Canva releases its first image generation model
Canva releases its first image generation model
Canva releases its first image generation model, Canva Craft, which works in two stages: first, it parses user prompts and creates a plan containing spatial relationships of elements, relative proportions, visual hierarchy, and text generation information; second, it generates images with the highest resolution of 2K and supports 30 different aspect ratios.
Same story2 other outlets also reported this
How the accounts differ:TechCrunch states the model supports 30 aspect ratios; The Verge mentions 'over 30' aspect ratios; The Decoder specifies 30+ aspect ratios.
- TechCrunch · AI··First·Reading now
Design platform Canva launches its first image generation model, Canva Craft
- The Verge · AI··+2 h 51 min
Canva releases its first AI image model Canva Craft, planning and designing before generation
- The Decoder··+16 h 37 min
Canva has released its first self-developed image model, Canva Craft.
Adds:The Decoder states the model achieves editable layered results through Magic Layers.
In order of publication · later reports are added as they appear · Compared by AI from each outlet’s title and summary
Design platform Canva released its first image generation model, called Canva Craft, developed by its research team to compete with same-category models from Google, OpenAI, ByteDance, and Meta.
The company said its model works in two stages. In the first stage, it interprets users’ prompts and creates a plan with details like spatial relationships of elements, relative scale, visual hierarchy, and information for text generation. In the second stage, its model generates an image of up to 2K resolution in a possible 30 different aspect ratios for various platforms.
Canva said that this approach allows it to create images with accurate details of objects and legible text. Plus, users would be able to make precise edits without changing other parts of the image.
The company noted that rather than using photographs, it used designs to train this model using human-designed templates from Canva’s library, including posters, social posts, presentations, infographics, menus, and typography-rich layouts.
That means images generated with Canva Craft could be converted into layered designs using Canva Magic, the company’s image-to-design transformer. Last year, the platform released its own model that understands designs and layers.
Canva Craft is available on the company’s platform to all users, who can access the model from the Dream Lab tab. The model will also be available through the Canva API. Plus, the company plans to support image generation in third-party chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini through Canva’s MCP.
Canva has used a bunch of image models for generation in its platform, so it’s likely that the new models will help save API costs for the company. It said that besides costs, the new model also allows the platform to have better quality and speed control.
In 2024, Canva acquired media generation platform Leonardo.ai. It said that the researchers from Leonardo contributed to the new image model.
Canva said that it is developing two cost-efficient versions of the model, called Craftfast and Craft-ultrafast, which will be released soon.
The company was on track for $4 billion in revenue last year. However, it cut its growth forecast for 2026, causing its valuation to reportedly plummet from $42 billion to $35 billion, according to external analysts.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.
Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch. He is based out of India and has previously worked at publications including Huffington Post and The Next Web.
You can contact or verify outreach from Ivan by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at ivan.42 on Signal.
Source: TechCrunch · AI · techcrunch.com