Create posters, flyers and more with Canon PosterArtist

Whether you're marketing a small business, putting on a charity event, organising a local meeting or promoting just about any kind of service, you need to get your message across clearly and creatively. With a wide range of templates, images and fonts, Canon PosterArtist gives you all the tools you need to make a poster online for free.

The web application offers quick and easy access to hundreds of professionally designed templates, covering everything from posters, banners and flyers to menus, party invites, calendars, certificates and more.

The templates are simple to customise with your own text and images, and you can even generate QR codes – ideal for giving potential customers an easy way to find out more about your services.

Canon PosterArtist is compatible with Windows and macOS. You can sign in with an existing online account, such as Google, Facebook or Twitter, or create your own secure Canon ID.

From the PosterArtist home page, you can choose what you'd like to create, or browse through the themed templates. Categories include Retail/Distribution, Food and Beverage, School/Education, Events and more.

If you're in a hurry, there is also an Auto Design option. Select your Product, input your Category, Title, Subtitle and Message, as well as up to three images, and PosterArtist will instantly generate a selection of options.

PosterArtist v1.1 has added several more features to save time and make your workflows more efficient. There are a range of new templates for double-sided printing, so a restaurant owner, for example, can easily print two-sided menus. You can also now import a Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet into templates, enabling you to create personalised or customised templates of the same design – such as a batch of coupons, each with a unique code.

You can add your own images from the device you're using, or from Cloud-based services including Google Drive™, Dropbox™ and Microsoft OneDrive®. There is also an option for searching and adding royalty-free photos direct from a variety of picture libraries.

There are various photo editing options, including an Auto Photo Fix tool that applies backlight and exposure correction, as well as enabling manual adjustments for colour correction and sharpness, or for switching to black and white or applying a sepia tint.

Text can be added horizontally or vertically and it's easy to experiment with colours and the hundreds of available fonts to get exactly the style and appearance you want. The Clipart options are ideal for creating bespoke logos.

To make a design really stand out, there are gold and silver options in the extensive colour palette. Fluorescent spot colours are also available, where supported in Canon imagePROGRAF GP-series large-format printers.

If you're unhappy with any of your changes, it's simple to undo/redo using the backward and forward arrows.

When you're ready to print, click on the Proceed to print button - you'll need to download and install a print plug-in when you do this for the first time.

A high performance Canon MegaTank printer such as the MAXIFY GX3040 or GX4040 would be ideal for printing large volumes of high-quality documents. Both models can also print banners up to 1.2m in length and are equipped with a rear flat tray for media up to 0.7mm in thickness, which is ideal for creating POS materials.

Canon MAXIFY and PIXMA printers that support Cloud-based printing enable you to create designs at home or when working remotely that can be printed in the office.

It's easy to think of a poster, banner, flyer or menu as a purely physical thing, but you can also download your designs for use on websites and social media channels.

The designs can be stored on your computer, or the PosterArtist software update includes built-in options for saving to Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive, so you can access them anywhere, as well as share with co-workers, family and friends.

From bakery banners and burger menus to summer sales and job ads, Canon PosterArtist can take the stress out of creating marketing materials for your small business.