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Aligning elements on the canvas

Renée Meloche
Renée Meloche
  • Updated

There are three ways to align the items on your screen. All of these options can be found under the Alignment drop-down.

Turn alignment tools on and off

Control Smart Guides from the Alignment drop-down menu in the top toolbar. From here you can turn the following guides on or off: 

  • Smart guides: Smart Guides appear as you adjust the size or position of elements on the design canvas, allowing you to align them relative to the other elements on the canvas and the total canvas space.
  • Grid: The grid overlays your design canvas, allowing you to manually adjust the alignment of elements in your design according to the grid layout. The grid overlay is not visible on the final download or print version of your design.
  • Margins: Margins act as a guide to help you maintain equal spacing from the edges of the page. They ensure that your text does not run too close to the page edge where it can risk getting cut off.
In the Venngage Editor, a design canvas with a maroon and pink color scheme is open, showing the title Handwashing Hygiene Facts & Stats. A user clicks on the Alignment drop-down menu; the user clicks on the different tools: Smart Guides, Grid, Margins, and each appears on the design canvas, showing an overlaying grid and margins that allows the user to align elements on the design canvas.

 

The Smart Guides appear when you drag, resize, or otherwise reposition design elements on the canvas. They are always on by default.

In the Venngage Editor, a design canvas with a maroon and pink color scheme is open, showing the title Handwashing Hygiene Facts & Stats. A user clicks on a stat chart and moves it on the canvas; the chart moves. The user clicks on the Alignment drop-down menu in the top toolbar; the user selects 'Smart Guides'. Now when the user clicks on a chart on the design canvas and moves it, bright pink lines appear as the user moves the chart, allowing the user to orient the chart relative to other elements on the design canvas.

 

Use the Smart Guide in your design

Resize the elements in your design

As you resize an item, smart guide lines will appear to guide you. Use them to gauge the size of the element relative to other elements on the canvas. 

In a close-up of a Venngage Editor canvas, three icons appear in a row: a painter's palette, a school bus, and a lightbulb. A user resizes the elements and as they do, each icon appears with bright pink alignment guide lines. As the user resize the bus icon, a pink border appears around the palette icon, so the user is able to resize the bus to make it equal in size to the palette. The user resizes the lightbulb icon the same way. The user then realigns the three icons, placing them within equal distance of each other. When the user moves an icon into place, pink alignment lines with arrows on either end indicate to the user the distance between each of the icons, allowing the user to place them equal distance from each other.
 

Align elements relative to the canvas or other design elements

When you align three or more items on the design canvas, dragging one of them will bring up the smart guide lines.

Horizontal markers between the elements will appear as equal spacing lines when the elements are an equal distance apart.

The lines that appear vertically and horizontally and run from each end of the canvas show you where the center of the canvas is, and how to align design elements with the canvas height and width.

 

VENNGAGE MAKES IT EASY

If there are overlapping items, group
them first before clicking on using the Align
tool to rearrange them on the canvas.

 

Use the auto-align and distribution features

Instead of individually dragging objects into alignment using the smart guide, you can automatically redistribute elements on the design canvas using the "Align" and "Distribute" features in the Alignment menu.

Select the items you want to align, either by clicking and dragging a selection box around them, or holding down the SHIFT key and clicking the elements you want to select. 

Open the Alignment drop-down and select an option under "Align or "Distribute". 

A partial view of a design canvas in the Venngage Editor shows a user selecting three gold star icons on a dark background. When the stars are selected, the user clicks on the Alignment drop-down in the top toolbar. The user uses the options under 'Align' to change the alignment of the star icons, and then uses 'Distribute' to re-distribute the distance between them equally.

 

Use the "Align" tools to shift selected elements to the described alignment.

  • Left: Align to the left edge of selected items
  • Center: Align to the central vertical axis of selected items
  • Right: Align to the right edge of selected items
  • Top: Align to the top edge of selected items
  • Middle: Align to the horizontal axis of selected items
  • Bottom: Align to the bottom edge of selected items

Use the "Distribute" tool to redistribute the spacing between selected elements.

  • Vertically: Create even spacing between elements along a vertical plane
  • Horizontally: Create even spacing between elements along a horizontal plane

A partial view of a design canvas in the Venngage Editor shows a user selecting three gold star icons on a dark background. When the stars are selected, the user clicks on the Alignment drop-down in the top toolbar. The user uses the options under 'Align' to change the alignment of the star icons, and then uses 'Distribute' to re-distribute the distance between them equally.

 

The feature(s) discussed in this article is available on the following Venngage subscription plans: Free, Premium, Business and Enterprise.

Curious about upgrading? Compare our plan features side by side.

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