Canva Introduces "Dream Lab": A New Way To Generate AI Images And Designs

Canva just launched Dream Lab, an AI tool designed to make creating custom images a no-sweat process. The tool lets you describe what you want, add style tweaks (think Cinematic, Bokeh, Illustration), and pick your dimensions.

Following its acquisition of Leonardo.Ai, Canva now offers Dream Lab as an advanced, generative AI tool with a range of design applications powered by Leonardo’s Phoenix model.

With Dream Lab, users can create high-quality, customizable images from text prompts, providing over 15 style options, from 3D renders to sketches. This tool allows creatives, educators, marketers, and more to quickly bring visual ideas to life with a unique touch.

Here's what it looks like:

Dream Lab's Features

At first glance, Dream Lab’s offering seems straightforward but highly versatile. Free users get a modest 20 uses, while Pro, Education, and Team users enjoy 500 refreshed each month. It’s a generous touch that Canva is opening AI art to a broader base rather than gatekeeping it. The actual creation process is simple: choose an aesthetic (anything from Cinematic to Bokeh), type in your vision, select an aspect ratio, and voilà – the tool generates up to four images based on your prompt.

Here's how it works:

Describe your image on the prompt field, select an image style, and set the aspect ratio.

Here's an example:

Prompt: Vibrant, stylized digital illustration featuring a close-up profile of a woman. The artwork showcases bold, vivid colors with a neon palette, including shades of pink, blue, yellow, and purple. The woman has fair skin and is wearing large, round sunglasses with reflective lenses that mirror the colorful surroundings. Her hair is styled in a loose, messy updo with strands falling around her face, and it is highlighted with various colors. She is also wearing large hoop earrings and a choker necklace. The background is a gradient of bright yellow and pink, enhancing the overall dynamic and modern feel of the illustration. In the bottom left corner, there is a small logo and text in a clean, white font that reads ‘Roxann Rhiykun AI Art @roxannrhiykunaiart’.

Pretty cool, right?

The variety of preset styles is impressive, ranging from trendy (think Cinematic and HDR) to quirky (hello, Pop Art and Ray Traced!). It’s Canva’s way of saying, "We’ve got your back, whatever your style." This flexibility caters well to content creators, business teams, and educators needing a quick, visually appealing image with minimal effort.

More Image Examples

Prompt: Vibrant and cheerful photograph featuring six dogs of various breeds and sizes, all wearing festive party hats. The dogs are arranged in two rows, with three dogs in the back row and three in the front. The back row includes a black and white dog with a blue hat, a black and white dog with a pink hat, and a brown and white dog with a striped hat. The front row features a gray dog with a blue hat, a small white dog in a pink outfit with a striped hat, and a brown and white dog with a rainbow hat. Each dog is adorned with a collar that has small bells. The background is a soft bokeh effect with warm tones, adding to the celebratory atmosphere. The floor is wooden, providing a natural contrast to the colorful attire of the dogs.

Prompt: August vibe on highway trucking in America: A vintage Peterbilt 359 semi-truck, gleaming with chrome accents, roaring down a sun-kissed highway, surrounded by rolling hills and wheat fields as far as the eye can see, with a hint of wispy cirrus clouds in a deep blue sky; evoking a sense of nostalgia and American patriotism, in warm, golden tones of orange, yellow, and pink, with bold brushstrokes, and subtle texture, capturing the essence of a quintessential American summer road trip.

Prompt: A highly detailed, professionally captured photograph featuring a tiny, adorable hummingbird with delicate, iridescent plumage that shimmers in hues of emerald green, sapphire blue, and ruby red, perched daintily on a slender, curved branch or a delicate, pastel-hued flower stem, its tiny claws grasping gently, its miniature beak tilted slightly upwards, its large, expressive eyes glistening like polished onyx, and its intricate, lacy feathers glistening softly in the warm, natural light, with a blurred, bokeh-filled background that highlights the subject’s intimate, whimsical majesty, showcasing the tender beauty of this tiny, avian treasure.

What are the limitations of Dream Lab?

Dream Lab isn’t without its constraints.

• Language Support: Available in all Canva-supported languages, except on canva.cn.
• Image Output: Generates up to four images per prompt.
• Instruction Detail: Results improve with more detailed prompts.
• Age Restriction: Accessible only to users 13 and older for safety.
• Access Location: Only available from Canva’s homepage, not within the Editor, requiring users to return to the homepage to use it.

Comparing Dream Lab with Major AI Generators

While tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion offer extensive customizability, Dream Lab simplifies the process for the casual designer. Canva’s focus on preset styles means users can create visually appealing images faster, albeit with fewer fine-tuning options.

Dream Lab’s monthly refresh of up to 500 uses for Pro users provides consistent access, unlike one-off services that require separate subscriptions. However, if you’re looking for highly nuanced control, traditional AI image generators might be more up your alley, as Dream Lab’s style presets limit artistic precision.

Is Dream Lab Worth It?

Dream Lab is a solid addition to Canva’s Visual Suite, especially if you want high-quality images fast without diving into intricate design details. It’s fun, easy to use, and opens up creative possibilities without the complexity of bigger AI image tools. While it may not satisfy every need of pro designers looking for ultimate control, it’s perfect for users who prioritize speed, simplicity, and style variety.

Dream Lab captures Canva’s vision for accessible, user-friendly AI design, even if it still has a few gaps to fill as it continues to grow in this fast-evolving space.

Overall, Dream Lab fits seamlessly within Canva's suite of tools, empowering users to experiment, create, and bring their ideas to life with just a few clicks. If Canva keeps refining it, Dream Lab could very well become a staple for everyday creators and designers alike.

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