Samples of CanvaKala, a plugin for WordPress
Looks can be deceiving when you fall for ‘shiny objects’ without proper research and trial.
Before You Start
Before I get started I want to share a little back story with you. Originally this post was 639-words long. It is now 1945-words long. Why? I wrote a review for the plugin CanvaKala. After using it (or trying to use it) over the last month I decided to turn it into a review and a tutorial.
There is so much misinformation out there about the proper use of photos, where to find them, how to give credit, etc. Using this plugin falsely gives you the belief that the photos you are using are all free-to-use and alter. I found this NOT to be the case.
First you’ll find the blog post that led me to buy the plugin, then you’ll find my impressions (review) of the product as well as a link to another review of the product (which I happen to agree with).
After the review, I provide samples of images using the plugin for various blog types - food, crafts, finance, and education. But, after reading the later review I decided to do some checking on the photos I selected - to make sure the copyright was correct. This is where the review switched paths and turned into a tutorial on How to Find and Use Images Correctly.
1. Brett Ruttecky’s Review
To see the video review of this plugin visit Brett Ruttecky’s blog. This is the pitch that I fell for when I bought this ‘shiny object’. I truly believed it to be a worthwhile product to try and recommend to you. I’m not being disrespectful toward him, I just disagree with his review after using it. Also, I did not get all the upsells so I’m open to that being one of the reasons my experience was different.
2. My Thoughts on CanvaKala Plugin
At first I was excited to have this plugin as I thought it would make selecting photos and editing them easy. It is and it isn’t here’s why:
- It is a bit wonky. I’m not sure if this is because I bought the basic version without the upgrade or what. In the video review from Brett’s site, it works fine. (not all fonts work, the layers function doesn’t work, drawing seems to be bipolar)
- Image selection, although large, is very limited. In order to add Pixabay, (a great cc and cc0 image gallery) you need to upload 6 of your own pictures. Out of the 10 photos, I tried to upload only 2 were accepted. This alone limits this plugin for me. This requirement is what gets you the API code to use Pixabay inside the plugin.
- Photos you can use that are ‘attribution free‘ and modifiable seem to be old photos on Flickr which unless you blog about the past (think black and white old school photos) is not a fit.