A guide to AI image generators
By Martin Jones
Digital marketing consultant and web development business owner with 21 years running Red Design. In this series, I’ll be describing the new AI marketing tools and how they can help your business.
A guide to the 5 best AI image generators
I’ve kept this review to those that I’ve tested and researched. These are the tools I think have the most to offer or are the best.
These sample images were all produced in Midjourney by myself. >>>
Click on one to open the gallery.
I love Midjourney! It has been around for a while but come on leaps and bounds this year. For instance, only six months ago, Midjourney couldn’t get the hang of human hands and now that doesn’t seem to be a problem. You can generate images in any style you want very quickly and let your imagination run free.
Personally, I got stuck in because I struggled to find decent stock images for my content and creating new illustrations to visualise a concept was too time-consuming. once I started to get the hang of it, I was hooked and became obsessed with it.
If you have a creative bent, you’ll enjoy playing around with this one!
Benefits: Once set up, it’s very simple to use. You can create images in the style of any artist. You can generate different types of images, such as illustrations, photo-realistic pictures, logos, diagrams and more. Larger image sizes are suitable for the web. You are only limited by your imagination. The quick feedback can be quite addictive. You get to choose between 4 initial images that you can choose from and refine. The browser-based interface is good for collecting & organising your images. You can develop your own unique style of imagery. You can use images as source material. You can search for and browse other people’s images and get prompt ideas from them. There are constant improvements in quality.
Drawbacks: It can be quite addictive. Set up is complicated, requiring a Midjourney account as well as a Discord account and app. You need to set up a separate ‘server’, or channel to keep your images private or they join a public forum. There is no free version any longer. You can’t download your images in one click. Using Discord can be confusing.
Canva has been around for years and recently added its own AI-based image generator to its toolkit. As with these other tools, it is prompt-based and follows a similar line to Midjourney, with 4 images generated from each prompt.
Benefits: This addition is great for existing Canva users. Has good controls for aspect ratio. You can drag-and-drop your images into the other tools. A front-end control panel for prompts. Has pre-set style options. Has a free version.
Drawbacks: It is not available as a stand-alone app. Is more basic in function than the likes of Midjourney.
Wombo is a mobile-only app. image styles lean toward fantasy art and very colourful results.
Benefits: Easy to use on the mobile app. A great-looking interface. Available on iOS and Android. You can order prints of your artwork through the app.
Drawbacks: Available as a mobile app only. Aimed more at fan art and fantasy art, but not great for professional graphics.
Dall E – Now on version 2 – was created by OpenAI, who are at the forefront of lots of the latest AI marketing tools, not least Chat GPT. It’s not reinventing the AI wheel but is a solid tool that does pretty much what you’d expect.
Benefits: It produces decent photo-realistic images. It has a pretty nice interface, with lots of visual styles to choose from.
Drawbacks: Some images are blurred or pixelated and need regenerating. Much longer processing time than Midjourney, which can be frustrating. The slower processing time makes it less fun and less engaging than other tools.
Night Cafe is aimed firmly at creatives, so better suited to us marketers.
Benefits: You can choose from multiple algorithms and machine-learning tools. They have daily AI art challenges that can be fun.
Drawbacks: Customer support isn’t great compared to other apps. The filters can be tricky and over-sensitive.
