The 18 Best AI Tools For Designers

In a world where technology has continuously been advancing astonishingly, designers today can find themselves equipped with a helping buddy: Artificial Intelligence. 

With a plethora of AI tools at your disposal, you, as designers, can enhance your creative processes and push the boundaries of what's possible in the design world. 

These AI tools have revolutionised the entire design landscape, from generating images effortlessly to transforming scribbles into professional designs, using AI to generate marketing collaterals, and developing unique serene scenery from paint strokes.

However, considering the advancement, you also need to note that the realm of AI tools for designers is vast and diverse. There are numerous AI designing tools shelved today that cater to various design needs. In this extensive landscape, selecting the right tools becomes crucial to ensure you get the best possible outcomes.

So, we created an expansive list of eighteen AI tools for designers that all cater to different use cases and offer different utilities. Let's learn about each tool, how to use them, and what they offer to check which all can be your allies to make your workflow agile.

Rundown

  1. Start generating images without learning prompt engineering: ChatGPT, "Powered by Dall-E 3. ChatGPT is a multimodal AI that can generate realistic and diverse images from conversational prompts."
  2. Free image generator with internet access: Bing image generator, "A free tool with internet access that allows users to create original and high-quality images from text or keywords, such as "a beautiful sunset" or "a happy family". Users can choose to give a customised prompt to create custom images."
  3. To use AI for marketing Collaterals: Canva, "An AI graphic design platform that allows users to use AI for marketing collaterals. Users can use Canva to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, videos, logos, and more. Users can choose from thousands of templates, icons, and graphics or create their own from scratch."
  4. One of the most advanced text-to-image AI: Midjourney, "It is one of the biggest AI image generation, Mdjourney is the biggest player that allows users to create any image as detail as possible, as the data it is trained on, is huge, and thus works with detailing. It's possible to use it on phones, desktops or laptops as it is a Discord bot."
  5. Free AI suite for beginners: Freepik, "A complete AI suite with AI images marketplace, AI image generator, sketch to image generator, AI presentation maker, AI background remover, and AI writer; all at one place and that too for free."
  6. For tech-savvy designers: Stable Diffusion, "A deep learning model for tech-savvy designers that generates images from prompts, images, QR codes, A map, a chart or graph, or anything in the world of digital assets using the diffusion techniques, but it requires the user to be tech-savvy who understands its system in-depth."
  7. Create AI videos using just images: Pika Labs, "An AI video creation platform that lets its users create cinematic, realistic and more like original videos from photos and videos or even text. It allows the users to add music, transitions, effects, and captions to make the videos more engaging and professional."
  8. To create illustrative mockups: Visme, "A tool that lets users create realistic and professional mockups for devices, products, branding, social media and more. They can choose from a library of stock images or mockup assets such as T-shirts, mugs, books, flyers, etc., or upload their own image. The tool also allows customising the mockup with different backgrounds, colours, shadows, and effects.
  9. Adobe Photoshop powered by prompts: Adobe Firefly, "An AI-driven Adobe tool that can now perform all the tasks using prompts which were traditionally done in Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator manually, eliminating the need for manual intervention."
  10. To maximise the visual quality: Topaz Labs, "A complete suite of AI-based tools that can improve the quality and clarity of photos and videos. Users can use its tools to remove noise, sharpen details, enlarge resolution, and stabilise motion."
  11. To convert scribbles to realistic photos: AutoDraw, "A web-based drawing tool that uses AI to recognise your sketches and suggest relevant icons and shapes. Users can go do scribbling, and AI will take it to the next level by turning your doodles into professional-looking graphics." 
  12. To remove images' backgrounds: Remove.bg, "A web-based tool that can remove the background from any image in seconds with one click and make it clean. It allows users to replace the background with a transparent or solid colour or choose from a variety of backgrounds provided by the tool."
  13. To convert photos to Vectors: Vectorizer.ai, "A web-based tool that can convert any image into a vector graphic that can be scaled up or down without losing quality or detail. Users can use it to convert trace pixels or bitmaps to vectors with all the detailing and customise the output with different settings and options."
  14. To upscale your images: ImgUpscaler, "A web-based tool that can upscale images by up to 16x without losing quality or detail. It uses AI-based algorithms that can enhance textures, edges, and colours and upscale the images by 400% and up to 16000x16000 resolution." 
  15. To generate unique icons from text: Magician for Figma, "A plugin for Figma that allows users to generate unique icons from text using the power of AI. Users can simply type in a word or a phrase, and Magician will create an icon that matches their input. You can also customise the icon's style, colour, and size. Magician for Figma is a great tool for creating icons for your projects, websites, or apps."
  16. To create logos and textual content using AI: Ideogram, "A newly launched AI-powered design tool that can generate texts, logos icons, illustrations, and 3D renderings. Its text and logo generation are the features that make this tool stand out from others. 
  17. Create product photography with AI: Booth.ai, "A generative AI tool that produces realistic and high-quality product photoshoots from simple inputs. If users can explain it, Booth.ai will generate it. Users can upload reference photos of their products and describe their desired shots, and Booth.ai then generates images that match the user's vision."
  18. To render virtual 3D scenes of products: Stylized.ai, "A product staging tool that creates stunning 3D environments for any product. Users can upload their product images and select from a range of styles and scenes, such as modern, rustic, urban, or natural. Stylized.ai then renders the product in a realistic and immersive 3D scene and provides options to customise the lighting, materials, and camera angles."
  19. To convert paintbrush strokes into realistic landscape images: NVIDIA, "An AI-assisted painting app that turns simple brushstrokes into photorealistic landscape images. Users can paint with a palette of real-world materials, such as grass, clouds, water, or rocks, and NVIDIA Canvas then uses a deep learning model to fill in the details and generate realistic results."

