Here at Orca Online, we get to play around with images A LOT.
Whether it’s helping our clients create web pages, blogs, or social media posts (we’ve even been known to create the odd leaflet or two), we are always looking for the best ways to create the perfect visual.
Now, there are many different online tools out there. Our current fave is Canva [www.canva.com].
However, recently, we became aware of a new image editing software called Cartoonize [www.cartoonize.net].
We’d heard good things, so our Digital Marketing Executive Joe O’Donnell rolled up his sleeves and took a look to see which software he preferred.
Joe’s Judgement
I was genuinely quite excited to put these two up against each other.
It’s always good to learn about new bits of kit. Obviously I didn’t want to be bias in any way towards Canva (I’ve been using this for a few years now), so I decided the best way to compare the two was to try and recreate the same image in both Cartoonize and Canva and compare the process.
Here’s how I got on…
Cartoonize can be used to edit pre-existing images.
Unlike with Canva, you cannot create images from scratch. This means you will need to upload an image to Cartoonize in order to edit it.
Once the image is uploaded there are a number of features that can be applied to the image.
Some of the basic effects include image cropping and image resizing.
You can also adjust the colouring of the image; there are various spectrums that can be adjusted such as brightness, contrast, vibrance, tint opacity, and blur.
There are also some other cool editing options like removing the background from an image (see below).
Original image.
Background removed.
Cartoonize also has a multitude of really cool effects that can be applied to an image such as:
Original image.
Cartoonized image effect.
Sketched image effect.
Painting image effect.
Canva is the industry standard, free image editing software.
It has a multitude of features that make producing professional marketing materials a cinch.
The first feature that sets Canva apart from Cartoonize is the fact that you can create images from scratch, whereas you can only edit pre-existing images using Cartoonize.
Another feature which sets Canva a level above Cartoonize is the option to use pre-built templates for your design.
For example, if you are using Canva to create a business card, you can search for “business card” in the search bar and it will give you a selection of business card templates to choose from.
Canva also has a vast array of elements that can be added to your image. So, if I wanted to add the Twitter logo to my image all I would have to do is search for “twitter logo” in the search bar and drag and drop it into the image.
You can also create brand kits in Canva so that there is consistency across all your various projects. The brand kit can be used to control colours, fonts and logos.
Overall, I would say that Canva is definitely the superior software for the majority of circumstances.
However, Cartoonize is still a useful tool for digital marketers to have available to them.
Cartoonize can be useful when imposing special effects onto images, but the array of extra features included within Canva, plus the fact that you can create images from scratch gives Canva the edge.
I look forward to using both Cartoonize and Canva in the future.
