual editor.
It should not take you long to get to grips with the interface.
At the top of the page are options to name your design, resize it, and add animated objects and videos. Along the left-hand side is a search tool to find designs and links to different sections: Designs, photos, background, texts, objects, and files. The second column will change according to which section you are in.
The main canvas area displays the design. You can easily undo and redo changes and zoom in and out to get a good view of the part you are modifying.
At any point you can download, share, and save your image.
If you use Crello frequently, you may want to learn the shortcut keys that are available. Common shortcut keys for copying, pasting, and selecting all, are all supported.
If you want a better understanding of how it all works, click on the “How-to-Guide” button at the bottom-left. You will be presented with video tutorials that teach you how to use the Crello visual editor.
When you select a design, other designs from that category will be displayed. You can select another category if you wish or search for other designs.
Be sure to save your image before clicking on another design as you could lose any modifications you made. Of course, if you do make a mistake, take advantage of the undo button :)
When you click on an element such as an image, you can adjust its transparency, move the layer forwards or backwards, flip it horizontally or vertically, or delete it.
You have full control over text too. When you select text you will see options to change the font, the colour, alignment, spacing, and more.
Once you have spent some time using the Crello visual editor, you start to appreciate how powerful it is. You can apply photo effects to images, crop images, and blur images.
Photos can be inserted into images too. Free images are available and you can upload your own images. Premium images are also available for $0.99 each.
Photos and patterns can be used for backgrounds. Alternatively, you can select a background colour or upload your own background image or pattern.
Headings and sub-headings and text can be inserted into your design. There is a large selection of photo texts too. These are perfect for promotions and social media campaigns.
There is a huge selection of stickers, shapes, icons, illustrations, lines, borders, and frames, too.
The last section shows all the custom files you uploaded to your account to use with your designs.
Those that upgrade to Crello Pro will be able to select HD videos and animations. These features really help your designs come to life.
In a few weeks Crello will also be adding the option to upload your own videos.
In the images above you can see that my final design looks, well, awful. If you do what I did and add and endless number of images, effects, and stickers, you will end up with a mess.
If, however, you make some basic modifications to the existing designs, the ouput will look excellent. Likewise, you can really enhance the original designs available if you take the time to customise them.
These designs can be used for blog posts, for Instagram stories, for Facebook ads, for Twitter, for banners, for flyers, or YouTube thumbnails, and much more. You are only limited by your imagination.
Crello Premium Options
Crello refer to free accounts as Crello Basic. Those that sign up to the free plan gain access to over 6,000 designs.
There is no restriction on how many designs you use under the basic plan, however you are restricted in other ways. The only format available to you are animated posts that are 1080×1080 pixels in size. These designs also have a watermark and a “Created in Crello” label.
At the time of writing, the premium option available to Crello users is Crello Pro.
For $16.67 per month you will gain access to all formats: Animated posts, Facebook video covers, and full HD videos. Watermarks and Crello branding are removed from designs too and you can resize designs to suit your needs.
For website owners and those that are using Crello designs for online ads or large social media campaigns, it obviously makes sense to remove Crello branding, so Crello Pro is the best option.
In two weeks time Crello are changing their plan structure and introducing a new advanced plan. The advanced plan was created for users who are looking for static images.
According to Crello, the advanced plan will offer:
- More than 12,000 premium templates
- Hundreds of new templates added each month
- All vector illustrations and graphic elements without the $0.99 fee a piece
- Upload of up to 1,000 of your own images
- Upload of up to 100 custom fonts
- 5 accumulable Depositphotos stock images a month, otherwise available at $0.99 each
The pro plan will remain the highest Crello plan. In addition to everything that the advanced plan offers, the pro plan will offer video uploads and and stock HD footage use in templates.
Final Thoughts
All in all I was thoroughly impressed with what Crello can do.
The service is easy to use and simplifies the process of creating professional designs. I never encountered any bugs or errors or problems throughout my testing.
The service is free to use so I encourage you to try it out for yourself to appreciate what it can do. The premium plans are fairly priced too, so it will not break the bank to upgrade to the full package.
To learn more about Crello, please check out the official Crello website.
For a limited time they are offering 50% off their advanced and pro plans in order to promote their upcoming plan structure on 2 April 2019; so it is a good time to upgrade to a premium plan.
Be sure to check out the article “All you need to know about online design tool Crello” for an overview about their service. It’s worth visiting the Crello Blog too as they announce new features there and occasionally promote competitions and special offers there.
Thanks,
Kevin
