Canva is an amazing graphic design tool.
Available for free, it allows users without advanced graphic design skills to harness the power of drag and drop to create beautiful posters, banners, social media ads, and more.
Using Canva, you can add photos, text, stickers, and a lot more to your graphics. Many pictures, stickers, icons, and other elements are available for free.
However, one challenge that many Canva users come across is adding superscripts in the Canva app.
Unfortunately, there is no built-in method to add superscripts in Canva. However, all hope is not lost; there are several easy ways to superscript in Canva.
Let’s learn more about it.
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Quick Summary
There are three ways to add a superscript in Canva:
- Add a separate text box for the superscript and reposition it so that it looks like a superscript.
- Use a superscript generator to generate a superscript text and copy and paste it into the text box in Canva.
- Using the Magic Write tool, input a script to harness the power of AI to generate multiple superscripts at once.
Method #1: Add a Separate Text Box
The first method is quite simple and works like a charm. While Canva doesn’t allow you to add a superscript within a single text box, you can simply add a separate text box to accomplish the same thing.
Let’s go over the steps you’ll need to take to accomplish this.
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Step 1: Add a Text Box
The first step is adding your initial box of text. This text box will be for your subscript.
To do that, click on the text element on the left side of the screen. It will be indicated by a large T, as shown in the screenshot above.
Next, click on the Add a little bit of body text option. You can then add a subscript into the editor.
Use the resizing options, including the circles at the edges of the text box and the lines on the sides (as indicated in the screenshot by arrows), to resize your text. Remember, it’s a subscript, so you should be making it large.
You can also change the font and size of the text to better fit your text box. The font option I am using, as shown in the toolbar at the top of the editing area, is Canva Sans, and the font size is 116.
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Consider bolding the subscript. This will help it stand out from the superscript, which we will be adding next.
Step 2: Add Another Text Box for the Superscript
Now, we will repeat the same process as before. This time, though, we will be adding a text box for the superscript.
Therefore, we want it to be smaller than the original subscript text box.
So, once you add a new text box, resize it so that it is a lot smaller than the first text box. Then, use the drag and drop feature in Canva to drag the new text box above and to the right of the first text box, as shown in this screenshot:
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As you can see, we have the subscript 1 and the superscript A.
Some tips you may want to consider include:
- Change the font of the superscript so that it is not the same as the subscript. Use a larger, bolder font for the subscript and a simpler font for the superscript.
- Bold the subscript, but leave the superscript unbolded or even italicized.
- Change the color of the superscript to help it stand out, as shown in the following screenshot.
Step 3: Copy and Paste the Superscript
You may want to add a superscript to more than one subscript. For example, in our case, we added the superscript A to the number 1, but what if we want to add the superscript B to the number 2?
In Canva, you can copy and paste a text box. When you do so, the copied text box will look exactly the same and retain the same style as the first.
Let’s say we had the number 1 and the number 2. The number 1 already has a superscript, but the number 2 does not:
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All we have to do is right-click on the superscript (the text box with the red A) and select the copy option.
Once you do that, you can paste the text box into the editing area by clicking CTRL + V.
It will paste the exact same text box somewhere on the screen. You can then change the actual text; in our example, I changed the A to a B while retaining the font and color.
Next, simply drag and drop it next to the other subscript you want it to be added to as a superscript.
For example, if it pastes it to the middle of the screen, drag it until it is positioned to the upper right of the 2. This is our result:
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Step 4: Combine the Subscript and Superscript
What if you want to drag both the subscript and superscript, together, to another part of the screen? Since we added two text boxes, we would have to drag and drop them separately, and that’s pretty annoying, since we’d have to carefully position both of them again.
No worries. You can select both the subscript and superscript as one.
To do that, select both text boxes by clicking with your mouse and drawing a square that encompasses both of the text boxes. You will see both text boxes selected, as shown in the following screenshot:
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When you release your mouse, you will see an option that allows you to group the two elements together, as shown in the following screenshot:
Click on Group. Now, you can drag and drop both elements together anywhere on the page.
You always have the option of ungrouping them later if you would like to work on them separately.
Pros and Cons of This Method
The benefit of this method is that you don’t have to use any third-party tools or websites. You can do everything from the Canva interface.
On the other hand, it doesn’t work well if you need to create a lot of superscripts. It involves a lot of work, including resizing each text box and getting it positioned in just the right place.
Creating two separate text boxes, one for the subscript and one for the superscript, can be frustrating at times. You can’t edit the texts in both in one go, and you may find it hard to position the superscript correctly so that it flows well with the subscript text.
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Method #2: Copy and Paste From a Subscript Generator
Another option is copying and pasting the superscript from a superscript generator site.
