Update: We just launched a much longer guide on Microsoft Design since they've released the actual product in April 2023. Read it here.
Online graphic design tools like Canva and Adobe are used to polish your branding with a few clicks and swipes. But what if you can convert a blank canvas to a professionally designed image with just a few phrases? Microsoft Designer will make it possible.
Microsoft launched its new graphic design app, Microsoft Designer, during its Surface event on 12th October. The AI-powered app will let users create beautiful graphic designs and images by typing a few words, like the popular alternative Canva. Microsoft Designer is only available to beta testers. The website of this design tool has been launched, highlighting a catchword that says it's never been easier to deal with black canvas. This new Microsoft tool looks a lot like Canva. Being a Microsoft product, the app will be a part of Microsoft 365.
In addition to being part of a Microsoft 365 subscription, this Microsoft app will also integrate with Bing search and Microsoft's Edge Browser. Microsoft Designer might be the easiest way to create visual designs with AI assistance. The idea of leveraging AI to provide faster ways to create professional images is fantastic. It could be the future of design due to the power of text-to-image Artificial Intelligence technology.
In this blog post, we'll discuss the complete overview and top features of this new graphic design tool.
Microsoft Designer: Product Overview
Microsft Designer is a new graphic design app that is powered by Microsoft AI technologies and DALL-E 2, an open AI technology. Using AI technology, Microsoft Designer aims to boast the ability to create professional custom images using texts and pictures. This AI-powered graphic design app is a big competitor of Canva. Microsoft Designer app is ready to take on Canva. Canva is a 40 billion dollar company that has made the graphic design easier for people without technical knowledge. Now, Microsoft Designer seems to make graphic design more accessible than Canva by using AI.
Although Canva is a popular design tool with 100 million active users in 190 countries, Microsoft office has also reached 345 million paid users. This Microsoft app will be a part of office 365 and Microsoft creator tools. The Designer app is already in use as a part of PowerPoint Designer, helping users to create better-looking presentations with AI assistance. Also, it is expected to be included in more Microsoft products with time.
Microsoft says that the product is firstly focused on consumers. But later, we will see the app shifting towards enterprise-oriented use cases. Microsoft Designer is more than a graphic design app. You can create a perfect image by just typing a few words or sentences. It is the result of leveraging the power of the AI tool DALL-E 2, which can turn your vision into reality. So, all you need to do is add some text, and the Designer will provide you with a beautifully created image. The company has guaranteed that all the violent and vivid sexual content is eliminated from Artificial Intelligence training for the service. As a result, there would be no creation of inappropriate interpretations.
Top Features of Microsoft Designer
Let's look at the top features Microsoft Designer offers to take on its competitors and make graphic design easier for everyone.
DALL-E 2 AI Integration
The main attraction of this design app is the AI image generator. Microsoft supports an open AI company, which has a new product, DALL-E 2. Microsoft Designer will use this Artificial Intelligence product to create more efficiently and effectively custom designs. Users only need to add text, and the AI product will automatically produce design patterns. The company has also taken steps to ensure there is no generation of inappropriate content and that responses are more diverse. Due to its AI integration, Microsoft Designer is already in a unique position.
Lots of stunning designs and templates
This graphic design software uses templates and designs to create visuals quickly. It has many design ideas from which you can choose what is best for your branding. Also, you can get ideas from this vast gallery to make attention-grabbing designs. However, you don't need to browse through thousands of templates. Using its start-from-scratch mode, you can enter some text to describe the image, and Microsoft Designer will create that kind of image for you. With various designs and templates, you can enhance your design with a few clicks.
Gallery of 100 million high-quality images and videos
Microsoft designer has more than 100 million images and videos. They have made visual quality excellent to make your content and design stand out. Whether you want to create high-quality social media posts, presentations, cards, posters, documents, or any design, the Designer has millions of images to use anywhere.
Features Motion Graphics
Another appealing feature of this graphic design app is that the app has professionally-designed motion graphics. Users can use these dynamic animations to make more engaging designs and bring their videos to life. It will allow different types of motion graphics, including titles, transitions, backgrounds, logos, and slideshows, to make the design unique and fascinating.
Quick share and direct publishing to socials
Lastly, Microsoft Designer lets you publish your designs and content directly to social media profiles. Also, you can send the design to your mobile phone for a quick share. In addition, this new tool appears to be easier to use than its competitors.
Pricing & Cost of Microsoft Designer
Microsoft has not yet announced the pricing of Microsoft Designer. However, the graphic design app will be available for free or as a part of the Microsoft Office Productivity Suite. Once the tool development is complete, the company will launch its free version. It could potentially help Microsoft Designer outpace Canva, one of the valuable private technology companies.
