10 Best AI Image Generator Software for 2024

The workload of a graphic designer becomes unmanageable at times. 

Their daily routine consists of receiving design briefs, constructing samples and prototypes, and tweaking dimensions or gradients for design vectors. Even then, designers deal with strained bandwidth, feedback loops, client revisions, and, ultimately, a broken and inconsistent visual experience. 

But what if the entire design creation process could be automated? Switching to best AI image generator reduces the possibility of design rollbacks and creates hyper-realistic, detailed, and multiple variations of design samples. By sending a prompt specification to the AI image generator, you can tailor your image as per the height, width, pixel and resolution you need. Also known as art generators, these tools can generate simple to technical images with a human touch. 

I teamed up with Matthew Miller, the principal analyst for artificial intelligence and machine learning software categories at G2. Together, we analyzed 20+ best AI image generators based on features, pros and cons, and market trends. We shortlisted the top 10 best AI image generation software that can be a good potential fit for your teams.

Let's understand these solutions in more detail. 

Here are the top selected AI art generators that will magically transform your designs to readjust your brand positioning and imagery. 

The use cases of AI image generators are endless. It can be used to create vector art, avatars, gifs, backgrounds, infographics, guestographics, AI-generated content, adai thumbnails, and many more design assets for your digital marketing.

How did we select and evaluate the best AI image generators?

In general, at G2, we rank AI image generators using a proprietary algorithm that considers customer satisfaction and market presence based on authentic user reviews. Our tenured troupe of market research analysts and writers (Matthew and I, in this case) spend weeks testing solutions against multiple criteria set for a software category. We give you unbiased software evaluations. We didn’t accept payment or exchange links for product placements in this list. Please read our G2 Research Scoring Methodology for more details. We’re the real deal.

1. Canva, best known for the variety of banner types 

Canva has a built-in AI image generation integration known as Canva text-to-image. It is a customized platform for designers to jazz up quick graphics, edit personal images, add special effects and textures, and create humanized samples.

Canva's text-to-image feature also helps with image restructuring, morphing, switching, and replacement. This tool has been a leader in graphic design and AI image generation and is also pretty affordable and up there for building professional, high-quality creatives.

 Matthew and I liked how Canva customizes personal images or stock images based on brand theme and picturization. 

Apart from these plans, Canva is also preferred by educational institutions, K-12, universities, and training institutes. Students and hobbyists can learn the nuances of design creation and build appealing visuals to prepare themselves for professional journeys. 

What users like best:

"What I love about Canva is the variety of tools it has. It is like a website or an application with various tools for editing almost everything I need. From editing a presentation to editing a photo to editing academic papers, resumes, videos, and even AI-generated content, and many more, I can no longer mention each one."

- Canva Review, PANGILINAN, E.

What users dislike:

"The subscription cost is a bit on the higher side, and the limited features available in the free version restrict the available options. A few improvements are needed in the export options available, which are very few and can be increased.

- Canva Review, Nikhil D. 

2. Simplified, best known for social engagement

Simplified is an AI tool that works on textual prompts and scripts to build creative photos and illustrations that can be either static or dynamic. The underlying algorithm is trained on pairs of image-text datasets and generates an accurate match for user query. This tool can be used to create stock image photos, thumbnails, featured banners and other web design visuals. It is a fast, simple, and secure design tool that reduces your design production turnaround and builds faster visual storytelling experiences. 

Matthew and I liked how it infuses generative AI into its style editor and offers new and creative ways to adjust image elements and add new shapes and textures. 

 

What users like best:

3. Adobe Firefly, best known for generative shape fills

Adobe Firefly is a powerful AI-powered platform that helps you create stunning visuals from text alone. With Firefly, you can generate realistic images, videos, 3D models, and creative assets with just a few words.

Whether you're a designer, artist, or creative professional, Firefly can help you take your work to the next level. Generate stunning visuals for your website, social media, marketing materials, videos, games, animations, and product designs.

Matthew and I liked how Adobe Firefly integrates with other Adobe suite tools, such as Lightroom, Photoshop, Creative Cloud, Illustrator, and others. 

What users like best:

“The integration with Photoshop allows users to replace individual sections of an image and automatically increase its size with a fill. This is an amazing feature, and the ability to create complete images from scratch is also awesome.”

- Adobe Firefly Review, Cesar Daniel Z.

What users dislike:

“App crash issues may occur while generating patterns from specific texts. As the app is currently in beta, you can submit these issues to Adobe using the feedback button provided.”

- Adobe Firefly Review, Verma S.

4. Microsoft Designer, best known for image quality 

Microsoft Designer has every tool you can expect for image generation and a few other AI superpowers. It enables users to generate beautiful images and create original images by just typing in what is needed. Apart from a library of pre-made templates, it also provides writing assistance and automatic layout suggestions to create designs without any prior experience in design or art.

