Image Generation — When Words Become Pictures

Humanity spent 40,000 years learning to draw on cave walls; now you type a sentence and get something Caravaggio would've needed a month to paint. These are the tools that turn text prompts into visual reality — one obsessed with aesthetics, the other with conversation. Both are absurdly good, and for completely different reasons.

Categories All Everyday Ecosystem Image Generation Coding App Builders Research Digital Architects Academic Mentors Video Music & Voice Local / Private AI

Midjourney V7

By Midjourney, Inc. · Default model since June 2025

What It Actually Is

Midjourney is what happens when you give an art director infinite patience and zero need for sleep. You type "a lighthouse at the edge of the universe, oil painting style" and it returns something you'd genuinely hang on a wall. V7 represents a major leap — the kind of jump where people who used V5 barely recognize the output.

The key insight about Midjourney is that it's an aesthetic engine first and an image generator second. Where competitors optimize for prompt accuracy ("draw exactly what I described"), Midjourney optimizes for beauty. It takes creative liberties, and those liberties almost always make the image better. It's the photographer who ignores your brief and shoots something stunning anyway.

Key Strengths

  • Unmatched aesthetics: V7's default output quality remains the gold standard. Images look "finished" — proper lighting, coherent composition, professional color grading — without needing elaborate prompts.
  • Anatomy breakthrough: The notorious "AI hands problem" is largely solved. Bodies, fingers, and faces are dramatically more coherent than previous versions.
  • Web-based editor: Inpainting, outpainting, and region-based editing now live in a proper web interface — no more Discord-only workflow.
  • Prompt precision: V7 follows complex multi-element prompts far more faithfully than V6, while still adding that signature Midjourney polish.
  • Style consistency: Character reference and style reference features let you maintain visual coherence across multiple generations.
Key Metrics
  • Not ranked on arena.aiMidjourney doesn't participate in arena.ai blind comparisons (closed platform). Rankings come from community polls and independent reviews instead.
  • Prompt adherence — StrongV7 significantly improved on V6 for following complex multi-part prompts. Personalization features let the model learn individual aesthetic preferences.
  • Resolution — Up to 2048×2048 nativeDirect output at high resolution without upscaling artifacts. Supports further enhancement to 4K+ with built-in upscaler.

Honest Limitations

  • No free tier: Starts at $10/month. Every other major competitor offers some free usage — Midjourney asks you to pay before you see a single pixel.
  • Text rendering: Still inconsistent. If your image needs legible text on a sign or product label, expect more iteration than you'd like.
  • Brand compliance: Because it prioritizes aesthetics over literal accuracy, getting pixel-perfect corporate imagery is an exercise in patience.
  • Copyright ambiguity: Like all image generators, questions about training data and output ownership remain legally unsettled.

The Verdict: Still the king of "wow." If you need images that look like they came from a professional photographer or concept artist, Midjourney V7 is the tool. Just don't expect it to follow instructions like an obedient employee — it's more of a brilliant collaborator with opinions.

Further Reading

Midjourney Documentation ↗ r/midjourney Community ↗

GPT Image 1.5

By OpenAI · Replacing DALL·E models in 2026

What It Actually Is

GPT Image 1.5 represents a philosophical shift in how image generation works. Instead of typing one prompt and praying to the aesthetic gods (the Midjourney approach), you have a conversation. "Make that sunset warmer. Now add a boat. Actually, make the boat a kayak. And fix the text on that sign."

This is image generation as iterative collaboration rather than one-shot roulette. It's integrated directly into ChatGPT, which means you don't switch tools — the same conversation that helped you write your blog post can generate the header image, refine it, and export it. OpenAI is actively migrating developers away from DALL·E snapshots toward this model, which tells you where they think the future lives.

Key Strengths

  • Conversational editing: Refine images through natural dialogue. "Make the sky more dramatic" actually works — and it remembers what you asked before.
  • Best-in-class text rendering: If you need legible text inside images — logos, signs, memes, infographics — GPT Image is the clear leader. It understands typography in a way other generators don't.
  • Seamless ChatGPT integration: No separate tool, no context-switching. Your text and image tasks live in the same conversation.
  • Iterative refinement: Each edit builds on the previous version. You're directing, not gambling.
Key Metrics
  • Arena Elo — 1,247 (#1 Text-to-Image)Crowdsourced blind comparisons on arena.ai with 4M+ votes across 47 models. GPT Image 1.5 currently holds the #1 rank for text-to-image generation.
  • Arena Elo — 1,390 (#4 Image Edit)Also ranks #4 on the Image Edit leaderboard. Combined with #1 in generation, it's the most versatile image AI available.
  • Text rendering — Best in classIndependently verified as the most accurate image model for rendering readable text. Logos, signs, and labels come out correct where competitors fail.

Honest Limitations

  • Aesthetic ceiling: Head-to-head with Midjourney on pure artistry, GPT Image usually comes second. It's more accurate but less "wow."
  • DALL·E deprecation: If you built workflows on DALL·E endpoints, treat them as a melting iceberg — migrate sooner rather than later.
  • Rate limits: Heavy image generation can hit usage caps quickly, especially on the lower-tier plans.

The Verdict: Choose GPT Image when you need control over beauty. If your workflow involves lots of revision, text-heavy images, or tight integration with text-based AI tasks, this is the smarter pick. It's the practical choice — Midjourney is the romantic one.

Further Reading

OpenAI: GPT Image Announcement ↗ OpenAI Image Generation Docs ↗