Best Tools for Stunning Digital Art

newyhub
25 Min Read


Artificial intelligence-based art generation technology is gaining traction, as the solutions introduce new possibilities for creative expression and can help businesses stay ahead of the curve, for example, when it comes to marketing materials.

SEE: How to Make AI Art: A Complete Guide

Indeed, investing in AI art generators can provide competitive advantages to businesses both in and out of creative industries. If your company has a website, it is important that it stands out of the crowd visually, and AI tools can provide unique designs or just help with the brainstorming process.

Read on to learn more about AI art generation technology and the top AI art generators available.

Top AI art generators comparison

AI art generators enable users to experiment with different styles, techniques, and aesthetics, pushing the boundaries of traditional artistic expression. Below is a comparison of some of the best AI art generators on the market.

Software
Text-to-image generation
Editing and upscaling of imported media
Art community access
Free software version
Pricing
DALL·E 3
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
$20 a month as part of ChatGPT Plus
Midjourney
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Starting at $10 per month
Craiyon
Yes
No
No
Yes
Paid plans starting at $10 per month
Jasper Art
Yes
No
No
No
Starting at $39 per month
NightCafe
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Starting at $6 per month
DeepAI
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Paid plans starting at $4.99 per month
Runway
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Paid plans starting at $12 per user per month

Image: OpenAI

Best for user-friendliness

It seems like everybody is talking about DALL·E 3, and it’s no wonder why. This web-based tool is handy for generating high-quality, copyright-free AI graphics from text cues. What people enjoy about this AI model is its user-friendliness, making it accessible for anyone to use, even beginners.

DALL·E 3 was developed by OpenAI and is the third generation of its original image-generating model, DALL·E. You may be familiar with OpenAI’s other popular AI product, ChatGPT. Like ChatGPT, the DALL·E 3 interface is simplistic and self-explanatory, providing a foolproof resource for people looking to create AI images.

So, whether you’re looking to create a photo-realistic image or transform an existing image into a specific style, just describe your wishes in natural language and let DALL·E 3 do the rest.

OpenAI DALL-E 3 interface screenshot.
DALL·E 3 lets users generate images using natural language queries. Image: DALL-E 3

Pricing

DALL·E 3 can be used with ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20 per month, and the OpenAI Developer API, where prices start at $0.040 per image.

You can also use its functionality with the free version of ChatGPT, by asking the chatbot to create an image. .

Features

  • Free version available.
  • Easy-to-use interface.
  • Ability to combine attributes, styles, and concepts.
  • Image editing.
  • Ability to alter image quality and size.
  • Image editing/inpainting.
  • Generating variations of existing images.
  • Supports many integrations through Zapier.

Pros and cons

Pros Cons
  • Generates art from text descriptions written in natural language for easy use.
  • The model was trained on at least 650 million image-text pairs sourced from the internet that were filtered to remove harmful content and support safe generations.
  • OpenAI developed safety mitigations to prevent harmful generations and curb misuse.
  • Best used for generating art quickly and simply, thanks to its user-friendly interface.
  • Although the tool can produce many different images based on the text input, the simplistic nature of the model makes it unable to provide as many customization options as other AI image generators.
  • No image expansion/outpainting feature, like there is for DALL·E 2.

Midjourney icon.
Image: Midjourney

Best for generating photo realistic art

Midjourney is among the best resources out there for creating photorealistic AI art, making it ideal for image upscaling. However, the factor that sets the tool apart the most is definitely its Discord-based interface. Users must access the image generations by requesting them from a Discord bot via a Mac, Windows, Linux (deb, tar.gz), iOS, or Android device.

For anyone out there who is unfamiliar, Discord is a social messaging platform and the only way to utilize Midjourney. But once you make a Discord account and begin requesting images from the robot using specialized commands, you’ll get the hang of the process.

Midjourney interface screenshot.
Midjourney’s Discord-based interface offers a novel way for users to interact with AI art generating technology. Image: Midjourney

From there, Midjourney allows users to request image generations and learn tips and tricks from other program users within their Discord public channels. This solution makes it easy to create stunningly realistic generations and integrate yourself among a community of other AI digital artists.

Pricing

  • Basic Plan: $10 billed monthly or $8 per month, billed yearly.
  • Standard Plan: $30 billed monthly or $24 per month, billed yearly.
  • Pro Plan: $60 billed monthly or $48 per month, billed yearly.
  • Mega Plan: $120 billed monthly or $96 per month, billed yearly.

