Getting Started: To use Canva, you need to sign up for an account. Pablo, on the other hand, doesn’t require an account — just visit the Pablo page and start tinkering. Both are free to use, but note that Canva includes images you can buy for a small fee, too.

Given the popularity of our posts on designing custom image widgets and headers, photo apps, and free-to-use image resources, here’s a peek at two free tools that can help you create customized widgets, headers, and other extras for your blog: Canva, a program to make images and designs of all kinds and sizes; and Pablo, a tool to build social media posts, created by Buffer. I’ve been using both recently for design and image purposes: each have their pros and cons, but overall are great tools to try.

We’ve published tutorials using other free design and image…