How Did We Find These AI Tools For Designers

To uncover the AI tools for designers that could genuinely elevate the design process, we had an approach where we blended research and first-hand experience with these tools. Plus, our criteria were simple, we wanted these tools to be innovative, practical, and AI-driven tools for designers.

The list of these AI tools for designers includes more than half of the tools that we already use on a daily basis. But as the list was incomplete without a few tools that served particular use cases, like a tool that served eCommerce, could create an image out of the bitmap, and more, to discover these, we started exploring the communities and designer forums. 

Not only did we stop at just reading those tools, but we had first-hand experience in the same and then included the one that did not fail to impress us. 

So, having a few tools in hand and after finding some really good tools after the research, we finally got our list ready and added a collection of AI tools, with each catering to its own special niche. This was important because we wanted designers to find different and suitable tools for their varied projects while they could add a layer of creativity and do it all in less time.

AI Tools For Designers

chatgpt

Start generating images without learning prompt engineering

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a multimodal AI that understands when you want a textual reply or when you want it to create an image, all without knowing the intricacies of text-to-image prompting. It's powered by DALL-E 3, the updated version of Dall-E 2, which combines the power of conversational AI with the image generation capabilities, and thus, understands the nuances and subtleties of your language and creates images that match your intent and expectations. Even if you don't know how to write the prompts. The best part? You can even give ChatGPT an image as reference and it'll understand your requirements without you even typing it out.

The only catch with this is that text-to-image capabilities are available to only ChatGPT plus users which is the paid version of this conversational AI.

Bing image generator

Access the free image generator

Bing image generator

A fantastic free tool from Microsoft that uses AI and the internet to generate images from text descriptions. However, you can currently only use it in the Microsoft Edge browser; as for now, it has made the availability limited to its browser only.

To use the Bing Image Generator, you will need to create a Microsoft account and redeem your Rewards points for boosts. You get 100 boosts as you log in. Once you have boosts, you can create images by entering a text description and then clicking the "Create" button or "Surprise me". 

As a designer, you can use Bing to:

  • Generate concept art for your company's products

  • Create engaging and unique social media posts

  • Design custom logos and other marketing materials

  • Create prototypes of new designs

  • Explore the different concepts and visual ideas it has

For a designer, the Bing image generator is a tool that can help you get better with your designs and creativity and induce uniqueness, all at no cost.

