Create an Image for Work with AI

In brief

Describe the image in one sentence: the subject, the style, what it is for. Pick the tool by the result you want: Canva for a visual already laid out, Adobe Firefly for images with commercial-use backing, Ideogram if the image carries a headline, Recraft for a logo or icon, Midjourney for a mood image. Check the rights before you publish: the free plan of several tools makes your images public, or rules out commercial use.

Which tool for which image

There is no single best tool, only the one that fits what you want to produce. The five below each have a verified page in Nova (Canva, Firefly, Ideogram and Midjourney checked on October 19, 2026; Recraft on October 12, 2026).

You want	Tool	Why	Good to know
A poster, post or flyer already laid out	Canva	You start from a template and edit with the mouse; the AI creates an image or a design from a description	Available in many languages
A free-form image, edited afterward, with a commercial-use promise	Adobe Firefly	Its own AI models are trained on licensed content; it also edits an existing photo	The commercial promise applies to Adobe’s own AI, not necessarily to its partners’
A poster or banner with a readable headline	Ideogram	Its specialty: writing words inside the image	English-only interface; accented letters often come out wrong
A logo, icon or illustration that stays sharp at any size	Recraft	Can produce vector images (SVG)	Not every image vectorizes well
A polished mood image for a trends board or a presentation	Midjourney	Gives four images per request, to refine	No free plan; English-only interface

If you are unsure, start with Canva: it is the only one of the five where the image arrives already laid out. For a whole presentation, see create a presentation with AI.

Create the image in five steps

Say what it is for. A presentation cover, a LinkedIn post, an icon for a document. The use sets the format and the style.
Describe it in one sentence: subject, style, colors, mood. Say what you do not want to see.
Generate, then compare. Most tools give several versions. Keep the closest one and ask for a variation, not an image from scratch.
Read everything. Wrong text, a strange hand, a distorted logo, a typo in a headline: AI makes mistakes, and you are the one publishing.
Check the rights of the plan you use (see below), then export in the right format.

A prompt to copy

Create an image for [use: presentation cover, post, poster]. Subject: [what is in the image]. Style: [photo, flat illustration, watercolor, 3D]. Colors: [palette or brand colors]. Mood: [calm, warm, dynamic]. Format: [square, wide, tall]. Without: [what you do not want, for example text or faces].

To sharpen the wording, see how to ask an AI well.

What it costs, and what the free plan gives

Prices come from the vendors’ pages and our tool pages, on the dates above.

Tool	Free plan	First paid tier
Canva	Yes: up to 20 AI uses, 5 GB of storage	Pro: €110 a year for one person
Adobe Firefly	Yes: credits that renew every day (Adobe does not say how many)	Standard: €11.08 incl. tax a month, 2,000 credits a month
Ideogram	Yes: 30 credits a week, public images	Plus: $20 a month ($15 a month billed yearly), private images
Recraft	Yes: 30 credits a day, public images, no commercial use	Basic: $12 a month ($10 billed yearly), 1,000 credits a month
Midjourney	No, a subscription is required	Basic: $10 a month

Video costs far more credits than images: in Firefly, a 5-second clip costs 100 credits at 540p and 500 at 1080p. If an image is enough, stay with the image.

Can you use the image at work? The rights

This is the question to ask before you publish. The answers differ a lot from one tool to another.

Recraft, free plan: your images are public, owned by Recraft, and cannot be used commercially. For work, you need a paid plan.
Ideogram, free plan: everything you create is public and visible to other users. Private images come with the Plus plan.
Midjourney: images are public by default until you have a Pro or Mega plan with stealth mode. For commercial use in a company with more than one million dollars in revenue, the vendor requires the Pro plan.
Adobe Firefly: the commercial-use promise applies to Adobe’s own AI, not necessarily to the partner models Firefly also lets you choose.
Canva: you own what you create, but Canva guarantees no exclusive rights to an AI-generated design: a similar result can come out for someone else.

Do not put customer data, confidential information, or a photo of a person without their consent in a prompt. Read what not to give an AI before you connect a work account.

The traps to know

Text inside the image. Only Ideogram is built for it, and even it stays fragile outside English: the vendor says accented letters often come out wrong. Add your text afterward, in a layout tool.
The logo. A logo printed large needs a vector file. Ideogram only produces JPEG, PNG and WEBP; Recraft can do SVG.
Paying twice. At Adobe, four individual plans, team plans and Creative Cloud subscriptions exist side by side: check what your company already owns.
The quota that runs out fast. In Canva, the free plan runs out quickly and the advanced tools use more.

What Nova brings

Nova is a subscription software that shows what these tools can do in your job. You will find up-to-date pages for Canva, Firefly, Ideogram, Recraft and Midjourney (plans, prices, date checked, what is English-only) and step-by-step demos with the prompt ready. See the interactive demo.

Frequently asked questions

Which AI creates images for free?

Canva, Adobe Firefly, Ideogram and Recraft have a free plan; Midjourney does not. At work, check the rights first: in Ideogram and Recraft, free-plan images are public, and in Recraft they carry no commercial-use right.

Can you use an AI-made image in a business document?

It depends on the tool and the plan. Check the vendor’s terms before you publish: commercial rights, public or private images. At Adobe, the commercial-use promise applies to Adobe’s own AI, not necessarily to its partners’.

Which AI writes readable text in an image?

Ideogram is built for it. Outside English, read every word: the vendor says accented letters often come out wrong. For an important headline, add it afterward in a layout tool.

How do you create a logo with AI?

Recraft produces vector images, which stay sharp at any size. Not every image vectorizes well: a heavily textured illustration gives a file with flaws. For an official logo, have a designer validate it.

Do you need to write the prompt in English?

Not always. Canva and Firefly understand other languages. Ideogram, Recraft and Midjourney accept them, but English often gives better results.

Sources

Canva pricing, Canva
Adobe Firefly plans, Adobe
Ideogram pricing, Ideogram
Recraft pricing, Recraft
How to subscribe to Midjourney, Midjourney

Create an image for work with AI