Today we are going to be delving into the world of free AI image generators. If you are unsure what an AI image generator is let me quickly explain. You provide a text prompt. It can be anything you want. An example would be something like: a horse galloping through a field of clover. The text to image generator then takes that prompt and creates (hopefully) an image of a horse galloping through a field.
The best way to do this is with custom software you put on your own PC, however, there are drawbacks to this. You must install software and your pc needs to be fairly powerful to generate an image in a suitable amount of time.
I will be doing a follow up article explaining the best downloadable AI image generator but for today we are going to discuss online, browser based image generators that are free. These browser based options will give you a chance to “dip your toe” into image generation without too much fiddling about.
Online Free AI Image Generators
The two prompts I used for each were: A beach at sunset with palm trees and a surfer – poster for a movie called Cyber Cop. The list below is not in any particular order.
DALL-E
With DALL-E you have to sign up. If you use your google account it is a one click process. After that you get 50 free credits and then 15 free credits each month. Each prompt will generate 4 images that you can then download or use to generate variations from. The program averaged about 25 seconds to generate the prompts and each picture was 1024 x 1024 pixels when downloaded.
As for prompt performance, it was mixed results. As you can see from below, the first prompt got everything and came out looking almost photo realistic. I was impressed to say the least. However, the second prompt was, well, look at it! Failed spectacularly. I’m sure with a little bit of tweaking it would be fine, but with limited credits, we are looking for good results first time.
Image quality is good and sharp but overall the results of DALL-E were very mixed. Especially when you take into account that you have to sign up and only get limited free credits, even if they do top up each month.
Canva
I was surprised too. I had no idea that Canva was building a text to image generator. You will need to login to use it, although if you have a google account it’s trivial to set up an account. Once you are in, the prompt will give you four images. Each image is 600 x 600 pixels and can be used in Canva projects / downloaded for free. Generating the images was extremely quick, usually less than 10 – 15 seconds.
It did well on the sunset, beach and palm tree but let itself down with the surfer. Only one of the images contained something that approximated a surfboard, however, the surfer looked more like a dolphin than a person.
As for the movie poster, it looks cool but failed completely with text. The best examples of both are shown below.
As you can see, due to the smaller sizes once the images are enlarged at all they lose some sharpness.
Canva themselves say it is a new and evolving part of their site, so improvements should hopefully come thick and fast.
Craiyon
I’ve tried Craiyon before and honestly never been impressed with the results. I’d like to say that has changed for this test but alas, it is still very hit and miss. Which is a shame because it has some great free features. You don’t have to sign in (although you can for better features), each prompt generates 9 images to choose from. The images are all 1024 x 1024 pixels and can be downloaded easily.
As can be seen, Craiyon did ok with the first prompt, apart from the surfer. The second prompt, poster for a movie called Cyber Cop performed less well. The “cop” looks ridiculous and it didn’t even bother trying to do text.
Overall a disappointing run. However, if the image generation improves even slightly, Craiyon could be a very viable option.
NightCafe
I’m impressed by NightCafe. Without logging in you can choose from three different styles and have a few tries at different prompts. You can even try different text to image generators. Eventually it’ll push you to log in using the usual Google/Facebook/Email account and you have to have “credits” to use it but you can get the credits free each day just by going to the site and clicking claim credits. So as long as you don’t need unlimited generations, it’s good enough for most. As an added bonus, once signed up you getextra styles and image generation options.
As for the artwork generated, it knocked the first prompt out of the park. A beach at sunset with palm trees and a surfer, it was the first one to get all of the prompt correct. The second prompt looked good too, even though it did not attempt to add text to the the movie poster.
Both prompts were generated in under 10 seconds and you can choose whether you want the program to generate 1 or 4 images at once. Size wise the images were only around 512 x 512 pixels but the quality and crispness is good.
NightCafe is a great option for those wanting to delve a little into text to image generators but who don’t want to pay money or have to mess around with settings too much. Highly recommended.
MidJourney
Discord is the place for this. Select use in browser and then choose a username and create your own server when it asks. Make it just for you and your friends (it’ll ask you, don’t worry). You can leave the name as is and just click create. Click skip on start a conversation and then take me to my server. At this point you will have to provide an email address and password to finish making your account.
It’ll ask you if you want to download the discord app, you don’t need it. Confirm the account from your email and you’re set to go.
Next we need to go to the Midjourney server and accept the invite to join. After that, click on any of the newbie rooms on the left hand side and click one.
In any of these rooms you can generate images using the command /imagine and then typing your prompt. However, we are going to invite the bot to our own server and give ourselves a little privacy and space to try it out.
Look for the user list on the right hand side. The Midjourney Bot will be listed there. Click the name and then click add to server. A window will pop up saying Midjourney Bot wants to access your account. Choose the server we made at the beginning from the drop down list (hint: it’ll be your username if you didn’t change the server name) and click continue and then click authorise.
A little bit of messing around but you now have access to a very powerful text to image creation tool. It’s not completely unlimited so be warned. However, this will give you a chance to try one of the best tools out there.
To start creating, in the message box type /imagine and then the prompt you want to use and press enter. It isn’t the fastest at generating but that can depend on the load being put on it. Within a minute or so, you should have four images at 512 x 512 pixels. Underneath these images will be U1 to U4 and the V1 to V4. You can use these to upscale and alter each image. The number corresponds to each picture. For a full list of upscalers, click here.
As for how it did with the prompts. You can judge for yourself. As for straight visuals, it has the best results by far, however, like the others, it struggled with text for the movie poster. With the granular control allowed on Midjourney, this can probably be worked out quite easily.
Overall Midjourney is the best. Heck, I even used it for the main picture in this article. Eventually though you will have to subscribe after 25 images and the log in / set-up is more difficult. But the results are undeniable. However, if you just created a new discord account and followed the above steps again, you can have 25 more images for free, it’s up to the user if that’s worth the hassle though.
If you want to work more with programs like Midjourney but don’t want to have to pay, stay tuned. Next article we will be talking about downloadable software you can use to create free ai images. More difficult to set up but with the added advantage of unlimited runs for free. The only variable will be your computer and how well it can perform the tasks.
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