AI image generators are easy to demo and hard to judge. After a few weeks of testing, the difference between the tools that survive in a real workflow and the ones that do not comes down to a short list of questions.
1. Does it follow the prompt? Not "does it look good" - does it render what you asked for, including text, layout and spatial relations.
2. Can you keep a style stable? Consistency across several images matters more than any single hero shot, especially for anything published as a set.
3. How does the editor handle iteration? Inpainting, upscaling and re-rolling have to be fast, because most of the work is in the second and third attempt.
4. What does it cost per usable image? Count the rejects, not the ideal case.
Tools like Ideogram 4.5 are interesting precisely because they are aimed at that practical middle ground: readable text, controllable style and a workflow that does not require a render farm.
The checklist is not glamorous, but it is what separates a tool you keep from one you try once.
Disclosure: this article was prepared with the help of AI tooling; the link is contextual and not sponsored.
Top comments (0)