What you need to know
- Microsoft Designer is a new graphics design app for Microsoft 365.
- It features AI generation technology known as DALL-E 2 built-in.
- Users can type words to fully generate visuals and layouts quickly and easily.
Microsoft has today taken the wraps off a brand new Microsoft 365 application it calls "Microsoft Designer" that's designed to help users create social media posts, invitations, digital postcards, graphics, and more, quickly and easily. The app is powered by DALL-E 2 AI technology, which can create a number of complex designs just by typing what you want.
For example, with Microsoft Designer, creating a new project is as simple as typing what you want to see. If you want to create an invitation that features a waterfall as a background, just type "waterfall in the snow," and the AI will generate an image of a waterfall in a snowy environment. The app's suggestions will also become more complex as you add items such as text and images.
Liat Ben-Zure, CVP of Modern Life, Search & Devices at Microsoft detailed the following in a blog post:
"The Designer app is born out of PowerPoint, where Designer uses AI to make template suggestions as you build out a presentation. Depending on the type of content, Designer in PowerPoint will offer several options for you to choose from. In fact, more than eight billion slide designs (and counting) have been saved by our customers with Designer in PowerPoint. We’re thrilled to expand on that legacy, adding the latest cutting-edge text to image AI, with the new Designer app."
The app is designed with ease of use in mind, while still being a fully-fledged creator application. The app is web-based, and is available today as a free preview with a limited set of features. More features are expected to be added over time once it exists preview and exists as part of Microsoft 365.
MIcrosoft also says that the Designer app will eventually be integrated into Microsoft Edge, which will be able to offer users AI-generated graphical designs that can help enhance things like social media posts, emails, and more, without needing to leave the webpage you're currently on.