Features

  • Ability to upscale and edit imported images.
  • Graphic generation based on text description.
  • Stylize function to improve artistic quality and realism.
  • Zoom-Out, a tool to expand on original images.
  • Tile parameter feature for creating repeatable images.

Pros and cons

Pros Cons
  • The pricing model is ideal for people who are looking to generate a lot of AI art images.
  • The platform makes it easy to join a supportive community of other Midjourney users and AI artists.
  • The social aspects of this one-of-a-kind tool make it a top AI art generator, especially for users seeking to converse and collaborate with other users.
  • Midjourney no longer offers a free version of the tool, and subscription plans may be too costly for members that rarely use the product.
  • Users have reported difficulty in generating realistic images of hands and teeth.
  • Only Pro plan members can generate images privately. Otherwise, users’ AI generation prompts are visible to all members within the public Discord channels.
  • Midjourney’s user interface relies on the use of Discord, which may cause an initial learning curve for those unfamiliar with the platform.

Craiyon icon.
Image: Craiyon

Best for free access

As its name would suggest, Craiyon is a web-based tool that can be used to create art images, and the developer even offers a free version of the platform. Formerly known as DALL·E Mini, the service can generate photos from written descriptions and features an easy-to-use interface.

Craiyon LLC provides its service for free to all website visitors who feel like giving it a spin. The simplistic model is ideal for any AI artist newbies who may be curious about learning the ins and outs of AI graphic generation but aren’t ready to purchase a subscription plan just yet.

Craiyon interface screenshot.
Craiyon’s simplistic model enables users of all backgrounds and experience levels to create AI graphics. Image: Craiyon

To provide the free server, the model relies on ads. If you’re not a fan of the ads and want to support the developer, you have the option to purchase the service through one of the paid subscription plans. The paid plans provide access to speedier generations, watermark-free artwork, an ad-free experience, and more inexpensive perks.

Pricing

  • Free plan: No cost.
  • Supporter: $12 billed monthly or $10 per month, billed yearly.
  • Professional: $24 billed monthly or $20 per month, billed yearly.
  • Enterprise: Custom quote rate.

Features

  • Basic AI art generation.
  • Ability to enhance generated art in higher resolutions.
  • Customization options for different styles and parameters.
  • A printing service to order t-shirts with prints of AI-generated images.

Pros and cons

Pros Cons
  • Create free, basic designs without a membership.
  • Turn your AI creations into wearable art through the website.
  • Introductory tool into the world of AI digital art creation.
  • This tool is best for newer users who are looking to dip their toes into AI art creation without committing to a paid solution.
  • Craiyon’s free users will encounter ads and may experience long generation wait times due to server overload.
  • Generated art may be used for personal, academic, and professional purposes, but users must respect the Terms of Use and credit craiyon.com for the images if they are free subscribers.
  • The image generation model has limitations and can produce results that contain harmful stereotypes or reinforce or exacerbate societal biases.

Jasper icon.
Image: Jasper

Best for professional use

Through Jasper Art, marketing teams, content creators, business owners, and non-professionals alike can create unique and high-quality AI images. While anyone can set up an account to access the web-based service, there are several features that make it ideal for business use.

The model can generate custom art, images, illustrations, and even 3D animations for business marketing and other royalty-free commercial uses. Although it may be pricier than some of the other AI art generators out there, it does save time and money when compared to sourcing art through other means.

Marketing teams and professionals can also use it alongside the Jasper AI writing generator if they use the service. The multiple content creation tools offered by Jasper make it easy to create visual art and professional writing for all of your business needs.

Jasper Art interface screenshot.
Users can leverage Jasper Art’s content creation tools to experiment with different art styles and generate images that are fine tuned to their needs. Image: Jasper

Pricing

  • Creator: $49 billed monthly or $39 per month, billed yearly.
  • Pro: $69 per seat, billed monthly or $59 per seat, per month, billed yearly.
  • Business: custom pricing.

Features

  • Unlimited text-to-picture image generations.
  • Creates four watermark-free images at a time.
  • Different art and design styles.
  • Fast time to generate.
  • High-resolution 2K pixel images.
  • Royalty-free commercial use.

