Recraft Review: The Best AI Design Tool?

AI is quickly becoming integral to the design process. In this Recraft review, I got hands-on with the all-in-one AI design suite. But are its web-based tools right for you?

What Is Recraft?

Recraft is an AI image generation and editing tool for professional designers, illustrators, and marketers. It lets creators easily generate and endlessly iterate original images, vector art, illustrations, icons, and 3D graphics using the power of an AI. 

Users can start from scratch using a text prompt or upload brand styles to generate on-brand visuals. 

Its intuitive interface empowers you to edit design components using a straightforward infinite canvas.

To make the experience even more versatile, Recraft provides creators with the ability to generate their own styles or choose from Recraft’s library.

Recraft is available for free and has advanced plans to suit casual and power users alike.

Recraft’s AI design tools are ready to use anywhere — at the desk or on the go. While the Infinite Canvas and robust features are available on desktop, creators can generate visuals on mobile via both iOS and Android apps.

Here’s everything you need to know. 

Features

The AI platform compliments your design skills and provides unrivaled control over your projects. You can create photo-realistic images, remove objects and backgrounds, and much more. Here’s a closer look at its main tools.

AI Image Generator

I was particularly impressed with its AI image generator which uses its proprietary Recraft V3 model. Using text-to-image, it easily sets a new quality standard in the image generation space, outperforming all competitor models proven by the Hugging Face’s industry-leading Text-to-Image Benchmark by Artificial Analysis.

It supports positive and negative prompts. I.e., you can describe what to include and what to exclude for a more accurate result. Moreover, it has endless styles to choose from. These include everything from photo-realism and clay model styles to pastel sketch and pixel art styles.

I tested the photorealism style with the prompt: “Man in suit, standing in front of his office desk.” I also told it to exclude other people and desks.

Not bad for such a simple AI prompt!

You can adjust resolution, aspect ratio, and colors. Moreover, the canvas editor gives you access to all other features, so you can build on your initial design.

You get precise control over text placement and element positioning within the image.

I especially like its artistic level control. This gives you a slider to change the amount of artistic interpretation when generating images.

The 6 levels range from Simple, for clean standard images, to Eccentric for a more creative and elaborate AI output. 

AI Vector Generator

Recraft AI handles vector and raster images through its versatile generator, which is often lacking from other AI image generators. Vectorize any image and even convert one to the other with the click of a button.

You can create high-quality vector art, illustrations, posters, favicons, and more. I like that you get precise control over text placement and element positioning within the image. 

Furthermore, you can adjust colors and other elements, while maintaining the quality and scalability of vector images. 

When ready, it’s easy to export as SVG, PNG, JPG or Lottie.

Recraft’s all-in-one editor allows you to experiment, iterate, and create designs with the freedom to use your own creativity. It is particularly useful for large-scale projects or complex vector compositions.

Mockup Generator

Working on a mockup for product design or marketing materials? Recraft’s mockup generator is a great solution.

You can immediately create expert mockups by using its intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Just insert and arrange design components to your liking.

What’s more, your creations, such as text, automatically integrate with your chosen mockup object. I.e., adding text or logos to billboards, t-shirts and hoodies, and city branding banners. 

You get the flexibility to fine-tune and reposition your design elements. This ensures a perfect alignment with your creative vision.

I decided to create a mockup for a “Texas Whisky Bottle.”

Unlike other mockup generators like Picsart or Dynamic Mockups, the object itself can be generated with a prompt rather than relying on generic templates to apply your logo. 

Image Upscaler

This feature offers an efficient solution for upscaling images while maintaining sharp details, crisp edges, and accurate colors.

You can increase the resolution of your images without losing quality. This is especially useful for enhancing low-resolution photos or creating large prints from smaller images.

Furthermore, multiple images can be upscaled simultaneously, saving time and effort in the editing process.

As with all its features, once an image is upscaled, you can continue editing with its infinite canvas editor.

I deliberately chose a poor-quality image to see what it can do. Here’s the result:

Creative upscale goes a step further, focusing more closely on fine details and faces. 

Background Remover

The AI background remover streamlines the process of matting. No more manual selection or traditional editing tools are needed. However, you still get the freedom to select areas manually.

I was able to instantly remove this background with a single click.

Moreover, I found it can handle complex edges and textures, ensuring clean and precise results.

What stands out the most is its seamless background replacement. Instead of a transparent cutout, you can generate a relevant alternative, from solid colors to photo-realistic landscapes.

AI Eraser

Recrafts eraser lets you remove unwanted objects or elements from an image with just a simple brush stroke. For example, I used the brush to erase a paper cup:

Recraft intelligently analyzes your image, persevering the integrity of other objects and the background.

Modify Area

As well as filling in the erased area with content that matches the surrounding pixels, you can also replace the object with something new. 

I simply used “water bottle” as a prompt and dragged it into place.

Another method is to select your image and choose the traditional lasso tool from the toolbar for inpainting. 

Trace around the area to modify and enter your prompt to generate something new.

For example, I traced around this bare tree and used the prompt: “Tree with lush green leaves.”

This is perfect for iterating existing images or designs.

Other Top Recraft Features

No matter what tool you use, you can tweak any design or creation via the main canvas editor. Other notable tools and features include:

• Positioning Control and Generation of Graphic Designs – Drag out your own frame area to begin a blank design with text and other elements. The new model allows specifying the exact positions and sizes of text on a design.
• Text Generation – The only model in the world that can generate images with long texts, as opposed to just one or a couple of words.
• Image Set – Work on a set of 6 images at once.
• Image Resizer – Scale up, change the width and height, or aspect ratio.
• Layering – Stack multiple images or elements on top of one another to create a composite design.
• Recolor – Make your own color palette for consistent designs or change the colors of individual images.
• Selection – Trace any area of an image for modification.
• Community – A public gallery for inspiration and modification.
• Projects – All your projects are saved for easy access later.

How to Use Recraft 

It’s easy to get started with Recraft. Here’s more on how to use the platform:

1. Go to Recraft.AI and sign up.  

2. From the dashboard, click Create new project to get started.

3. Choose from image, frame, image set, or mockup, which will open the canvas editor.

4. Enter the image size and aspect ratio using the width and height fields, and the aspect ratio slider respectively.

5. Find the main toolbar with all the key AI features at the top, such as the Erase area tool.

6. When happy with your project, simply click the green Export button.

Pricing

You can try Recraft for free with 50 credits per day and limited features. Premium plans are available for individuals and teams:

• Basic ($12/mo or $120/yr) – 1000 credits/mo, private images and commercial rights, creative upscale tool, queue priority, 10 concurrent hobs, 4 images per prompt, and more.

• Advanced ($33/mo or $324/yr) – 4000 credits/mo.

• Pro ($80/mo or $576/yr) – 8400 credits/mo

Refunds are available if you have used less than 50 credits on your plan.

Recraft Review – Verdict

To conclude this Recraft review, I find it to be one of the best image generation and editing tools for empowering designers and teams alike. It gives you much more control than basic AI platforms, while still being intuitive to use. 

Its text-to-image results have arguably surpassed the more well-known models and placed first in Hugging Face’s rankings.

Likewise, its variety of styles and features, like mockups, provide endless avenues for enhancing your creativity.

Try it now here using our promo code TOOL12. It will give you $12 off any paid plan.