How to generate an image with AI: the beginner's guide

Generating an image with AI is no longer reserved for designers or early adopters. In a few sentences, it's now possible to get an illustration, promotional visual, or website background image without prior graphic design skills.

The challenge isn't technical, it's methodological: pick the right tool for your need, write a clear prompt, and understand what you're allowed to do with the image you get. This guide covers these three steps for someone new who wants results fast, without surprises.

Step 1: pick the tool suited to your need

There's no single "best" image generation tool: the right choice depends on your intended use.

• Midjourney: highly polished aesthetic output, ideal for creative or artistic visuals
• Leonardo AI: good balance of control and quality, favored for iteration on a specific style
• Canva: simplest to start, generation integrated into a full editor (layout, text, ready-made formats)
• Ideogram: particularly good at generating images with readable text (logos, posters, banners)
• Adobe Firefly: built for safer, more commercial professional use, well-integrated into the Adobe ecosystem

For a first try with no commitment, Canva or Leonardo AI are the most accessible entry points. If your need is creative and aesthetic first, Midjourney remains a standard. If you need to embed readable text in the image, Ideogram is more reliable than the others on that specific point.

Step 2: write an effective prompt

A good prompt describes the subject, style, mood, and framing. The more precise the description, the closer the result to what you imagine. Beginners tend to stay too vague: a short prompt gives a generic result.

• Describe the main subject clearly (who, what, where)
• Specify the visual style you want (realistic photo, illustration, watercolor, minimalist...)
• Add mood details (lighting, dominant colors, atmosphere)
• Indicate framing if needed (wide shot, close-up, overhead view)
• Iterate: generate several variants and refine the prompt based on what's missing

Step 3: understand usage rights

Before using a generated image on a website, ad, or commercial material, you need to check the terms of use for the tool involved. They vary based on the offer you subscribe to (free or paid) and each platform's policy on training data used.

• Check whether the free offer allows commercial use or only personal
• Paid offers generally grant broader commercial usage rights
• Adobe Firefly highlights an approach designed to limit copyright risk for business
• When in doubt for sensitive professional use (ads, branding), choose a tool with explicit commercial terms

Get started free

To test without spending, start with Canva or Leonardo AI, which offer enough free use to practice prompts and understand the basics. Once comfortable, you can assess whether a paid plan is worth it based on the actual volume of images you need.

Our verdict

For a simple, versatile first step, Canva is the safest pick. For polished aesthetic output, Midjourney remains the creative standard. For visuals with embedded text, go with Ideogram. For professional use where usage rights matter especially, Adobe Firefly is the most reassuring option. In all cases, the quality of results will depend mostly on the time you invest refining your prompts.