Pros and cons

Pros Cons
  • Jasper AI is perfect for users seeking faster generation times, as most prompts take less than 10 seconds to process.
  • Since the generations are watermark and royalty-free, users can instantly apply the art to business cards, websites, packaging, or any other on-brand commercial content.
  • We consider this tool a top AI art generator for its vast range of transformative creative capabilities that are ideal for occupational use.
  • Jasper Art doesn’t allow users to upload images for reference, instead relying on text descriptions.
  • Some users have reported issues with generating realistic body extremities and faces.

NightCafe icon.
Image: NightCafe

Best for seasoned AI artists

NightCafe is a popular web- and mobile-based AI art generator developed by NightCafe Studio that stands apart for its creative features and artistic options, which make it a perfect tool for AI artists.

The model’s expansive features and deep customization tools are ideal for skilled AI artists looking to create distinctive images. Users can select from a wide range of styles and features to generate a visually impressive image. Alternatively, they can input their own photos to generate an all-new creation!

NightCafe interface screenshot.
NightCafe’s interface uses text prompts and customization settings to generate captivating images. Image: Nightcafe

While the text-to-image AI model does allow for easy art generation, this tool is anything but basic. Its features enable users to create in multiple AI art models, including Stable Diffusion, DALL·E 2, CLIP-Guided Diffusion, VQGAN-CLIP, and even Neural Style Transfer. It offers plans for free users, beginners, hobbyists, enthusiasts, and artists, but we believe the software is best for serious AI artists, as its creative capabilities are endless.

Pricing

  • Free plan: No cost.
  • AI Beginner: $6 billed monthly, or $5.39 per month, billed quarterly.
  • AI Hobbyist: $10 billed monthly, or $8.99 per month, billed quarterly.
  • AI Enthusiast: $20 billed monthly, or $17.99 per month, billed quarterly.
  • AI Artist: $50 billed monthly, or $44.99 per month, billed quarterly.

Features

  • Code-free image generation.
  • Multiple style options and art models.
  • Access to the AI art community.
  • Cross-device creation.
  • Chat rooms and other collaboration features.

SEE: How to Use Gemini (Formerly Duet AI) to Create Images for Slides & Backgrounds

Pros and cons

Pros Cons
  • Although the model is extremely versatile, its intuitive user interface makes it easy and accessible for all users, including beginners.
  • The platform saves user creations in their account for easy access and storage.
  • NightCafe users can participate in art challenges, vote on their favorite creations, share their AI art in the online gallery, or discuss AI art through the Discord server.
  • While NightCafe is intuitive enough for all users to generate basic outputs, beginners may experience a learning curve as they master the model’s more advanced features.
  • Many of the model’s features are limited to paid plans.

DeepAI icon.
Image: DeepAI

Best for customization

DeepAI’s customization capabilities enable users to generate tailor-made images that are fine-tuned for their needs. The open-source web-based solution is an AI text-to-image generator that can produce captivating artwork from a single-word text prompt.

DeepAI is a great model for users who want to quickly create a resolution-independent vector image. While the free version of the software produces art based on text prompts, DeepAI’s paid plans provide extensive options for creating and customizing AI images, including many stylistic options for adjusting textures, colors, and other details, making it a top AI art generator.

DeepAI interface screenshot.
DeepAI users can choose from a range of art styles to make their artistic vision a reality. Image: DeepAI

While DeepAI does a great job at generating impressively realistic images, its highly customizable nature lets users bring their ideas to life. The tool also ensures that its users can create unlimited unique works of art, as no two generations are the same.

Pricing

  • Free plan: No cost.
  • Become a DeepAI PRO: $4.99 per month for 500 AI generator calls per month.
  • Pay as you go: Starting at $5 per 100 AI generator calls.

Features

  • Resolution-independent vector image generation.
  • Fantasy World Generator to create fantasy style artwork.
  • BigGAN for headshot creation.
  • CartoonGAN to create cartoon style animations.
  • Image colorization capabilities.

SEE: Moderate your business’s AI usage with TechRepublic Premium’s AI ethics policy template.

Pros and cons

Pros Cons
  • API developers can connect DeepAI to another software using the text-to-picture API.
  • DeepAI’s Nudity Detector tool can filter out images containing nudity and rate images on whether they should be considered not safe for work.
  • DeepAI users can create an unlimited number of graphics.
  • The BogGAN feature enables users to generate realistic images.
  • Some users have reported slow processing time.
  • Many features are limited to paid subscription plans.

Runway icon.
Image: Runway

Best for video editing

Runway offers a suite of AI tools for generating and editing images, videos, images, 3D media, and audio. Runway AI’s use of ML models in Runway allows for an expansive list of features and capabilities that go beyond those of your standard art generator.

