Leonardo AI Evaluate: A Versatile Picture Generator for AI Inventive Lovers

7.0/ 10
SCORE

Leonardo AI

Professionals

• Clear and detailed photos
• Useful immediate engineering instruments

Cons

• No post-generation enhancing instruments on the free plan
• Lackluster privateness coverage

Not da Vinci or DiCaprio, however nonetheless throughout the realm of creative Leos, Leonardo AI is a picture generator. It was initially meant to assist people create gaming property, but it surely’s now a full-scale AI content material creation service, with AI video creation and enhancing providers along with picture instruments.

Total, Leonardo is a stable choice in contrast with its many AI-powered rivals. It is on par with Adobe Firefly and miles forward of Google’s ImageFX and Canva. Leonardo adheres to prompts higher than Midjourney however lacks intensive enhancing instruments, making it a toss-up between the 2. OpenAI’s Dall-E 3 continues to be CNET’s highest-ranked decide, however you will must cough up $20 for ChatGPT Plus, whereas Leonardo has a complete free plan.

I generated over 90 photos with Leonardo, from inventory photos to sci-fi and fantasy renderings. This is the way it went.

How CNET exams AI picture mills

CNET takes a sensible method to reviewing AI picture mills. Our purpose is to find out how good it’s relative to the competitors and which functions it serves greatest. To try this, we give the AI prompts based mostly on real-world use instances, corresponding to rendering in a selected model, combining parts right into a single picture and dealing with lengthier descriptions. We rating the picture mills on a 10-point scale that considers components corresponding to how properly photos match prompts, creativity of outcomes and response pace. See how we check AI for extra.

Leonardo can use your content material to “enhance its providers” with machine studying, which primarily means it could possibly practice in your photos, based on its phrases of service. If you do not need your photos to be public, you will must put money into a paid plan. Leonardo mechanically units you up on its free plan once you enroll. With the free plan, you get 150 tokens each eight hours, which roughly interprets to 13 to fifteen batches of photos. Further enhancing instruments can be found with the paid premium plans and should price you extra tokens to make use of.

How good are the pictures, and the way properly do they match prompts?

Da Vinci in all probability would’ve scoffed on the thought of AI-generated artwork, however I used to be fairly proud of the pictures Leonardo produced. The readability of Leonardo’s photos stood out to me in comparison with these from different mills. Its particulars had been finely rendered, and, judging by certainly one of my private metrics for cleanliness, most arms had a standard variety of fingers. Sometimes the dimensions of sure parts would really feel disproportionate, however it might simply give the picture extra of a whimsical vibe quite than be completely unusable.

Leonardo is extra prone to match an general vibe for a immediate quite than adhere to a listing of particular person parts. That means, if you would like a cinematic scene of a dragon flying over a citadel, you will be happy with the outcomes. However after I particularly requested for an enormous black dragon and a smaller golden one above a citadel with 4 turrets and a purple flag waving, I did not get precisely what I had envisioned.

How partaking are the pictures?

Leonardo’s photos had been very partaking. Its stage of element and crisp colours made photos enjoyable to create and examine. 

As a result of Leonardo’s photos are so partaking, you is likely to be tempted to check out a few of Leonardo’s different AI creator instruments like Canvas Editor and Realtime Era. However I like to recommend skipping them. These applications are a lot much less user-friendly and the content material created was a lot worse, with blurry, off-center or bizarre quirks. There’s a lot better picture enhancing software program out there, and Meta AI’s “Think about” operate is a extra correct real-time picture era device.

Are you able to fine-tune outcomes?

Leonardo doesn’t provide post-generation enhancing instruments for particular person photos except you have got a premium plan. In case you’re on the free plan, you will must submit a brand new, edited immediate to make changes. One of the simplest ways to keep away from that’s to benefit from all of Leonardo’s customization choices and construct out the very best immediate.

Each immediate ought to have a preset model, distinction stage and dimension chosen from the left-hand menu. For extra superior prompts, you should utilize Picture Steerage and Parts. Utilizing the star icon within the immediate field, Picture Steerage permits you to add certainly one of your earlier photos to the brand new immediate as a method or colour reference. Parts work equally, letting you select particular predetermined seems like glassy and mushy pastel anime. Tacking these further parts onto your prompts may help steer the AI in the correct course.

Leonardo’s paywalled Alchemy Refiner guarantees to “refine and upscale” photos, notably for faces and arms, that are notoriously tough for AI picture generations. As a result of I used to be on the free plan, I could not check this myself, however I used to be notably impressed by the readability and accuracy of individuals’s arms and enamel in comparison with these from different AI mills.

Leonardo provides two nice options that can assist you along with your immediate engineering: a random immediate creator and a immediate enchancment device. I discovered each options useful for sparking inspiration and guiding Leonardo towards my imaginative and prescient. Utilizing the Enhance Immediate device, I entered a easy immediate, and Leonardo constructed out that concept into an extended paragraph that addressed a number of objects and the general vibe. In case you get caught, the random immediate generator is nice for brainstorming. 

How briskly do photos arrive?

Pictures arrive inside 10 to twenty seconds, which makes Leonardo one of many quicker AI picture mills. Picture era time can range relying on the mannequin you employ; the brand new Phoenix mannequin takes a bit longer, for instance. However even with Phoenix I did not really feel the necessity to begin scrolling on my cellphone or verify my e-mail whereas ready for the pictures to load, like I did with different mills.

Leonardo is good, however I am not wowed

Leonardo checks a variety of vital bins for AI creators. It is quick, has a free plan and creates fairly normal-looking photos. However there are a few issues stopping me from emphatically recommending it to everybody. Paywalling post-generation enhancing instruments is annoying, and it means you will run by way of your tokens quicker attempting to get what you need. The vital components of the privateness coverage are hidden within the phrases of service, leaving a lot to be desired there. And fewer quantifiably, I simply wasn’t wowed by the outcomes. It felt very center of the street. After all, there’s nothing unsuitable with that — it simply will not dethrone our present prime decide. In case you’re a non-professional creator or AI inventive fanatic, Leonardo can be an awesome match for rapidly and simply producing usable, albeit not good, AI photos.

CNET is utilizing an AI engine to assist create a handful of tales. Critiques of AI merchandise like this, similar to CNET’s different hands-on evaluations, are written by our human group of in-house consultants. For extra, see CNET’s AI coverage and how we check AI.