Ideogram

Ideogram is a text-to-image tool from a company founded by former Google image-generation researchers. It runs in the browser and comes with free credits.

Its positioning is sharp: fix the old problem of AI images with garbled lettering. Most image models mangle text; Ideogram was one of the first to render English text reliably, which makes it well suited to posters, logo sketches and social graphics with slogans.

Beyond text, style control is straightforward, through presets or a reference image, and its built-in prompt expansion turns a one-line idea into a full scene description — helpful for anyone who is not good at writing prompts.

Key features

• Accurate English text: Headlines, slogans and brand names appear spelled as prompted, with fairly natural layout.
• Prompt expansion: Automatically fleshes out short prompts with detail; switch it off to use your own wording verbatim.
• Style presets and references: Choose a direction such as design, illustration or realistic, or upload a reference to steer the look.
• Canvas editing: Regenerate a region or extend the image on a canvas instead of starting over.
• Remix: Take an existing image and generate variations that keep its composition.

How to use

1. Go to ideogram.ai and sign up, for example with a Google account.
2. Write a prompt, putting any text that must appear in quotation marks.
3. Choose an aspect ratio and style, decide whether to keep prompt expansion on, and generate.
4. Pick a result, fix small text errors with a canvas edit, then download.

Best for

• English posters and event promos: when headlines and copy must sit in the image, its first-try success rate is the best.
• Logo and wordmark sketches: quickly explore type-and-symbol combinations before a designer finalises one.
• Social graphics and thumbnails: covers with big slogan text, no lettering pass needed.
• T-shirt and sticker designs: simple text-plus-graphic compositions are its sweet spot.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

• Reliable English text rendering, its core advantage over most image models.
• Prompt expansion lowers the barrier to entry.
• Free credits let you try before subscribing.

Limitations

• Chinese characters are still hit-and-miss; do not rely on it for Chinese posters.
• Photorealism trails Midjourney.
• Free-tier images are public by default; private generation needs a paid plan.
• Generated logos are raster drafts; a real trademark still needs redrawing and a similarity search.