How to use Crafing

Start on the design studio. Pick a canvas size — an Instagram post, a story, a YouTube thumbnail, a flyer, a slide — or open a featured template. The design opens in the image editor, already sized for that format. You can also open the editor from a print product; in that case the canvas matches the product, and Add to cart appears when the design is ready to order.

Go to the studio and choose a size or a template, then wait for the canvas to load. The save status in the top bar reads Ready when the editor is idle. To begin again later, use Start a new project in the editor menu.

The canvas sits in the center. A narrow rail on the left holds the tools. Selecting a tool opens its panel beside the rail. On a phone, the first five tools stay on the rail and the rest live under More. From the rail you can open Design for layouts, Element for shapes and frames, Handwrite for pencil strokes, Text for type, Background for the page fill, Grid for guides, Upload for your files, and Projects for other saved designs.

The top bar holds Back to studio, undo, redo, history, the save status, Download, and Add to cart when you came from a print product.

Open Design on the rail. You get themes made for the size you picked. Search by name, or filter with the tag chips, and scroll to load more. Click a theme to place it on the canvas. Your pages, text, and photos become that layout, and you edit every layer afterward. If the search or tags match nothing, the panel says so — clear the search or pick another tag.

Open Element. Three catalogs sit in the panel: Shape, Graphics, and Frame. Search, filter by tag, or open a category and choose View all. Click any item to drop it on the canvas. Shapes include rectangles, polygons, stars, and lines — after you select a shape, the sidebar can change the number of sides, corner radius, and the inner depth of a star. Graphics are stickers and illustrations you place and drag into the layout. Frames are photo masks: pick a catalog frame, or use Create your frame to draw a custom cutout. Lines have their own ends; select a line to set the start and end style, or switch the two sides.

On the Element panel, open the Frame tab and choose Create your frame. A dialog opens with a square path already drawn — that path is the hole the photo will fill. Edit the closed path until the shape matches the cutout you want. Use Pen to add points, Select to move anchors and handles, or Curve to bend edges. Keep at least three points so the path can close. Reset square restores the starting shape; Delete point removes the selected anchor.

When you are done, choose Add to canvas. The custom frame lands on the page as a photo frame layer. Use Change image or Edit image to place a photo inside, then zoom and rotate the crop. The editor keeps a single closed cutout — there is no fill color picker here, only a preview of the cutout region. After the frame is on the canvas, it behaves like any other frame: border, corner, transparency, and remove background.

Need a quick vector path outside the studio? The SVG maker uses the same pen and curve tools in the browser.

Open Text and choose Add a text box. The box lands on the canvas with the placeholder “Add text”. Click the text to type. The top toolbar is where fonts, size, and styles live. You can search fonts or filter them by style — fonts already used in this design are listed first. Set size, bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough; align left, center, right, or justify; and adjust line height and letter spacing. Open Text fill for a solid color, a gradient, or a photo inside the letters, and set transparency when you need it.

Custom text effects are a core feature of the Crafing image editor. Select a text box, open Effect, and apply a style so headlines read as neon signs, outlined badges, curved labels, or 3D type — not plain letters. Use them on Instagram posts, YouTube thumbnails, sale flyers, invitations, and print products without leaving the browser.

Pick one style at a time. Shadow and curve can stay on together with that style. Outline adds an outer and inner border with their own width and color. Neon puts a colored glow behind the letters. TV Glitch splits the face with cyan and magenta. Hollow keeps a border around your fill. Echo stacks offset copies. Bubble adds a thick outline with a highlight glint. Curve bends the line from straight through an arc to a full circle. Shadow offers drop, back, or glow. Depth effect tilts the text in 3D with Rotate Y, Rotate X, and Perspective.

After you choose a style, tune thickness, color, intensity, and direction in the same panel. Combine an effect with Text fill — a solid color, a gradient, or a photo inside the letters — so the style sits on top of your type, not instead of it.

Open Handwrite, then Start writing. Draw on the page. Pencil color and stroke size are in the panel. Switch to Select when you want to move or resize a stroke instead of drawing a new one. Cancel writing leaves the mode. A handwriting stroke can be styled like a shape afterward: border, corner, shadow, and opacity.

