Ideogram launches Canvas to manipulate, combine AI images

Canadian AI image startup Ideogram, founded last year by former AI researchers from Google Brain, has made a new for itself among AI creators with its text-to-image models that produce a wide range of styles from realistic to fantastical, and most impressively of all, highly accurate text baked into the image itself (something other leading image generators, including Midjourney, took a while to implement and still struggle to generate reliably).

Now, it’s getting in on the trend of expanding its web-based user workspace to include a new interactive, infinite Canvas where users can spread newly generated images out, compare them to older generations, resize and reorder them at will, and even combine multiple AI generated images into one new composite.

It also allows users to upload their own visuals. With this addition, Ideogram Canvas aims to streamline workflows and offer flexible tools to refine creative projects step-by-step.

But of course, Ideogram is far from the only AI company to go beyond the simple chatbot-style text entry interface.

Earlier this month, OpenAI launched an experimental new “Canvas” view for ChatGPT. Unlike Ideogram’s version, it doesn’t help with imagery. Rather, OpenAI’s version offers the ability to see text-based documents and code alongside the chat interface, and watch as their chat conversation changes the resulting output in the “Canvas” view to the right.

Moreover, Ideogram’s “Canvas” view is closely reminiscent of an approach that was pioneered last year by a startup called Visual Electric, which uses open source Stable Diffusion AI image generation models, and which recently launched a mobile app. However, Ideogram trains and offers its own proprietary, ground-up image generation models such as the recently launched Ideogram 2.0, which sets it apart.

Magic fill and Extend

Alongside Canvas, Ideogram is also debuting two additional new features: Magic Fill and Extend.

• Magic Fill allows users to edit specific regions of an image by replacing objects, adding text, changing backgrounds, or fixing imperfections. The tool enables users to focus on particular areas of an image and generate high-resolution details with a simple text prompt.
• Extend helps users expand images beyond their original borders, keeping a consistent style. This tool is useful for resizing images, adjusting composition, or adapting content to different screen formats without losing the original structure.

These tools, designed to complement each other, give users the ability to make extensive edits or modifications to images while maintaining the overall quality and coherence of the content.

Subscription plans and features

Ideogram Canvas is available with all of Ideogram’s various usage tiers, though naturally paid plans get you more perks and features and fewer limitations. In fact, the company posted a thread on its social account on the network X (formerly Twitter) that noted all paid plans receive unlimited Canvases. The pricing for the various options is as follows:

• Free Plan: Allows up to 40 images per day with 10 slow credits, access to 2 canvases, and basic features like text-to-image generation and compressed image downloads.
• Basic Plan ($7 USD/month, billed annually): Offers 400 priority credits per month, 100 slow credits per day, unlimited canvases, and access to Magic Fill and Extend, along with features such as PNG downloads and customizable aspect ratios.
• Plus Plan ($16 USD/month, billed annually): Adds 1,000 priority credits, unlimited slow credits, image uploads, private generation, and additional customization options.
• Pro Plan ($48 USD/month, billed annually): Includes 3,000 priority credits per month, support for up to 12,000 images, and an upcoming bulk generation feature with CSV integration.

Furthermore, Ideogram offers its own API that developers can use to build third-party apps atop, yet this offers only the new Magic Fill and Extend features rather than the Canvas (which makes sense, since it is highly integrated into and dependent upon Ideogram’s website design). Pricing for accessing the models through the API ranges from $0.01 per input to simply describe images to $0.08 per input for image generations with Ideogram 2.

Ideogram credits part of the development of Ideogram Canvas to its community of beta testers and members of the Ideogram Creators Club, who provided feedback during the platform’s testing phase. The company acknowledges their contributions in refining the platform’s functionality and design.

Expanding its teams

As part of its broader growth strategy, Ideogram also noted it is expanding its teams and open to hires in Toronto and New York City.

The company is actively recruiting for various roles across AI research, engineering, marketing, and finance to continue developing its suite of AI tools. Interested candidates can apply via the company’s jobs page.

With the launch of Ideogram Canvas, the company seeks to offer a platform that blends user-generated content with AI-assisted tools like Magic Fill and Extend. By making it easier to create and modify images, Ideogram aims to support creators in a wide variety of industries.