Canva launches Craft, its first in house frontier image model, which debuted fourth on DesignArena's image leaderboard
Introducing Canva Craft 馃殌 Extraordinary image generation is now available to everyone, powered by our first frontier model built specifically for design. With Craft, Canva is now the world's second most advanced AI lab for image generation on @DesignArena's global leaderboard. See what it can do 馃憞
Context
A design company training its own competitive image model shows that strong generative models are no longer limited to the biggest labs.
Craft was built and trained from scratch by Canva Research, the company's in house AI lab. DesignArena ranks image models through blind crowdsourced comparisons, and its live leaderboard is linked.
Deep dive
On October 22, Canva introduced Canva Craft, saying image generation is now available to everyone, powered by its first frontier model built specifically for design. It said Craft makes Canva the world's second most advanced AI lab for image generation on DesignArena's global leaderboard.
Canva's newsroom post says Craft debuted as the fourth most advanced image model on DesignArena and ranks first for People and Portraits and for Landscapes and Nature, second for Abstract and Patterns and fourth for Products. The lab ranking counts the best model per company, which is how a fourth place model makes Canva the second lab. Capital Brief independently reported the fourth place debut and said Canva Research ranks second among labs, behind OpenAI. The second lab framing is Canva's own, and the ranking was not checked live against the leaderboard here.
Canva says Craft uses a planning model that writes a composition plan, then a rendering model that produces images up to 2K across more than 30 aspect ratios. It is available to everyone in Canva, according to the company.
What to expect next
Watch whether Craft holds its DesignArena position as more votes come in and rivals ship new models. Also watch how Canva prices Craft through AI credits and its API, and whether it builds further models such as video or layout generation. Competition with Adobe Firefly and OpenAI's image tools for designers is the larger test. Independent leaderboard snapshots over the coming weeks will show whether the debut rank was durable.