Canva AI Tools For Designers

To use AI for marketing Collaterals

Canva

As you were using this graphic designing tool to design your marketing collaterals manually, now you can use Cnava to design your marketing collaterals using its AI.
Canvas text-to-image generator is a web-based tool that uses artificial intelligence to help you create images from text descriptions. You can use Canva's text-to-image generator to create images for marketing collateral, such as social media posts, flyers, banners, logos, and more.
All you have to do is add the text as your prompt, using natural language to describe what you want to create, and Canva's text-to-image generator will produce four images in the left panel for you to choose from. You can drag and drop the right image in the main sheet to edit it further.
In your edit sheet, you can adjust the position, size, colour of the image, and everything you want to make it perfect. You can also add text, filters, and other elements.
A powerful tool, Canva's Text-to-Image AI generator, can help you take your creative marketing projects to the next level. It's easy to use and affordable, and it's available to all Canva users.

midjourney

One of the most advanced text-to-image AI

Midjourney

Midjourney is a cutting-edge and advanced text-to-image AI platform that lets you turn your words into stunning and detailed images. Midjourney is accessible through Discord, so you can use it on any device: smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop, etc. 

With Midjounery, you can get as creative and create art as detailed as possible. Here's what you can do:

  • Generate realistic images of people, places, and objects
  • Create abstract and surreal artwork
  • Create images in different styles, such as painting, photography, and digital art
  • Generate images with different moods and emotions

So, Whether you want to create realistic images, imaginative ones, or fantasy illustrations, using Midjourney, you can bring your vision to life. 

To work with Midjourney, you will have to give it prompts using proper formats using hyphens, colours, and other syntaxes as required. And in that, you have to ensure that you add details that you actually have in your mind. For example, if you want to create a charismatic princess, and you have its details in the backdrop, like smokey eyes, flowers, the gown, and more things in detail, mention them, and it will produce art, something much similar to what you have in your mind.

You can also upscale, modify, or vary the images to suit your needs. Midjourney runs on Discord, so you don't need any special hardware or software to use it. If you are willing to take your creativity to the next level, Midjourney is a powerful and easy-to-use tool that can help you do so. 

freepik

Free AI suite for beginners:

Freepik

Freepik, best known for free vector files for graphics designers has upped its game and has launched an entirely new AI suite to cater to both designers and marketers. The suite has everything a routine designer would need from AI -

  • A real-time AI art generator, Pikaso, uses advanced algorithms to transform sketches into high-quality images.
  • AI Image Generator allows you to generate unique images by simply adding a prompt and choosing a style.
  • AI Presentation Maker creates professional presentations by choosing a style, tone, and topic.
  • AI Background Remover removes the background of any image.
  • AI Figma Plugin allows you to generate AI images directly in Figma.
  • AI Writer helps you generate quality content for titles, body copy, CTAs, and more.

The best part? Most of these offerings are free. And even if some are freemium, you get god amount of free trials to ensure it's the one for you.

Stable Diffusion AI Tools For Designers

For tech-savvy designers

Stable Diffusion

An open-source machine learning model that is trained on billions of images, which can produce realistic images or art results that are quite at par with the results you'd get from DALL-E 2 or Dall-E-3 and MidJourney. 

Using SDXL, you can go beyond just prompting and creating images. Here are some specific examples of things you can generate using Stable Diffusion:

  • A portrait of yourself in the style of your favourite artist
  • A dreamlike scene
  • A photorealistic image of an animal that doesn't exist
  • A landscape of a fictional world
  • A logo for your business
  • A piece of abstract art
  • A video game screenshot
  • A product design
  • A scene for a movie or TV show
  • A book cover
  • A concept art illustration
  • A character design
  • A chart or graph
  • A scientific illustration
  • A technical diagram
  • A map

There is a lot more that you can do with Stable Diffusion, as it is the world's fastest-growing AI open-source platform. It is powerful and popular but a bit complex to use, but it can definitely help you take your creative projects to the next level. 

Prompting on Stabel Diffusion is like you have to give a positive prompt and a negative prompt. In the positive prompt, you mention everything that you want the image to look like. However, in the negative prompt, you can also mention the thing you want the image to have, like blurry, hasty, or other things that might strike your mind. This makes image generation on Stable Diffusion even more elaborate and better.

pika labs

Create cinematic AI videos

Pika Labs

It is one of the most useful tools for th designers who find it difficult to get relevant videos for the projects they are working on. Pika Labs is a place where you can create short-form videos just by giving the prompts, and these videos are realistic and nothing that looks fake. Even though it is still under development, its current work and the potential to revolutionise the way videos are created is incredible.

