The Best AI Text-to-Image Generator for the Modern Artist

Increasingly, digital artists and content creators are breaking free from traditional methods when creating their works, and artificial intelligence (AI) text-to-image generators are playing a major role in this creative liberation.

In a world driven by deadlines and tightening budgets, tools that help creators deliver high-quality content faster are worth taking the time to learn about. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the best text-to-image generators available that use AI technology to help unlock your creative potential. 

What are AI text-to-image generators?

As a subset of AI image generators, AI text-to-image generators are tools that use artificial intelligence to generate images based on text prompts. The kind of image generated is based on a combination of the data sets a given tool was trained on and a user’s input text.

Text-to-image generators are able to transform words into pictures through the use of natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, such as semantic analysis, sentiment analysis, part-of-speech tagging, and semantic clustering. These different processes break down each text prompt into its separate components. Once the AI tool recognizes each part of the input text, it attempts to create visual representations that reflect the prompt as a whole.

In fact, trying our best to understand the nuances of how machines “see” language is an important aspect of learning to work with AI as an artistic medium, like charcoal or clay. 

As creative technologist Paul DelSignore notes in a post on Medium, “If you want consistency and the ability to improve your output, you will need to learn how AI responds to language patterns. The AI artists that I follow on community forums and discord channels have mastered this skill, and studying how they write their prompts has helped me at writing better prompts myself.“

Source: Paul DelSignore, Medium.com

Ironically, it’s this prosaic way AI text-to-image generators attempt to understand and translate human language that gives artists creative control over how their artwork looks. 

By embracing the devil of these details, one can tune the colors and textures used in their artwork, as well as adjust parameters such as contrast, sharpness, brightness, and saturation, in addition to adding practical visual effects such as aspect ratios and color temperature (or the not so practical, like “redshift style” or “goofiness”).

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Why should you use a text-to-image generator?

Ideally, those of us who have little or no artistic or design experience have friends and family members who are falling all over themselves to help us bring our projects to life. Unfortunately, this isn’t a benefit many professionals can count on. For the rest of us, AI text-to-image tools provide valuable support for our day to day content needs. 

On the other hand, many artists are also finding novel and thought-provoking uses for these tools. These professionals too are discovering that AI can complement their own strengths and weaknesses in their creative processes (and help push art forward in the process). 

But overall, anyone can benefit from how these innovative tools accelerate aspects of the art generation process that often slow down, or even stall, the important things we’re trying to produce.

Which text-to-image generator is right for you?

Here are six text-to-image generators that are worth a try in 2023 (listed in alphabetical order):

1. Craiyon

The first on our list, Craiyon, actually started off as a lite version of OpenAI’s text-to-image generator DALL·E (originally called DALL·E Mini). As it stands, Craiyon can be used on its own website or downloaded and hosted on a private server.

Top features:

• Unlimited image generation

Pros:

• Available on Android store
• Simple, direct, easy way to jump into text-to-image generation

Cons:

• Craiyon image creation may be less precise than other tools.
• Images can take up to two minutes to load.
• Ad supported

Pricing:

• Free

2. DALL·E 2

DALL·E 2 is OpenAI's newest text-to-image generator, promising four times better resolution quality compared to the original program (DALL·E).

Top features:

• Allows users to combine concepts, attributes, and styles in longer, more complicated prompts
• Can expand images beyond the borders of the initial images it returns
• Takes shadows, reflections, and textures into account if aspects within an image are moved or removed

Pros:

• Can generate AI art from scratch or modify existing images via text prompts
• “Text diffs” ability can transform one image into another

Cons:

• Still in public beta

Pricing:

• $0.02 per each 1024×1024 image
• $0.016 per each 256×256 image
• $0.018 per each 512×512 image

3. Deep Dream Generator

Many AI art tools work to produce photorealistic images—not so with Deep Dream Generator. Instead, as its name would suggest, it produces high-quality images that often take on a more surreal, ethereal effect.

Top features:

• Offers three tools, each with different capabilities: Text 2 Dream, Deep Style, and Deep Dream
• Utilizes a convolutional neural network to simulate how our brains produce the images we perceive when 

Pros:

• Easy photo uploads
• Thorough documentation available

Cons:

• Highly stylized images can take a long time to process
• Some users feel changes made to images can feel redundant
• May function best for experimentation and exploration, as opposed to specific use cases

Pricing:

• Free plan available
• Advanced tier (one step up from Free plan) starts at $19 per month and comes with 20 GB of storage and Full HD (2.1 MP) image outputs

4. Jasper's AI Image Suite

Jasper is an AI-powered content tool designed for marketing and business writing that also offers a text-to-image art generator via Jasper's AI Image Suite.

Top features: 

• Preset visual styles and mood options allow users to jump in with little or no prompting experience.
• Up to nine keywords can be entered to further tweak/tune image generation.
• All past prompting and images are saved and accessible as part of the main user dashboard.

Pros:

• Features and templates updated regularly
• Extensive YouTube training courses, videos, and other resources available
• All your content and images can be created in one place.

Cons:

• Subscription plans may be pricey for those who don’t intend to use the platform often.
• Some users report wanting more interaction from customer support.

Pricing:

• Free trial of Jasper's AI Image Suite currently available.

• Paid content plans start at $29 per month for 20,000 words.
• Jasper Art can be added on for an additional $20 per month.

5. Midjourney

Unlike the other tools featured here, the Midjourney experience takes place almost entirely through Discord. Midjourney's AI-generated images are sometimes seen as more impressionistic when compared to DALL·E 2. Depending on the needs of a given user, this could be a pro or a con.

Top features:

• Discord experience means users can see and iterate on art being generated by other users
• Offers control over image aspect ratios and other inputs

Pros:

• Users can iterate off the AI art created by others or simply explore how others are engineering their text descriptions.
• Membership options come with friend passes

Cons:

• For some, free trial credits run out too quickly.
• Some users report problems with customer support.

Pricing:

• Users can create up to 25 images for free.
• Basic memberships are $10 for 200 images per month.
• Standard memberships are $30 for unlimited images per month.

6. NightCafe

NightCafe Studio's goal is to democratize the art making process. Its name is a nod to the company's favorite artist, Vincent van Gogh.

Top features:

• Tipping feature allows users to compensate other creators
• Create, print, and share the art and images you generate.

Pros:

• Provides a unique badge/achievement progression system
• By subscribing, users can enjoy an ad-free experience.

Cons:

• Recent shift to an ad-supported model impacts the user interface
• Compared to some text-to-image generators, some users feel NightCafe is more strict on which terms/phrases are acceptable to use as text inputs (which some users might consider to be a pro).

Pricing:

• PRO subscriptions start at $9.99 per month for 200 credits.
• Credit Packs also available without subscription, starting at $7.99 per 100 credits

Remember: The tool should fit the artist (not the other way around)

There are even more text-to-image generators out there that didn’t make this list, but those above serve as a good sampling of what’s available. Remember, as with anything you use to make art, what you bring to the table matters just as much as—if not more than—the text-to-art tools themselves.

The most important things are your creative vision and how you can most effectively bring that to life.

So try a few tools and see which one matches your style and needs the best. And, if you need a solid place to start, you can try Jasper's AI Image Suite to experience everything Jasper can do for you firsthand!