In this paper we consider the problem of explicitly finding canonical ideals of one-dimensional Cohen–Macaulay local rings. We show that Gorenstein ideals contained in a high power of the maximal ideal are canonical ideals. In the codimension 2 case, from a Hilbert–Burch resolution, we show how to construct canonical ideals of curve singularities. Finally, we translate the problem of the analytic classification of curve singularities to the classification of local Artin Gorenstein rings with suitable length.