Matthew and I liked how Microsoft Designer produces high-resolution and contextually relevant images with text-to-image prompts. 

What users like best:

“The most popular features of this software include its drag-and-drop interface, pre-built templates, and collaboration features. Its user-friendly design tools make it accessible to everyone.”

- Microsoft Designer Review, Natasha A.

What users dislike:

“Microsoft Designers need significant improvement in several key areas, including the inability to download or add custom fonts and the lack of support for third-party plugins. These limitations are a major downside for many users and can significantly hinder their productivity and creativity.”

- Microsoft Designer Review, Sneha K.

5. Pareto, best known for image sizing

Pareto is an all-in-one AI-powered platform that helps businesses automate their data workflows, extract valuable insights, generate images, and more. With over 200 ready-made AI models, this software can write emails, summarize texts, produce interactive dashboards, and generate creative art – with a simple text command. The procedure is simple: you only need to provide a subject or concept, and their orchestrating AI will do the rest.

Matthew and I liked how Pareto adjusts image style and size with over 200+ AI integrations and scales multiple image variations at once. 

What users like best:

"Recently, I had the opportunity to explore an artificial intelligence platform that provided me with an immersive and exciting experience. From writing and editing texts, to creating images and videos, to organizing tasks and mapping functions, the platform impressed me with its intuitiveness and processing speed."

- Pareto Review, Wilson N.

What users dislike:

"It could improve the details in some of the humors available. When I tried to make my character look aggressive, it came out otherwise disformed and weird in some cases, but overall, very satisfying results."

- Pareto Review, Lais A. 

6. Microsoft Bing Image Creator, best known for image customization

Microsoft Bing Image Creator is a revolutionary AI-powered platform powered by DALL-E 2, an AI model that has been trained on a massive dataset of text and images. This allows Bing Image Creator to generate photorealistic and imaginative images, even for complex or unusual prompts.

Bing Image Creator is fully integrated into the Bing chat experience to generate both written and visual content in one place, from within chat. Microsoft Edge will also have a preview of Bing Image Creator, making it the first and only browser with an integrated AI-powered image creator.

Matthew and I liked how the backend generative AI mechanism enables users to personalize images and morph and customize in-line elements. 

What users like best:

"We like the tool's ability to understand the input given in text format, generate images that suit our requirements, and modify the given or generated images."

- Microsoft Bing Image Creator Review, Praneel Kumar P.

What users dislike:

“Microsoft Bing Image Creator has some drawbacks. It does not have editing or customization options, it can be slow at times, and the generated images may not always match the text prompt.”

- Microsoft Bing Image Creator Review, Anil K.

7. AI Chat, best known for image tiling 

AI Chat, a.k.a Bob, is the ultimate AI conversation assistant that is driven by ChatGPT and GPT-4. OpenAI's cutting-edge technology powers Bob, which functions as a personal assistant, conversational companion, and buddy, all in one simple app. In addition to being able to chat with Bob in any language, this AI assistant can be used as an art generator to quickly and easily turn words into images and drawings quickly and easily.

Matthew and I liked how the interface consolidates written prompts and creates images in real time with fast rendering and execution time. This makes AI Chat a fit for studio-quality designs. 

What users like best:

“AI Chat can combine two functionalities, i.e., Chatbot & Art Generator, into one platform. The chatbot aspect of AI Chat offers engaging and natural conversations. It makes interactions with the AI feel more like conversations with a real person.”

- AI Chat Review, Shreyansh P.

What users dislike:

“This AI software struggles to understand complex questions or provide accurate answers. It does not think in the same way that humans do, so it can be difficult for it to understand and respond to nuanced or challenging queries.”

- AI Chat Review, Akanksha R.

8. AKOOL, best known for text-to-image

AKOOL is a generative AI platform that unlocks design efficiency for small, mid and large teams. This tool can be of massive help in content creation and avatar sketching. It offers an AI-assistive interface where designers with less to no coding experience can experiment with different image and video styles and refine their design skills with optimum finesse and audience contextualization. 

Matthew and I liked how AKOOL offers AI video generation support and enables faster rendering of complex dynamic designs. 

What users like best:

"As a retail businessman, I've found the face swap technology offered by AKOOL to be immensely valuable in reducing costs associated with hiring models for creating marketing content. Not only has it allowed for a more cost-effective way to produce visually appealing and diverse marketing materials, but it has also significantly lowered the expenses tied to influencer marketing."

- AKOOL Review, David J.

What users dislike:

"This has happened a few times. If there are too many users using the service, your generation can take some time to output. On very rare occasions, it can fail."

- AKOOL Review, Anshul J.

9.  Midjourney, best known for style selection

Midjourney has a complex AI engine comprising neural networks that contextualize human designs. It embeds react.js, .json, and .png file formats within the art generator and supports various operating systems like Mac, Windows, iOS, Linux, and Unix.

