Category Archives: Ideogram

I’ve shipped my first feature at Microsoft!

AI/ML, Ideogram, Typography

What if your design tool could understand the meaning & importance of words, then help you style them accordingly?

I’m delighted to say that for what I believe is the first time ever, that’s now possible. For the last 40 years of design software, apps have of course provided all kinds of fonts, styles, and tools for manual typesetting. What they’ve lacked is an understanding of what words actually mean, and consequently of how they should be styled in order to map visual emphasis to semantic importance.

In Microsoft Designer, you can now create a new text object, then apply hierarchical styling (primary, secondary, tertiary) based on AI analysis of word importance:

I’d love to hear what you think. You can go to designer.microsoft.com, create a new document, and add some text. Note: The feature hasn’t yet been rolled out to 100% of users, so it may not yet be available to you—but even in that case it’d be great to hear your thoughts on Designer in general.

This feature came about in response to noticing that text-to-image models are not only learning to spell well (check out some examples I’ve gathered on Pinterest), but can also set text with varied size, position, and styling that’s appropriate to the importance of each word. Check out some of my Ideogram creations (which you can click on & remix using the included prompts):

These results of course incredible (imagine seeing any of this even three years ago!), but they’re just flat images, not editable text. Our new feature, by contrast, leverages semantic understanding and applies it to normal text objects.

What we’ve shipped now is just the absolute tip of the iceberg: to start we’re simply applying preset values based on word hierarchy, but you can readily imagine richer layouts, smart adaptive styling, and much more. Stay tuned—and let us know what you’d like to see!

Ideogram Canvas arrives

AI/ML, Ideogram

I’ve become an Ideogram superfan, using it to create imagery daily, so I’m excited to kick the tires on this new interactive tool—especially around its ability to synthesize new text in the style of a visual reference.

You can upload your own images or generate new ones within Canvas, then seamlessly edit, extend, or combine them using industry-leading Magic Fill (inpainting) and Extend (outpainting) tools. Use Magic Fill and Extend to bring your face or brand visuals to Ideogram Canvas and blend them with creative, AI-generated elements. Perfect for graphic design, Ideogram Canvas offers advanced text rendering and precise prompt adherence, allowing you to bring your vision to life through a flexible, iterative process.

Riffing on the world through Ideogram

AI/ML, Ideogram

I’ve been having a ball using the new Ideogram app for iOS to import photos & remix them into new creations. This is possible via their web UI as well, but there’s something extra magical about the immediacy of capture & remix. Check out a couple quick explorations I did while out with the kids, starting from a ballcap & the fuel tank of an old motorcycle:

Ideogram promises state-of-the-art text generation

AI/ML, Ideogram, Typography

Founded by ex-Google Imagen engineers, Ideogram has just launched version 1.0 widely. It’s said to offer new levels of fidelity in the traditionally challenging domain of type rendering:

Historically, AI-generated text within images has been inaccurate. Ideogram 1.0 addresses this with reliable text rendering capabilities, making it possible to effortlessly create personalized messages, memes, posters, T-shirt designs, birthday cards, logos and more. Our systematic evaluation shows that Ideogram 1.0 is the state-of-the-art in the accuracy of rendered text, reducing error rates by almost 2x compared to existing models.