Microsoft has launched an AI-powered design tool ‘Microsoft Designer’. People are assuming that it will take on Adobe Photoshop and Canva. Know the truth!
Microsoft Designer, an AI-powered design tool, is probably to take on Adobe Photoshop and Canva, with its advanced set of features.
Microsoft Designer offers AI tools that automate design tasks, making the creation of visuals easier for users. But can it really rival the more established design platforms in the market? Let’s discuss this in detail!
Microsoft has been in the news lately for its collaboration with OpenAI, where the company is leveraging GPT technology to add an AI copilot to its Bing search engine.
However, in October 2022, Microsoft announced the launch of its AI-based design platform, Microsoft Designer.
The platform is powered by OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 application, which is an AI image generator that takes prompts in natural language text format.
The aim of Microsoft Designer is to offer an advanced set of features to allow users to create Instagram posts, presentations, digital postcards, graphics, and more.
On April 27, 2023, Microsoft launched a public preview of the platform and showcased its advanced set of features.
What Are The Unique Features Of The Microsoft Designer?
The AI-powered design platform features a wide range of features to enable users to create designs and graphics quickly and seamlessly.
Just like DALL-E, it takes input in natural language, meaning you can give it a text prompt saying “A social media post about affordable smartphones”, and it will duly oblige.
For better results, you can also add accompanying images with design suggestions.
But suggesting designs and graphics is merely the beginning. You can also customize whether you want the design to make an Instagram or Facebook post or any other use case, to get the right dimensions.
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Multiple caption choices generated by AI
After picking the image, you can simply choose the goal of the post (from multiple choices including raising awareness, engagement, community building, and sales).
And add a brief description to see the AI platform generate multiple caption choices for you to pick and add to the post.
You can also pick from a selection of trending hashtags around the topic and add them to the post.
Once done, and if you have connected your social media to Microsoft Designer, it will automatically post it to your account.
Manual image customization options
It also gives more manual control to users to let them fine-tune the image as per their preference.
The platform now has a new feature where it lets users resize the image to fit into various social media post formats. The images do not lose resolution on resizing, the company has said.
Animated visuals features
Another new feature added to the platform is animated visuals (transition slides and similar effects) to make the designs eye-catching.
Microsoft also plans to add more features in the future, including editing options where you can place an object in the canvas, and the AI fills in the rest, erasing the background, and replacing background options.
Can Microsoft Designer Compete With Adobe Photoshop And Canva?
Microsoft Designer offers AI tools to automate design tasks that earlier users would have to do manually.
As per my experience, the images generated were fairly accurate to the description, and it takes away the manual efforts required for selecting an image, resizing it, adding different visual effects and elements, and placing the text in the right position.
This is a powerful tool that can create a huge number of posts geared toward the needs of the user in a short amount of time.
The curated hashtags and captions also remove the headache of thinking about the right content to appeal to the audience.
However, the images generated lack the personalized creativity that some organizations and individuals prefer. With a lack of editing capabilities, more creative users might find Microsoft Designer too rigid.
Additionally, Adobe Photoshop and Canva have been in the market for a long time, and have a loyal user base that has become accustomed to their interfaces.
So my conclusion, Microsoft will take an important space in the design world but as per its current features, it doesn’t seem that it could replace Canva or Photoshop.
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