Stable Diffusion Comes to Canva. Now What?

Canva reigns supreme among online graphic design platforms, no matter how much the Photoshop wizards pass it off as a knock-off tool for people who can’t actually design.

True, Canva will never be Photoshop, but the platform continues to amaze by adding new jaw-dropping features at a lightning rate.

Canva boasts a huge library of stock photos, elements, templates, and drag-and-drop frames. Not to mention the image editor, background removing tools, mockups, app integrations, website hosting, and much more!

So, I shouldn’t have been surprised when Canva was quick to jump on the latest revolutionary technology: AI art generators.

As a quick note, I have included affiliate links in this article, so I may earn a small commission if you make purchases through the links in this post.

AI Art is the Future…

If you’ve tried using an AI art generator, you know how much fun they are! Simply write a text prompt, then sit back and watch the AI generator create images that range from nightmarish to startlingly realistic. For example, the ‘photo’ below is actually a photorealistic image produced by Jasper Art.

Photorealistic images are far from the only thing AI can produce. AI art generators can create art in many different styles, such as acrylics, spray paint, and watercolor. The truth is, you no longer need art skills to produce amazing art.

When the only limit is your imagination and your ability to craft a text prompt, anyone can produce amazing art. Trust me when I say AI art generators are addictive!

Introducing…the Canva Text-to-Image App

Canva recently took their platform to a whole new level when they introduced an app that integrates Stable Diffusion, a popular AI art generator. Now, using the Canva text-to-image app, you can create AI-generated art directly within the design platform.

Stable Diffusion is actually one of the most popular AI art generators, next to Midjourney and DALL-E 2. But, whereas Midjourney and DALL-E 2 charge a monthly subscription, Stable Diffusion is free because it uses an open source model that can run on your own computer.

If it’s free, why is such a big deal that Canva now offers a Stable Diffusion integration?

Well, free doesn’t mean that everyone can use it. You’ll run into problems if you don’t have an NVIDIA GPU with at least 6GB of VRAM.

“Stable Diffusion can begin taking a real toll on your PC. Creating more images, creating higher-resolution images, and more iterations all require additional processing power.”—Mark Hachman, Senior Editor at PC World

Running Stable Diffusion on your PC takes an enormous amount of processing power and storage – which is why I haven’t been able to run it on my own laptop. (I chose it for writing, not gaming, okay?)

By launching their text-to-image app, Canva is making this model accessible to anyone. True, Canva’s text-to-image app is very limited compared to the open-source model of Stable Diffusion. You can’t expand already existing images, train the model with your own images, or use many of the other options that the open source model allows. But hey, I’m not complaining.

What Happens Next?

Generating AI art in Canva sounds fun, but what does it actually mean for creators?

Well, creating AI art isn’t just a hobby. Because AI-generated images cannot be copyrighted, innovative creators are already selling their newly-generated designs on everything from stock photo sites to print-on-demand sites.

There’s a lot of money to be had in selling digital art, and Canva just made it a whole lot easier.

For example, I’ve already been uploading AI-generated images to Canva to use in my designs for blog graphics, social media posts, greeting cards, and more.

sample Facebook post with AI-generated art

Now that I can create AI-generated images directly within Canva, I’m going to be spending a whole lot more time on the platform. Rather than uploading an image I generated on another platform, I can simply generate images as I go and drag them into the designs I’m working on. Better yet, as soon as I select one of the generated images to use in a design, it automatically saves to the ‘Uploads’ folder—so I can always come back to use it later.

The only thing Canva is lacking is an AI-powered image upscaling app, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what they tackle next. Canva has already introduced an image enhancing app, still in beta. An upscaler might not be far behind, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!