You can create short videos of any type, though, but here are some to list:

  • A short film about a dystopian future
  • A commercial video ad for your product or service
  • A music video for your favorite song
  • A trailer for your upcoming movie or TV show
  • A video essay about a topic that interests you

This means it serves every niche and industry and helps you create any kind of videos you desire. All you have to do is use as descriptive and evocative language as possible in your text prompts. The more information and details you add to your instruction for Pika Labs, the better it will be able to understand what you want and the best will be the result.

Besides, You can also extend beyond just text-to-video prompting and add voice, music, or image features to enhance the look and feel of your videos.

With Pika Labs, you can create, modify, edit, or vary the video to suit your needs. As Pika Labs leverages advanced AI technology to simplify the video creation process, it eliminates the need for complex editing tools and long production times. 

Visme AI Tools For Designers

To create illustrative mockups

Visme

When you want to create illustrative mockups, Visme is a great tool to head to. It is a host to a wide range of mockup templates, stock photo libraries, and filters that you can choose to create your mockups and customise them to your needs.

On Visme, you can find varied mockup templates for book covers, products, interior design vertices, course mockup vertices, website design, and much more. So, if you want to impress your client, you can use Visme's mockup-creating capabilities and do the needful.

However, creating the mockups on Visme is easy. You can create a new project, choose a relevant template, add your pictures to the same, and customise the template according to your needs

When you want to create a fine mockup, you can simply head to Visme, as it is a powerful tool that you can use to create illustrative mockups of all kinds for all niches and industries. It is easy to use and affordable, and it is available to everyone.

Firefly

Adobe Photoshop powered by prompts

Adobe firefly

Adobe Firefly is essentially an AI tool that helps you do anything you have been doing or have imagined doing on Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. 

 Adobe Firefly is an AI-powered tool that allows you to create amazing designs with simple text prompts. You can use Firefly to generate images, text effects, colour palettes, and more with the power of generative AI. Firefly is an AI tool for designers that is designed to enhance the complete creative workflow.

As you can easily integrate it with the Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud and Adobe Express workflows, it is sure to increase the speed of your work, add precision and help you get better at creating and modifying visual assets.

You can craft images, audio, video, vectors, brushes, colour gradients, video transformations, and much more. With Adobe Firefly, designing will surely get easier and faster. Besides, you can make as many changes as you want, all on board. 

For example, you can type "add a hat and sunglasses to the person in the image", and Firefly will edit the image accordingly.

For example, you can type "the word 'Firefly' in gold glitter", and Firefly will generate the text effect 

It is a seasoned AI tool for designers who wish to get more creative, productive, and professional with their design work. 

Topaz Labs AI Tools For Designers

To maximise the visual quality

Topaz Labs

Topaz Labs is a software company that has developed a suite of AI-powered tools to improve the visual quality of images and videos at different levels and from different aspects. Their products are used by professional photographers, videographers, and graphic designers all over the world.

So, you can use the following tools to maximise the visual quality of any of your visual assets, including videos and images:

  • Upscale images and videos: You can use the Gigapixel AI and Video Enhance AI tools of Topaz Labs to upscale images and videos to a higher resolution without sacrificing quality. 
  • Reduce noise: The DeNoise AI tool of Topaz Labs' helps you reduce noise in images and videos. So, using this, you can remove grain from low-light photos or reduce static from videos.
  • Sharpen images: As the name suggests, you can use this tool to Topaz Labs' Sharpen AI tool to sharpen images without creating artefacts. Using this, you can ideally make your images look more crisp and clear.
  • Adjust colours: If you want to make major or minor adjustments to the colours in images, you can use Topaz Labs' Adjust AI tool to do it in all the ways. You can correct white balance, adjust contrast, or create a specific mood or atmosphere.

So, if you want to enhance the quality of any image and amplify the look and feel appealing to use in your marketing collaterals or for other purposes, Topaz Labs is the best place to head.