Microsoft will also add the premium version with two membership packages. The membership packages are Microsoft 365 Home and Microsoft 365 Personal. Microsoft will provide a free version with essential features and a high-end version with advanced features available in premium packages for Office 365 users.
Stay tuned for more updates. We'll keep you updated with the pricing tiers and the latest information about this new graphic design software.
Microsoft Designer Competitors
Here are the two main competitors of Microsoft Designer, similar to it in many aspects. Let's discuss some of their features and pricing tiers to know how they're different and similar to Microsoft Designer.
Canva
Microsoft Designer is targeting Canva and is ready to take on it. Canva is an online graphic design app that allows you to design excellent visual materials without any graphic design experience. Canva is a popular graphic design tool with a $26 billion valuation. Thousands of customers use this easy-to-use graphic design tool. Canva features an extensive image library, customizable templates, and elements to create social media graphics, posters, presentations, simple videos, cards, and many more visual assets.
Here are the top features that Canva offers:
- Easy-to-use interface
- Features a photo-editing tool having various photo-editing options
- Various video-editing options
- Built-in workflows
- Content Planner and Brand Kit
- Lots of elements, including icons, shapes, and stickers
- Have wide-range of pre-designed layouts
- A drag-and-drop editor that allows you to move elements
- Can publish creatives to social media directly or schedule
There are three pricing plans in Canva, a free tier, and two paid plans: a Pro Plan ($9.95) and Enterprise Plan ($30). Paid plans give access to more advanced features. Want to know more detail about the pricing plans and features they offer? Here's a link to our detailed review of Canva in which we have discussed its top features, pros & cons in detail, and many more.
Microsoft can outpace Canva due to its AI integration. However, Canva is also preparing to compete with Microsoft by adding more Office-like functions. In the last year, 2021, Canva launched a presentation image production tool like Microsoft Powerpoint. In August 2022, the software had a document editing software ready to compete with Microsoft Word. The company said the number of paid teams using Canva's office software is 55,000. These users are from famous companies such as Pfizer, Amazon, Pepsi, Salesforce, and others.
Adobe
In addition to Canva, Adobe is a competitor of Microsoft Designer. Its free Adobe Express Tool offers plenty of stock images and image templates. If Microsoft Designer offers any free design tools, it will become the competition to Adobe. According to a CNBC report, Microsoft and Adobe have a close partnership and have more than 30 product integrations. But a Microsoft spokesperson said that the new Designer app does not impact the interaction between both companies.
Adobe is another popular design software many businesses use to create and edit highly advanced photos. Unlike Canva, Adobe features are tailored for experienced designers. Its strongest points are highly-advanced photo creation, editing capabilities, and a tool kit. The businesses can enhance graphic designs, animations, digital paintings, illustrations, and more using this software. It has compelling editing options, which make it the best image editing tool on the market. But it takes some work to learn for beginners. Here are the top features of this graphic designing solution:
- Professional design types and templates for flexible photo creation and editing
- Advanced toolkit
- Fully customizable interface
- Cloud-storage collaboration
- Integrated with Google, Slack, and Microsoft Teams
- Export images at higher resolutions than other software
- Highly reachable customer service
The pricing of Adobe starts from 20.99 dollars per month per user, and its business plan costs 33.99 dollars each month per user with a free trial. It does not offer a free version, and its business plan provides additional and advanced features. Unlike Canva and Microsoft Designer, this tool is not beginner-friendly; it is for intermediate and advanced designers. That's why many newcomers in graphic design use Canva, and Microsoft Designer is looking to compete with Canva, its biggest rival.
Microsoft Designer: Recommendation
Microsoft unveiled its AI-Powered design app, Microsoft Designer, on 12th October 2022. The app is a big competitor of Canva and Adobe Photoshop. Microsoft Designer uses the Artificial Intelligence DALL-E 2 model to turn natural language to cool AI images. With its AI-powered Designer app, Microsoft is trying to take on Canva, a popular Sydney-based online graphic app.
Microsoft Designer is aiming its design app at consumers first. The company will later move the focus to enterprises, government agencies, and schools, where it gets more Office businesses. Due to its AI integration, Microsoft Designer could end up being the future of design. But, it will need to be very intuitive, easy to use, and produce excellent results to pull a large customer base of Canva.
Currently, users and organizations can join the waiting list to get a preview version of Microsoft Designer as soon as it is released. Once the app becomes available, the company will maintain a free tier with a premium version.
