AI
Canva Launches Craft, an AI Image Generator That Plans Before It Creates
Canva's new generative model uses a two-stage process to handle complex designs with text and precise layouts, joining the crowded market of AI image tools.
The Verge
Canva has unveiled its own in-house AI image generation model, marking a significant expansion of the design platform's artificial intelligence capabilities and putting it in direct competition with generators from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google.
How Canva Craft Works#
The model, dubbed Canva Craft, employs a distinctive two-stage architecture that separates planning from execution. Rather than attempting to generate an image from a prompt in one step, the system first devises a design blueprint, then produces the visual based on that plan. This approach yields "greater precision, consistency and control," according to Canva's announcement on Thursday.
The tool can produce images at resolutions up to 2K and supports over 30 aspect ratios, making it suitable for everything from social media graphics to marketing materials, realistic scenes, digital art, and environmental imagery. The architecture proves particularly effective at handling complex layouts where legible text and exact object placement matter—areas where single-stage generators often stumble.
Canva's AI Strategy#
This launch represents the latest chapter in Canva's aggressive push into generative AI. The platform previously introduced prompt-based editing tools in April that enable users to alter designs through natural language descriptions. It also added Magic Layers, a feature that allows selective editing of specific parts of AI-generated images while preserving the rest.
Canva trained Craft using millions of professionally-designed templates from its own library—social media posts, presentations, infographics, menus, and similar assets. This focused dataset gives the model an advantage in generating design-oriented content tailored to real-world use cases.
Performance and Future Plans#
On Design Arena's crowdsourced leaderboard for AI image generators, Canva Craft currently ranks fourth, trailing OpenAI's GPT-Image-2.5 Sunburst, GPT-Image-2.5 Flare, and GPT-Image-2. The company has equipped the model with built-in moderation, privacy safeguards, and reporting mechanisms. Looking ahead, Canva plans to open Craft to external AI agents via the Model Context Protocol and will release faster variants—Craft-fast and Craft-ultrafast—to give users speed options.
The model is rolling out globally now; users can access it through Canva's Dream Lab feature in the left-hand menu.