Here are the steps you will need to take to use this method effectively.
Step 1: Type Your Subscript Into Canva
The first step is typing your subscript into Canva. This isn’t difficult; just click on the text element in the left-side menu and start typing some text into the editor.
As always, you can resize the text box and change the font, size, and color of the text.
Here is an example of the first step completed (I am using the word “subscript” as a placeholder for whichever subscript you want to write):
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Step 2: Copy and Paste From a Superscript Generator
The generator I will be using, LingoJam, is easy and simple to use. It turns any text you want into a superscript text.
Just type the text you want to be turned into a superscript into the box on the left side. On the right side, a superscript version will be generated.
Only type in the superscript, not the subscript! The subscript is already in Canva.
For our purposes, I have used the text “superscript” as an example of our superscript text.
The next step is copying the generated superscript text from the right box and pasting it into Canva. You can highlight the text and copy it by clicking on CTRL + C or right-clicking and selecting the copy option.
Paste it into the same text box in Canva, right after the word you are using as a subscript. Make sure your cursor or the editing line is positioned right after the last letter of your subscript, and then click on CTRL + V to paste the copied superscript text.
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While Canva doesn’t have a tool to generate a superscript, it does retain the superscript font if you paste it in from somewhere else.
There are free superscript generators other than LingoJam, which you can easily find with a quick Google search.
Step 3: Edit the Entire Text
Since the entire text is in a single text box, you can apply edits to both of them at once. For example, you can bold or unbold both the subscript and superscript or change their color.
Of course, you can still edit the subscript alone or the superscript alone by highlighting only that portion of the text. However, if you select all the text in the text box, any edits you make, such as font changes, will apply to both of them.
Pros and Cons of The Method
The obvious advantage of this method is that it allows you to add the subscript and superscript in the same text box. This has a lot of benefits, including better alignment of the text and the ability to edit both the subscript and superscript in one go.
On the other hand, it does require a third-party tool. Going back and forth to copy and paste every single superscript you want to add can be time-consuming and frustrating.
What if you have a lot of superscripts you want to add to a list of subscripts? Surely, there must be a more efficient option – and there is!
Read on to learn what it is.
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Method #3: Use a Superscript Generator + Magic Write
Canva now offers a tool called Magic Write. Magic Write is an AI-powered tool that can fix your spelling, rewrite your text, and help you generate new content.
It’s not free to use, but you do get 50 credits to use for free. That allows you to test out the tool without committing any money upfront.
The feature we will be using is the Rewrite tool. We will input an instructional script into Magic Rewrite that will allow us to instantly generate several superscripts at once throughout our text box.
It sounds complicated, but it isn’t. Here are the steps you will need to take for it to work.
Step 1: Create a Text Box
The first step is creating a text box in the editor by using the text element from the left side menu. This step is fairly easy and should be self-explanatory at this point in the article.
Step 2: Write an Instructional Script
The next step is inputting an instructional script into the text box. You can copy and paste the instructional script I have used and modify it to write your own superscripts:
“Rewrite this with superscripts. Use the exponent symbol to create a superscript for everything following the exponent in a word. For example, rewrite Word1^A as Word1ᴬ.”
I used LingoJam to write this script: I copied and pasted the ᴬ from LingoJam when inputting this script into the text box.
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Then, after this script, I listed out all the words I wanted to be converted into superscripts, along with their accompanying subscripts. I used placeholder examples, but you can use any word combinations!
Remember to add the exponent between each subscript and superscript, so the Magic Write tool can understand what you want it to do.
Here is an example of me writing my instructional script and my list of desired subscripts and superscripts in the text box:
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Then, click on the text box and click on the Magic Write button. You will see a Rewrite option. Click on it, and wait as the AI tool rewrites your text to match your script.
Bam! You will instantly get the superscripts you want, all in one go.
Here are the results from my little example:
You can then delete the “Rewrite with Superscripts” text at the top, and you will be left with a list of subscripts and superscripts. It’s that easy!
Pros and Cons of This Method
You can generate several superscripts at once. You don’t have to keep creating separate text boxes or copying and pasting every single superscript.
It will save you a lot of time, and it is a lot more efficient when you have a list of subscripts you want to add superscripts to.
The downside of this method is that while 50 credits are available for free, it will cost money if you use it regularly.
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Conclusion
Unfortunately, Canva doesn’t have a way to add superscripts to texts. I hope it adds this feature in the future, but for now, you will need to use a workaround.
Fortunately, though, there are a few ways to add superscripts to Canva, and they are easy to learn.
As we learned above, you can either copy and paste from a superscript generator, create a separate text box for the superscript, or use the Magic Write tool to achieve it.