AutoDraw

Just scribble, and AI will create a design out of it

AutoDraw

A web-based tool that uses artificial intelligence to help you create drawings from your scribbles. So, if you want to draft professional-grade designs, you can do that with AutoDraw even when you do not know anything about designing. 

So, to use AutoDraw, you need to start with scribbling on the sheet. For example, suppose you scribbled a drawing of an octopus. So, as you scribble, AutoDraw will identify what you were trying to draw, and on that basis, it will suggest design options at the top of the screen in the sleek pallet. Once you see which design is for you, you can just click on it, and you'll get tha on the screen. You can draw multiple things one by one to be included in the same frame. Plus, you can also customise the colour, size, and style of your drawings. 

AutoDraw is fast, easy, and fun to use, and you can draw logos, illustrations, social media posts, presentations, greeting cards, and anything that you would just want to draw.

Remove.bg AI Tools For Designers

To remove 100% of backgrounds automatically in 5 seconds

Remove.bg

It is one of the most useful and handy AI tools for designers that helps you remove 100% of the background in just a matter of a few seconds. Since background clearing and giving it a finished look can take a lot of time, this tool will do the heavy lifting itself and help you save a lot of time. 

You can simply upload your image to the website and click on the button "Remove Background" and wait till the AI shows its magic. In a few seconds, you will get an image with a transparent background. You can do the creativity to make the background as desired or just download it as it is.

This Remove.bg tool works on all devices, including smartphones, desktops, laptops, tabs and more. And since it is free and accessible, you can use it all the time.

Vectorizer.ai

To convert trace pixels or Bitmaps to Vectors

Vectorizer.ai

A reliable tool that you can use to convert trace pixels or bitmaps into scalable vector graphics (SVG). you can convert any Bitmap images, such as PNGs or JPEGs, that are represented as a grid of little squares called 'pixels'; you can get them made in vectors that you can later scale up or down without losing any quality.
Moreover, you can get all the work done automatically and with best-in-class fidelity.
You can convert any bitmaps into vectors, including logos, illustrations, icons, clip art, and more.
All you have to do is upload your bitmap image, choose the format you want the output in, and click on the "Convert" button. If you want to customise the conversion process for preferred colours, smoothness, or other levels of detail, you can adjust the settings.
If you want to convert your trace pixels r bitmaps into vectors, Vectorizer.ai is the best tool to head to.

ImgUpscaler AI Tools For Designers

To upscale your images by 400% and up to 16000x16000 resolution

ImgUpscaler

One of the most useful AI tools for designers that helps you with recurring tasks of upscaling the images and helps you make it easy and time-saving. With this tool, you can also do other designing tasks on a daily basis, including removing the background or removing objects from the images. 

With a maximum size of 5MB or 1000px, you can upload images in JPG or PNG format. Moreover, without logging in, you can upscale images up to a maximum dimension of 16000x16000 resolution. 

All you have to do is, after uploading the image of the given maximum size, choose the desired upscale percentage from the dropdown menu and click on "Upscale". 

In the same image, you can use a brush to add, remove, or replace objects. And when you get the detailed image you were seeking, you can simply download it or use it at the concerned place.

Magician for Figma

To generate unique icons from text

Magician for Figma

A very powerful and versatile AI tool that helps you generate unique icons just from your text as prompts. It is an easy-to-use tool and produces high-quality results, which makes it a great AI tool for designers with expertise at all different levels.

To use Magician for Figma, simply enter the text that you want to convert into an icon and then click the Magician icon in the Figma toolbar. The ideal length of the prompt here will be 3-6 words. For example, enter "Cat with sunflower hat", and the magician will then generate your unique icons based on the text that you entered. You can then choose the icon that you like best and add it to your design.

You can select from varied styles of icons, including:

  • Solid icons
  • Line icons
  • 3D icons
  • Gradient icons
  • Duotone icons
  • Isometric icons

Magician for Figma is an easy-to-use tool that does not require any prior knowledge of AI or coding. It is a great tool for designers with different levels of knowledge and experience, and it is especially useful for designers who need to create icons quickly and easily.