Open Background. Scroll the stock photos and click one to fill the page, or fill with a solid color or a gradient. To use your own photo, choose Select from uploads — the photo needs to be at least 512 pixels on its longest side. Edit image opens the same controls as a double-click on the canvas: change the photo, rotate it, zoom in or out, and reset.

Remove background from image cuts the subject out when you are signed in. After a cutout, Background behind image bakes a color, gradient, or stock photo behind the subject. Reset background clears the image, color, and gradient from that page. Some cover templates lock the background; when that happens, the panel tells you the cover image cannot be changed.

Open Upload. Files you add are kept for this browser, and a click places one on the canvas. The library is split into photos, stickers, and SVG shapes. JPG and PNG also sync to your account; SVG files stay on this device. You can paste an image URL as well — it needs to be an http or https link to an SVG, JPG, PNG, or WebP file.

Click a photo on the canvas to edit it. The sidebar sets the border (solid, dashed, or none), border weight and color, corner radius, and transparency. A frame works as a window — whether it came from the Frame catalog or from Create your frame. Choose image, then zoom in, zoom out, rotate, or reset the crop inside the frame. Double-click the frame, or use Edit image, to open those controls. Empty frames keep Change image available until a photo is in place. Remove background is available on a frame photo the same way it is on a page background, and it asks you to be signed in.

Drag a layer to move it. Corner handles resize it. While you drag, smart guides appear so you can line the layer up with the page center, the edges, and other layers. Drag on an empty part of the page to draw a selection box around several layers. Right-click a layer, or open the more menu on the selection, for Copy, Paste, Duplicate, Delete, Bring Forward, Send Backward, Bring to Front, and Send to Back. Once more than one layer is selected you can group or ungroup. Shadow styles include Glow, Drop, Outline, Page lift, and Angled, with angle, distance, blur, and opacity. Depth effect adds a 3D tilt with the same rotate and perspective controls as text.

Open Grid when you want measurements while you place things. Each option is a switch: Show middle line draws the center of the page; Show distance between two shows the gap between a pair of layers; Show distance between multiple covers a larger selection; and Show edge distance shows space from a layer to the page edge, with a range control.

Designs can have more than one page — a carousel, a photobook, or the front and back of a shirt. The page bar shows Page 1, Page 2, and so on. Add page inserts a blank page. Duplicate page copies the current page and everything on it. Move page up and Move page down change the order; the buttons disable at the top and bottom of the list. Lock page freezes a page so it cannot be edited; Unlock page turns editing back on. Delete page removes a page — the last remaining page stays, and some products require a minimum number of pages.

Undo steps backward. Redo puts a step back. Both live in the top bar, and they have keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+Z to undo, and Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y to redo. On a Mac, use the Command key in place of Ctrl. History opens the list of changes. It shows what will revert on the next undo, what will return on the next redo, and a current edit that has not been stored yet. If there is nothing to undo or redo, the list says so.

The editor saves as you work. Watch the status next to the title: Unsaved, Saving…, then Saved. If saving fails, the status reads Failed — check your connection and keep the tab open until it recovers. Open Projects on the rail to see your other designs, including how many pages each one has. The design you are in is marked Current. If this design still has unsaved changes, the editor asks you to save before it opens the other one.

Choose Download in the top bar. You can download images or a PDF. Turn on Download with transparent background when the file should keep an empty background. Free downloads are limited on the longer side of width or height. Smaller designs keep their original size. The dialog shows your export size, and Subscribe unlocks the design’s full resolution.

When you opened the editor from a print product, the top bar shows Add to cart. Save the design first. The product asks for a page count — a mug, a shirt, a photobook, photo prints, Polaroids, or a frame each follow their own rule. Add the pages on the canvas until the count matches, then set quantity and the product options (size, fit, sides, finishing).

Mug and T-shirt orders include a 3D preview. Drag to rotate. On a shirt you can map pages to the front and the back. Polaroid and frame products include a preview that steps through the pages. If you are editing something already in the cart, the button reads Update cart. Checkout is in the same panel once the line is ready.