The tool has a bit of a training curve that requires designers to learn the basics of web programming and high-level language skills (HLL). The designers can specify more technical parameters like frame per second (fps), frame rate, latency, pixel, wide lens or narrow lens, life or still picture, background illumination, and vector directions. The tool allows image upscaling, image tiling, image inline editing, animation, and transitive effects to provide a holistic storytelling experience. 

Matthew and I liked how Midjourney has come pretty close to replicating designs with human creativity and provides technical, code-based support for creating super photorealistic images. 

What users like best:

“Despite being locked to Discord, Midjourney is widely considered to be the best AI image generator currently available due to its advanced prompt engineering and style fine-tuning capabilities. SDXL may change the game, but it remains to be seen, and the magic of ControlNet is currently only available in Automatic1111's web interface.”

- Midjourney Review, Kaustav B.

What users dislike:

"There is a bit of a learning curve, but there are so many free resources available now that a quick Google search will get you all that you need. The biggest issue is that all images are output at 72dpi—fine for the web, but you need to do some cleanup to get a print-ready 300dpi quality image. I would love to see higher resolution added as an option for paid accounts."

- Midjourney Review, Melody W. 

10. DALL·E 2, best known for image aspect ratio

DALL·E 2 is an AI-powered platform capable of generating photorealistic images of people, places, and objects, especially from complex or unusual prompts. It is trained on a massive dataset of text and images and can be used to create a wide range of content and modify existing images to create new and unique versions.

This software is also well known for its ability to edit text-based descriptions of images, such as changing the lighting composition or adding new elements.

Matthew and I liked how DALLE-2 breaks down complex human queries to generate detailed visualizations and doesn't digress from the main textual description. This is evident in the end image result produced by the tool. 

What users like best:

“The best thing about DALL·E 2 is its natural language processing capability to generate images. This tool is pretty much capable of taking human language and process to image-generation commands. I also love its user interface, image editor, and certainly the output.”

- DALL·E 2 Review, HM S.

What users dislike:

"Credits for generating images are a bit costly."

- DALL·E -2 Review, Rahul S. 

Bonus AI image generators: 

Matthew and I also liked other AI image generators that compete with these listed tools in producing ultra-detailed, professional-grade images.

• Imagine AI Art Generator, best known for realistic imagery
• Fotor Photo Editor, best known for drag-and-drop editing 
• Stockimg.ai, best known for AI video generation 
• Playground AI, best known for style selection
• PromeAI, best known for negative prompts

Best AI Image generator: Frequently answered questions (FAQs)

Q. Do the AI image generators offer a free trial? 

A: Yes, many AI image generator software offers a free trial or freemium models to allow potential users to test their capabilities. However, these trials often have limitations, such as the number of images you can generate or the presence of watermarks. It's always best to check with individual providers for the specific details of their trial services.

Q. How do AI image generators personalize image production?

A: AI image generators turn text prompts into art through a process that combines natural language understanding and image synthesis. Users provide a text description, and the model's generator network progressively refines an initial image to match the description, guided by a feedback loop. The result is art that corresponds to the input text, offering a powerful tool for artists and designers seeking creative inspiration and unique visual content.

Q. Are there any usage limitations or legal restrictions on AI image generators?

A. Most AI image generators have usage limitations. You can utilize a fixed number of image credits as per your current plan. Further, being mindful of image plagiarism is crucial since the tool scrapes data off the internet. The image shouldn't infrige any artist's patent or intellectual property and comply with local and federal legal laws and guidelines of the company.

Q. Does the AI image generator software offer onboarding support for customer?

A. Yes, most AI image generator software providers offer customer support via email, online chat, or phone. They also usually provide onboarding and knowledge base resources for self-learning and self-implementation. 

Q: Is an AI image generator platform-agnostic?

A:   Yes. Most AI image generators work across MacOS, Windows, and Linux operating systems or run as web-based applications. Some tools have OS-specific compatibilities, but that is conveyed by the software provider.  

Q: What are the top-rated AI image generators on G2?

A: The top AI image generators on G2 are Canva, Simplified, Adobe Firefly, Microsoft Designer, and Pareto. Additional tools with good G2 ratings are Stable Diffusion, Dreamstudio, Craiyon, and Imagine AI Art Generator. These software have consistently been placed in the leader category on G2 Grid and have an expansive market presence. 

Fire away your next design masterpiece!

Switching to an AI image generator can empower your graphic designers to think attentively and generate contextual visuals with minimum effort. Not only does this optimize designer productivity, but also elevates your content design approach. Having an AI-powered graphic design workflow can build better brand recognition and visibility.

Learn how to optimize your content production and delivery with the best synthetic media software for your business. 

This article was also written by Alexandra Vazquez, Samudyata Bhat, and Shreya Mattoo.