Ideogram AI Tools For Designers

Do all the creative work in one place using a huge Ideogram library

Ideogram

Ideogram AI is one of the new and innovative AI tools for designers that is quickly gaining popularity among the entire design community. 

The reason why it has gained popularity is that it is one of the few AI tools that can generate text, which not even big AI tools like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion can do yet. This makes Ideogram an ideal tool to create anything with texts, including logos, social media graphics, and other types of designs that require text overlays.

Ideogram AI is also very versatile, and you can use it to create a wide range of other designs, such as illustrations, icons, and even 3D renderings. It offers a variety of pre-set styles to choose from, or you can create your own custom styles.

So, if you are a designer or if you are a newbie who's interested in creating your own designs, you can head to Ideogram AI. It is a powerful and versatile tool that can help you create unique and professional-looking designs quickly and easily.

Booth.ai

Create product photography with AI

Booth.ai

Booth.ai is a platform that offers virtual photoshoots as a service to get pro-quality photoshoots of products using AI. It enables eCommerce websites to create high-quality product photos without the need for a physical photoshoot. 

Booth.ai uses AI to generate realistic and visually appealing product photos that are optimised for conversion. All you have to do is simply upload a photo of your product and provide a brief description of the type of photo you want to create. You can create unlimited variations of your product images with different backgrounds, angles, lighting, and styles. You can also edit and customise the product pictures to your liking before downloading them.

Booth.ai is a great tool for any business that requires photoshoots often, and that especially goes for eCommerce businesses of all sizes. It saves you cost and time and offers a varied way to create high-quality product photos that are optimised for conversion.

Stylized.ai AI Tools For Designers

To render a fully virtual 3D scene of your products

Stylized.ai

A web-based tool that uses artificial intelligence to help you create drawings from your scribbles. So, if you want to draft professional-grade designs, you can do that with AutoDraw even when you do not know anything about designing. 

So, to use AutoDraw, you need to start with scribbling on the sheet. For example, suppose you scribbled a drawing of an octopus. So, as you scribble, AutoDraw will identify what you were trying to draw, and on that basis, it will suggest design options at the top of the screen in the sleek pallet. Once you see which design is for you, you can just click on it, and you'll get tha on the screen. You can draw multiple things one by one to be included in the same frame. Plus, you can also customise the colour, size, and style of your drawings. 

AutoDraw is fast, easy, and fun to use, and you can draw logos, illustrations, social media posts, presentations, greeting cards, and anything that you would just want to draw.

Canvas

To convert paintbrush strokes into realistic landscape images

NVIDIA Canvas

A tool that converts the paintbrush stroke into a realistic, serene landscape picture automatically. It seemed more like a childhood dream come true when we, as kids, wanted our messy paintbrush strokes to magically get converted into beautiful scenery. 

So, all you have to do is simply select a paintbrush and start painting, and you can do that using one colour paintbrush only. Even if you have elementary skills in this, it would work. As you finish stroking the sheet with your paintbrush, the AI will fill in the details, including the colours, elements, and other details, to generate a realistic landscape image. You can also use the AI to add different elements to your painting, such as trees, mountains, and water.

NVIDIA is a powerful tool that can take your basic paint strokes to realistic, beautiful scenes in seconds that otherwise would take you hours to do manually. 

So, no matter what your skill level or needs are, you can always head to NVIDIA Canvas to create realistic landscape images.

Wrapping Up

The advent of AI in the field of design has just begun, and it is in the elementary stage of a transformative journey. However, as the popularity of AI tools continues to soar, it becomes crucial for you to recognise that not all tools are created equal, and in this rush, finding the right ones can be daunting. So, this curated list of eighteen AI tools for designers will serve as a compass for you, guiding you towards the tools that align with your specific requirements.

With these AI tools, you can surely catch up with the ever-evolving designing landscape and push the boundaries of your craft, explore new realms of possibilities, and ultimately redefine what is achievable in the world of design. 

With the right AI allies at your side, you can go for boundless opportunities. You can be expressive of your artistic insights, set stages for innovation, and promise a dynamic fusion of human creativity and artificial intelligence. So, you can start your new creative journey with these tools as your companions and witness the remarkable transformation they bring to your design endeavours.

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