Design edition
Canva and Figma are giving AI more of your own building blocks, while Etsy, Pennsylvania and the BBC call for openness about AI.
Canva launches its own image model, Canva Craft
Canva has released its first own image model. It is called Canva Craft. Canva's research team wants it to compete with models from Google, OpenAI, ByteDance and Meta. Canva did not train the model on photos. It used designs from its own template library, such as posters, social posts, presentations, infographics and menus. This means you can turn an image from Craft into a layered design with Canva Magic. All users can find Craft in the Dream Lab tab. The model will also be available through the Canva API. This is a connection that lets other programs use the model. Canva also wants to make image generation possible in third-party chatbots, such as ChatGPT and Gemini. Until now, Canva used several image models. Its own model can probably save API costs. Canva itself says it also gives more control over quality and speed. Researchers from Leonardo.ai, which Canva bought in 2024, helped with it. Two cheaper versions, Craftfast and Craft-ultrafast, are coming soon. The claims about quality come from Canva itself.
Background for subscribersWith Craft, you choose from 30 aspect ratios for all kinds of platforms. If you then turn the result into layers with Canva Magic, you can edit text and other parts separately.
Figma agent: how to make it use your design system
Figma explains in four steps how to get the Figma agent to work with your design system. First, you connect your published library to the agent. It then uses approved components and variables instead of making new ones itself. Next, you add guidelines. These are written instruction files attached to your library. For example: on the checkout screen, always use a primary button for 'Place order'. Guidelines work best when the agent makes a design completely from scratch. When editing existing designs, it does not always apply them consistently yet. Examples help too. You add a design to a prompt, or put complete designs on an Examples page. Finally, you create your own skills. These are fixed ways of working that you call up with a slash command, such as a check of your design system. If the agent keeps making the same mistake, change your guidelines, library or examples. The agent is available to Full seats on paid plans and in limited form on Starter.
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