Designing cards vs making cards
People search for “Canva flashcards” and “Canva cue cards” for two different jobs. Some want beautiful cards: picture cards for young children, a classroom display, a set of conversation prompts with illustrations. Canva is very good at that, and its flashcard gallery has thousands of templates.
Others want their own words on cards quickly: forty vocabulary words for Friday’s test, or a ten-minute speech split into cards they can hold. In Canva, that means one text box per card and a lot of copy and paste, and you decide every break yourself. Canva’s template page describes editing each design’s text by hand, and filling many cards from a spreadsheet (“Design in bulk”) is not on Canva Free.
EasyPalmCards starts from the text. Paste a speech and Smart Reflow splits it into cards at sensible places. Paste a list of terms and definitions, or a Quizlet, Anki or CSV export, and each line becomes a flash card with a front and a back. Then you print, study or rehearse.
Canva and EasyPalmCards side by side
Canva facts come from canva.com, checked on 28 October 2026. Canva shows prices in your local currency, so check its pricing page for the current Pro price where you live.
| What you need | Canva | EasyPalmCards |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free plan; Pro, Business and Enterprise paid plans; some templates marked Pro | Free to make, print and study. Optional Gold plan or one-off pass |
| Ads | Not covered on the Canva pages we checked | Free plan: ads on pages and beside the editor, never on your cards or in print. Gold: no ads |
| Turning text into cards | Edit each card’s text yourself; “Design in bulk” is not on Free | Paste once; Smart Reflow or one card per line, free |
| Design freedom | Any layout, images, illustrations and fonts | Text cards with themes and reading presets |
| Printing | At home, at a print shop or through Canva Print | From the browser: cut lines, double-sided, fold in half, card stock one per sheet |
| Study on screen | Not a study app | Learn, Test, Match and spaced repetition, free |
| Speech tools | Not designed for rehearsal | Time per card, a talk time limit, rehearsal and Present mode |
Where Canva is the better choice
- Picture cards. Alphabet cards, animal cards and anything where the image matters more than the words. We have no images on cards.
- Brand or event design. Cards that must match a wedding stationery set, a school colour scheme or a company style.
- Printed products. Canva’s template page suggests resizing a design for products from Canva Print. We print on your own printer.
- Team design work. Canva’s template page mentions working on a design with others in real time.
Where EasyPalmCards is the better choice
- Lots of text, little time. Paste a page of notes or a full speech and every card is made at once. Change a sentence and the text flows on to the next card, so you never redo the layout by hand.
- Studying the cards. Flash card sets come with Learn, Test, Match and an SM-2 review schedule, free. The free plan has ads on pages and beside the editor, never while you study; Gold removes them.
- Speaking from the cards. See how long each card takes at a natural pace, set a time limit for the whole talk, rehearse out loud and present from your phone.
- Clean, readable print. Large-print, dyslexia-friendly and high-contrast reading presets are free, and card stock sizes print one card per sheet.
Cue cards for a speech
Cue cards are where the two tools differ most. A good cue card holds one idea, in large type, with nothing you have to search for under pressure. In a design tool you choose a card size, type or paste each part of the speech into its own text box, and check every page. If you edit the speech, you move text between cards again.
In EasyPalmCards you paste the speech once. Smart Reflow fills each card up to a comfortable amount of text and breaks between sentences, so a thought is not split in the middle. Each card shows its speaking time, and the Cards panel adds them up so you know whether the talk fits its slot. When you are ready, print on index cards or palm cards, or open Present mode on your phone and swipe from card to card.
For what to write on each card, see how to write cue cards, and for paper and sizes, the guide to cue card sizes.
Printing tips, whichever tool you use
- Print at 100% scale. “Fit to page” shrinks the cards, so they no longer match your card stock or cut lines.
- Use heavier paper for cards you hold. Thin paper bends and rustles in your hands. Card stock, or at least 160 gsm paper, stays flat.
- Test one sheet first. Printers feed small card stock differently. Print one sheet, check the alignment, then print the rest.
- For double-sided flash cards, flip on the long edge. That keeps each answer behind its question. If your printer only prints one side, use Fold in half instead.
- Number speech cards. Turn on card numbers so a dropped stack goes back in order in seconds.
Using both
You do not have to choose one forever. A common pattern is to make the content here, where splitting and timing are automatic, and design a single title card or a decorative cover in Canva. Or use Canva for picture flash cards for a young class, and EasyPalmCards for the older students’ vocabulary and revision sets, which they can also study on their phones.
If you are a teacher, the free class lets you share a set with students and see who studied it. The Classroom plan adds more classes and class packs that print a copy per student.
Sources
Checked on 28 October 2026: canva.com/flashcards/templates (templates free to edit, save and print; some marked Pro; printing at home, at a print shop or with Canva Print; real-time collaboration) and canva.com/pricing (Free, Pro, Business and Enterprise plans; “Design in bulk” unavailable on Free and included in Pro). Canva is a trademark of its owner, and this page is not affiliated with or endorsed by Canva.