A picture is worth a thousand words. You can now generate one in seconds, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) text-to-image. With the evolution of machine learning, businesses are hustling to relieve the pet peeves around slow design production, traditional graphic design process and inconsistent visuals that didn't convey brand interest. As AI image generators step in the role, designers have been able to build stronger narratives and personalize image with utmost accuracy and precision.
The AI text-to-image tools utilize generative models to build technically sound and high-quality images. Creative professionals can declutter their workflows as they can produce multiple images simultaneously, while ensuring the human touch isn't lost.
Let's learn about AI text-to-image in detail and how they have taken over design and modeling domain.
AI text-to-image is a feature of AI image generators that rapidly converts text descriptions into visual outputs using machine learning. These generators allows users of all skill sets to produce pictures that resemble real-world objects, human-like photographs, scenes and artistic concepts and styles.
AI text generators work by implementing variational autoencoders (VAEs) and generative adversarial network into their core algorithm of generating images.
AI text-to-image software tools can benefit people across various industries and roles. Knowing when (and when not) to use these programs is nuanced and complex.
Below are some potential use cases for AI text-to-image generators. Remember that your usage depends on the type of work you are doing, what you plan to use the visuals for, and whether your organization supports or allows AI-generated content.
Content marketers curate large quantities of content across formats and channels, including blog posts, email campaigns, videos, eBooks, whitepapers, case studies, newsletters, and webinars. Producing this content with limited resources and team members can be challenging. AI text-to-image generators help marketers save time by creating unique and engaging content.
For example, when publishing blog posts, a content marketer could use an AI text-to-image tool instead of relying solely on stock images, This allows them to add visual content throughout the piece while repurposing the images across mediums, thereby saving time. AI-generated content can pair well with branded content that matches the brand’s style guidelines for a holistic feel.
Here’s an example of a blog image Adobe Firefly generated.
Prompt: Create an image for a blog post about time management techniques for remote workers with an artistic look.
Source: Adobe Firefly
AI text-to-image generators will never fully replace the creativity in social media content, especially for those creating content featuring real people. However, these software tools can act as powerful allies by supplementing the content needs.
Social media teams can use AI text-to-image generators to create content that they may not be able to produce in real time or lack the funding and resources to develop in real life.
Many teams use slide decks as helpful tools in meetings, training, information-sharing sessions, and sales pitches. However, reusing the same images can feel bland and repetitive. Instead of relying on graphic designers and marketing professionals to design the images for slide decks, AI text-to-image tools empower anyone to quickly create graphics and visuals for their presentations.
Prompt: Create an image for a presentation about teamwork and innovation in a hand-drawn illustration.
Source: Adobe Firefly
While interior designers have a wealth of knowledge, AI text-to-image generators can be a helpful resource for visualizing and brainstorming design decisions. These tools can’t entirely place design ideas in the layout of your specific home- you’ll need an expert for that. But anyone can use these tools to envision design choices and styles they may want to explore further.
Mood boards are digital or physical collages that contain text, images, and occasionally other materials to represent a particular mood, vibe, or design. Vision boards work the same way and serve as a visual reminder of one’s goals or plans. AI text-to-image generators make it easy to create a mood or vision board in minutes without having to hunt for magazine clippings and other physical mediums to use.
Prompt: Create a mood board for a new home with a modern industrial design.
Source: Adobe Firefly
Despite their vast training and abilities, AI text-to-image tools aren’t perfect. Creating an image you feel satisfied with and want to use requires iterating and effective prompting. Follow these best practices for the highest likelihood of success.
Using vague prompts and lacking detail will likely lead to a result that doesn’t meet your creative desires. AI tools need detail to produce an image that isn’t generic, in an unsuitable artistic style, or off base from your input altogether. It’s best practice to describe the content and subject in as much vivid detail as possible, using adjectives and imagery.
While it’s tempting to assume an AI tool will nail your prompt and present the perfect image on the first try, more often than not, that likely won’t be the case. Instead, you should refine your prompt and continue submitting new details in response to what the AI text-to-image tool generates. The more you refine your prompt, the closer you can achieve your desired image.
Microsoft’s AI art prompting guide outlines different art styles you can reference when generating AI images. Examples of styles you can use as inspiration in your prompts include:
Learning various art styles and experimenting with them in your AI text-to-image prompts will give you an idea of what options are available and how to structure future prompts for the best results. Additionally, specifying whether you’re looking for an animated subject versus a more realistic or human-like one is helpful.
Try not to confuse the AI tool with conflicting or opposite descriptions, as it will impact your final image. AI text-to-image generators only work off the input information, so it’s critical to be clear.
For example, using “realistic” and “imaginative” together might confuse the technology, resulting in an output that doesn’t fulfill your needs.
AI image generators help users produce images that resemble real-world objects, artistic concepts, and scenes. Users provide text-based prompts or keywords, and the AI image generator software interprets and translates the text using advanced algorithms to create an image that reflects the descriptions in the prompt.
