Visual Design: Create Professional Graphics Without Design Software

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Official Anthropic skill on GitHub

Visual Design

Summary

You need a quick graphic for a presentation or social post. Opening Canva means 30 minutes of template hunting. Figma requires skills you don't have.

Instead, just describe it. Tell Claude what you want, get a professional graphic you can download and use immediately.

Stop hunting through template libraries. Start describing what you actually need.

Say it, get it

Describe the graphic in plain English. Claude creates it as a PNG or PDF you can download right now.

No design skills required

Social media posts, icons, diagrams, illustrations. Professional output without learning Figma or Illustrator.

Built for quality

Uses HTML canvas and SVG under the hood. Clean vectors that scale. Crisp images that look good anywhere.

Pros

  • Create professional graphics by describing what you want in plain English
  • Skip the learning curve of Figma, Illustrator, or Canva
  • Get PNG, PDF, or SVG output ready for any platform
  • Iterate quickly with natural language feedback
  • Consistent quality for social posts, icons, diagrams, and more
  • Official Anthropic skill with high-quality vector and canvas rendering

Cons

  • Best for graphics, icons, and diagrams—not photo editing or complex illustrations
  • Photorealistic images are not supported; focus is on clean graphic design
  • Very detailed illustrations may require multiple iterations to get right

How to Use Visual Design Skill

Skill command:
1

Install the Skill

Install via the plugin marketplace, or download the skill file directly. Skills auto-activate when relevant—no manual invocation needed.

Option 1: Plugin Marketplace
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/skills
/plugin install example-skills@anthropic-agent-skills
Option 2: Direct Download
curl -o .claude/skills/canvas-design.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/anthropics/skills/main/skills/canvas-design/SKILL.md
2

Describe What You Need

Be specific about colors, style, and purpose. "Blue gradient icon for a finance app" beats "make me an icon."

Example Prompt
Create a social media graphic for announcing our product launch. Use our brand colors: navy blue and gold. Include space for headline text.
3

Specify Format and Size

Tell Claude the output format (PNG, PDF, SVG) and dimensions. Social posts, presentation slides, app icons—each has ideal sizes.

Example Prompt
/canvas-design Instagram post, 1080x1080px, PNG. Minimalist design with a quote about productivity. Dark background, white text.
4

Iterate Until Perfect

Not quite right? Ask for changes. Different colors, adjusted layout, new elements. Claude refines until you are happy.

Example Prompt
Make the text larger and move it to the bottom third. Add a subtle gradient to the background.
5

Download and Use

Claude saves the file to your specified location. Drag into your presentation, upload to social media, or send to your team.

Example Prompt
Save this as ~/Desktop/launch-graphic.png

Example Prompts

Real-world scenarios showing how to use Visual Design effectively

Scenario: Social media announcement

Your Prompt

/canvas-design Create a LinkedIn post graphic announcing our Series A funding. Professional, celebratory but not flashy. Include our logo placeholder and "$10M raised" as the headline. 1200x627px PNG.

Expected Outcome

Claude generates a polished announcement graphic with balanced composition, professional typography, and the right dimensions for LinkedIn. Ready to download and post.

Scenario: Presentation diagram

Your Prompt

/canvas-design I need a flowchart showing our customer journey: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention, Advocacy. Clean style that matches a corporate slide deck. Horizontal layout, PNG.

Expected Outcome

Claude creates a professional flowchart with consistent styling, clear labels, and visual hierarchy. Paste directly into PowerPoint or Keynote.

Scenario: App icon

Your Prompt

/canvas-design Design an app icon for a meditation app. Calming colors, simple symbol that suggests mindfulness. Needs to work at small sizes. 512x512px PNG with transparent background.

Expected Outcome

Claude generates a clean, scalable icon that reads well at any size. Professional enough for the App Store, distinctive enough to stand out.

Scenario: Infographic element

Your Prompt

/canvas-design Create an icon set: 6 icons representing different departments (Engineering, Sales, Marketing, HR, Finance, Operations). Consistent line-weight style, monochrome. SVG format.

Expected Outcome

Claude produces a cohesive icon set with unified visual language. Each icon is distinct but clearly part of the same family.

Scenario: Event promotion

Your Prompt

/canvas-design Design a banner for our virtual conference. Theme: "Future of AI." Dark mode aesthetic, subtle tech elements, space for event date and registration CTA. 1920x1080px for the website hero.

Expected Outcome

Claude creates an eye-catching banner that balances visual interest with clear information hierarchy. Downloads ready for web use.

Frequently Asked Questions

PNG for most uses, PDF for print-ready output, and SVG for scalable vectors. Specify your preferred format when you make the request. PNG is the default if you do not specify.
Yes. Provide hex codes, RGB values, or describe your brand style. Claude maintains consistency across multiple graphics. For best results, share your brand guidelines or examples of existing designs.
Canvas Design creates precise, editable graphics—icons, diagrams, layouts—not AI-generated art. Think design tool, not art generator. The output is clean vectors and shapes, perfect for professional use where you need exact control.
SVG output can be opened in any vector editor (Illustrator, Figma, Inkscape) for further refinement. PNG files are final images. Request SVG if you plan to make manual adjustments.
Claude handles single-page graphics well. For multi-page documents or complex print layouts, consider using the PPTX skill for presentations or working with dedicated layout software for final production.
Claude can incorporate existing images you provide into designs. Share the file path to your logo or image, and describe how you want it positioned in the final graphic.

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