Runway interface screenshot.
Runway’s AI Magic Tools are automated, allowing users to optimize and improve their art generation workflows. Image: Runway

The web-based platform provides various art-generation tools, from text-to-image to AI animations and video edits. Users can even transform images into animated videos or simply use text prompts.

Video editing and generation aside, this is a robust resource that can allow artists to harness the creative powers of AI. The generator is ideal for serious occupational use, as developers can even utilize the solution to train their own custom models and AI image generators.

Pricing

  • Basic: Free forever.
  • Standard: $15 per user billed monthly or $12 per user per month, billed yearly.
  • Pro: $35 per user billed monthly or $28 per user per month, billed yearly.
  • Unlimited: $95 per user billed monthly, or $76 per user per month, billed yearly.
  • Enterprise: Custom quote.

Features

  • AI text-to-video and video-to-video generation.
  • Generation of images and 3D textures from text prompts.
  • Image resolution upscaling.
  • AI video editing.
  • Custom model training.
  • Shared assets and multiple seats.

Pros and cons

Pros Cons
  • The program provides many video editing features for purposes like eliminating the background in videos without the need for green screen technology.
  • High-definition models trained through RunwayAI are provided 100 free HD images upfront.
  • Buyers can curate a customized solution plan by contacting the Runway sales department.
  • LIST4
  • Free and lower-cost subscription plans provide limited generation capabilities.
  • The free version of the solution comes with 125 credits, and users can’t buy more unless they sign up for a paid plan.

What are the key features of AI art generators?

  • Generative algorithms: AI art generators make use of advanced generative AI algorithms that learn from existing art styles and patterns and are able to transform input data into visually captivating pieces.
  • Style transfer: AI art generators often come equipped with the capability to transfer styles, allowing users to apply the characteristics and aesthetics of well-known artworks or specific designs to their own generated creations.
  • Creative exploration: AI art generators offer users an extensive range of options and possibilities. Through adjustable parameters and settings, artists can modify the generated art, enabling them to experiment with their artistic outcomes.
  • Realistic rendering: Sophisticated rendering techniques can lead to visually convincing artwork that closely resembles traditional artistic mediums or even photographic images.
  • Interactive and inclusive interfaces: AI art generators often offer intuitive and user-friendly interfaces, enabling artists to engage with the generated art in real time. They also allow individuals with differing levels of artistic skills to participate in creative expression.

Benefits of working with AI art generators

  • AI art generators provide a limitless source of inspiration, allowing users to explore and experiment with various artistic styles and parameters so that they may push the boundaries of their creativity.
  • These tools offer accessibility, allowing individuals to produce stunning artwork regardless of their artistic skills or training.
  • AI art generators with collaborative features can foster a sense of community and support among users.
  • AI art generators save users time and effort by automating certain aspects of the artistic process, such as generating or editing images.
  • The time and effort-saving aspects of these solutions can enable businesses to reduce overhead costs when designing their professional content.

How do I choose the best AI art generator?

Working with AI art generators opens new avenues for artistic exploration, facilitates collaboration, and encourages users to unleash their creativity in innovative and exciting ways! However, not all products will provide the same capabilities — or benefits — to your organization.

Evaluating the features of AI art generators is essential to selecting the best option for your needs. Look for generators offering various artistic styles, adjustable parameters, and advanced rendering techniques. Consider your specific goals so you can choose one that provides the tools and resources necessary to bring your creative ideas to life.

Additionally, consider an AI art generator’s ease of use and interface. A user-friendly interface with intuitive controls and clear instructions can help you reach your creative goals more quickly. Exploring the generator’s user feedback and testimonials can also provide helpful insights into its reliability, performance, and ease of use. By carefully evaluating these factors, you can choose the AI art generator that best suits your artistic style, preferences, and creative aspirations.

Which AI art generator is best for beginners?

Of the AI art generators TechRepublic has reviewed, the most appropriate one for beginners is DALL·E 3. It is free to try out, so there is no financial loss if it is not what you are looking for. It is very user-friendly, understanding natural language prompts so users can describe what they want without needing technical phrasing. It also has built-in safety filters and lets users refine images through consecutive follow-up instructions.

Review methodology

This is a technical review using compiled literature researched from relevant databases. The information provided within this article is gathered from vendor websites or based on an aggregate of user feedback to ensure a high-quality review.

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