To qualify for inclusion in the AI image generators category, a product must:
* Below are the top five leading AI image generator platforms from G2’s Fall 2024 Grid® Report. Some reviews may be edited for clarity.
Canva is an AI-powered image generation platform that provides open-source accessibility to text-to-image generation and image editing. This tool offers a myriad of custom templates, charts, graphs, landing pages, button designs, object styles, icon styles and so on. With the latest update, Canva has added features like magic morphing and magic edit to intelligently readjust user images and add or delete elements.
"I love that I can quickly create professional looking graphics without feeling. The wide range of templates, photos, and customization options make it easy to create unique designs for anything I need to ease of implementation for social media, presentations, or personal projects. It's also great that I can use it on my phone or laptop, so I can design on the go."
- Canva Review, Jayaprakash A.
"I think what I would have written as a downside has been fixed in the latest update. Before now, I could not pick a media from my phone gallery, I always first had to upload to canva before I could use, but recently I noticed I can now pick files directly from my phone gallery which is a plus."
- Canva Review, Fola O.
Simplified offers creative marketing media assets that scale up your content creation and content distribution strategy. Built for scalability and versatility, Simplified produces and customizes new images with user requirements and offers features like color, size, contrast, image inpainting, text wrapping, artistic visuals and so on. Simplified also provides a repository of templates for deck creation, carousels and so on.
What users like best:
"What I like best about Simplified is how it makes creative processes more accessible. Whether it's graphic design, video editing, or social media management, it streamlines everything, allowing users to focus on their ideas rather than getting bogged down by complicated tools. The user-friendly interface and collaborative features really enhance teamwork, making it easier for everyone to contribute. It’s all about empowering creativity without the hassle!"
- Simplified Review, Ashish C.
"Simplified offers a free version with basic features, but the premium options can be pricey, particularly for solo coaches or small practices. While the app’s features justify the cost, it’s important to consider whether it fits within your budget."
- Simplified Review, Alicia C.
3. AKOOL
AKOOL offers a friendly user interface and text-to-image capabilities to customize your needs and generate professional quality graphics. With a built-in AI image embedding feature, AKOOL can build brand graphics, video visuals, thumbnails, charts and graphs, presentations, talking-heads and AI avatars. AKOOL ensures fast rendering and upload time and minimal chances of noise or outliers during image generation.
"I’m easily able to produce a bunch of original material, so campaign ideation feels like fun again. AKOOL provides all of these in one place, from video creation to social media shorts. Having content created and scheduled from the same platform makes life so much easier for my team."
- AKOOL Review, Lynn C.
"The 5 minute video limit of the pro plan feels restrictive for longer marketing campaigns. Also, wish there were more voices for different regional accents."
- AKOOL Review, Cristina M.
Canva Enterprise is a upgraded version of Canva, designed for mid level and large level enterprises. This tool encompasses an ability to create, store and edit brand projects, provide design tutorials, share design assets across departments, cloud-storage of marketing assets and so on. Various departments and functional units like sales and marketing, brand or PR can deploy Canva Enterprise to generate images with AI functionality.
"It is an easy to use and accessible platform. It helps our team create and implement solutions to creating educational resources."
- Canva Enterprise Review, Bristol W.
"Occasionally, I notice that the customization options for certain aspects, like the accuracy of object positioning, could be more advanced. In professional settings, it's crucial to have finer control over the design, and enhancing this functionality would better cater to the specific needs of advanced users."
- Canva Enterprise Review, Ricardo F.
Adobe Firefly offers quick and accurate AI-generated art in response to detailed image queries. Belonging to the Adobe Creative Cloud kit, this tool mimics a human designer's workflow to edit, shift and adjust new images and provide the best resolution graphics. As an embedded model inside Adobe products, it helps unleash natural creativity and visual storytelling ideas on to the platform.
"Adobe Firefly is developed using Adobe's Sensei platform. And Firefly is trained with AI. Also useful for image creation and development by pasting text to create image really i like that one option. By using text creation allow me to create so many images by quick searching."
- Adobe Firefly Review, Jayraj.S.V
"Currently, we can see only beta version is available and it is not possible to upload on images however. you can write the description in the text format to generate beautiful images using Adobe firefly AI which can be downloaded as regular image formats such as .jpg , .png and others"
- Adobe Firefly Review, Siddhartha K.
With AI text to image, there is no limitation on your natural liberty to think and design. The progression in better machine learning with generative adversarial networks has paved the way for tech and design enthusiasts to automate image creation and customization and produce a variety of images within lightning fast amount of time. With more and more companies now adopting this tech carefully, the future seems hopeful for AI text-to-image.
Want to switch to an AI image generator but not sure how it works? Explore the 10 free AI image generators vetted and tested by G2 experts to gain clarity.
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