"The image looks great, but look at the spelling." This complaint comes up constantly in my community. A lovely festival poster, and the headline reads like a typo festival. Here is why it happens and what actually works.
Why AI images get the words wrong
Image generators do not type letters. They paint pixels that look like letters. To the model, a word on a poster is just another visual pattern, the same way a hand is. That is why you see near-correct words, extra letters, and gibberish in small print.
Short, big, bold text usually comes out better than long sentences or tiny labels.
What is new: Canva Craft
On 22 October 2026, Canva launched Canva Craft, its first image model built in-house by Canva Research. Two things make it interesting for text:
- It plans before it paints. Craft first writes a plan of the image (which elements go where, their size, and any text that needs to appear), then a second model renders the image from that plan. Canva says this is what helps it produce legible text.
- It learned from templates, not just photos. Canva says the training data includes millions of human-made templates from its library: posters, social posts, presentations, infographics and menus.
Other details from Canva:
- Images up to 2K resolution, in more than 30 aspect ratios
- Prompts in any language, with text in 55 languages
- Available to all Canva users, including free accounts, within your AI usage limits
It is not perfect. In Business Insider's comparison against ChatGPT, Gemini and Meta's Muse, Canva's greeting card came out with an awkward font and missed details from the prompt. So test it on your own use case.
How to try it
- Open Canva and go to Dream Lab from the bottom left panel.
- Describe your image, and put the exact words you want in quotes.
- Pick the size you need (square for Instagram, vertical for Stories or WhatsApp Status).
- Check every result at full size before you download.
My 5 rules for text in AI images
- Put exact words in quotes. "Diwali Sale, 20% off" is clearer than "add a sale message".
- Keep it short. A headline and one line underneath. Not a paragraph.
- Ask for no extra text. Template-trained models sometimes add their own headlines or labels. If you want blank space, say "no other text".
- Zoom in and read every word. Dates, phone numbers, prices and names especially.
- Type important text yourself. For anything going to clients or print, generate the image with empty space and add the final words in Canva's text tool. Then spelling and fonts are 100% yours.
Who this is for
If you run social media for a small business, make posters for a college event, or create slides for your team, this saves real time. You get a background or illustration in minutes, and you stay in charge of the words.
Want help choosing which paid AI tools are worth it? Read which AI tool should you pay for.