Canva Unveils Visual Work Productivity Suite For Docs Pleasing To The Eye

While productivity tools like Zoom and Slack remain at the forefront of hybrid work, another tier of apps has been quietly buzzing in the background. These are the easy-to-use graphic creation and editing programs that help the layperson rise above a sea of online banners and posters.

There’s no busier time for work apps, and Canva’s full-fat suite adds just one more to the pack. But make no mistake that it’s going to fit into the same mold; the company stresses that it’s not trying to be another Google Workspace. Instead, it’s fully leaning into its graphic design expertise to bring an all-in-one ‘Visual Worksuite’ where teams can gather and “power all [their] visual communication” to build professional documents with a flair.

Visual Worksuite, unveiled at the Canva Create event this week, is a family of new, visual-first apps for work, including Docs, Whiteboards, Presentations, Social, Video, Print, and Websites. Drag and drop remains its core functionality, accommodating the workflow of Canva’s more casual users.

Co-founder Cliff Obrecht tells TechCrunch that Canva’s “inherently visual” background makes it suited to help breathe life into mundane, text-based documents and spin them “into something engaging.”

Video via Canva

Canva Docs, currently in beta, invites users to create “visually-engaging documents” through an expansive library of over 100 million illustrations, videos, GIFs, photos, and more. It’s also cross-platform-friendly, aligning with whichever screen the user is currently working on.

Notably, projects on Visual Worksuite can be adapted to create different versions of a document. For example, text files can be transformed into presentations or websites, streamlining the process of building a pitch deck as well as establishing consistency among communication materials.

With the announcement of Visual Worksuite, Canva has also officially launched its Whiteboards app for the public. The tool gives collaborators an “infinite canvas” to scribble their ideas during brainstorming sessions.

The company’s acquisition of Flourish also brings data visualization to the suite.

Visual Worksuite runs on a freemium model, with a free version that will probably be enough for most personal subscribers. Features include a drag-and-drop editor; over 250,000 free templates; more than 100 design formats for social media posts, presentations, letters, and the like; over a million free photos and graphics, shared documents, and 5 GB of cloud storage.

The paid version, which is designed for businesses and teams, brings over 100 million premium stock assets; brand controls; full-fledged team collaboration tools; team reports; among others. You can find out more about the full suite here.

[via TechCrunch and Fortune, images via Canva]