Canva adds a free AI Text-to-Image Generator

If you’re one of the many millions of people who uses Canva to create presentations, flyers or social media images and you can never find just the right image for your needs, then they’ve just added a new tool that might be just what you’re looking for.

The new AI-powered Text to Image generator works by taking a text description and interpreting it as a drawing or photograph that’s completely brand-new. Using this tool you can define a style for your image such as photo, drawing, painting, pattern or artwork. Once created, the image can then be enhanced using Canva’s built-in photo editor.

This works in the same way as some of the other tools available online such as Dall-E 2 or Playground AI, but the great thing about this tool is that it’s accessible directly within Canva.

Expect these kind of tools to be added to other software soon, Microsoft have already announced that this will be a feature coming to MS Office in the very near future. Imagine a clip art gallery that will generate any image you ask for, rather than having to trawl through lots of ready-made images.

This video demonstrates how to use it.

In terms of copyright, Canva does not make any copyright claims over these images. They say users own the images they create, although Canva have the right to host them and use them in their own products. This is a bit of a grey area right now, especially for images based on the style of another artist. The arguments around AI-generated are just beginning!

Let me know what you think in the comments!