Canva Craft is Canva’s new image-generation model, launched October 22, 2026. Canva says all users globally can select it in Dream Lab, and developers can use its public API. It can generate images up to 2K across more than 30 aspect ratios. Those are Canva’s product statements, not an AIViewer quality test. Canva’s launch announcement
Craft is useful to consider for posters because Canva says its model plans composition and typography before rendering. It can accept prompts in any language and generate text in 55 languages. That does not mean every generated date, venue or line break will be correct. Nor is the generated image automatically a fully editable design: Canva describes Magic Layers as a separate feature that can turn a flat image into editable elements. Craft announcement Magic Layers announcement
This guide uses a fictional poster brief so you can inspect the result you ask for. AIViewer did not run Craft for this article, and the flawed specimen below is authored for teaching.
Start with a brief that can be checked
Fictional event: A neighbourhood library wants a portrait social poster for an indoor plant swap. The details below are the source of truth, not text to let an image model invent.
| Field | Approved copy or requirement |
|---|---|
| Headline | Neighbourhood Plant Swap |
| Date | Saturday, 14 November 2026 |
| Time | 10 a.m.–noon |
| Venue | Northside Library, Community Room |
| Admission | Free entry |
| Action | Bring a healthy plant or cutting; take one home |
| Format | Portrait 4:5 social post with a clear central safe area |
The date and day agree: 14 November 2026 is a Saturday. A poster must not add “registration required,” a price or an outdoor venue because the brief says none of those things. The event is fictional; do not treat this as a real invitation.
Ask for the composition, then inspect the result
A bounded Dream Lab prompt could be:
Create a portrait 4:5 poster for a fictional community plant swap. Use natural indoor-plant imagery, warm ivory space and restrained amber accents. Keep a clean high-contrast headline area. Include only this exact copy: “Neighbourhood Plant Swap”; “Saturday, 14 November 2026”; “10 a.m.–noon”; “Northside Library, Community Room”; “Free entry”; “Bring a healthy plant or cutting; take one home.” Keep every important word inside the central 80% of the image. Do not add sponsor logos, people, prices or registration claims.
This prompt sets a target. It is not proof that Craft will reproduce the copy exactly. After generation, compare the actual pixels with the brief, especially small text. If the text is unreliable, an effective correction is to generate the botanical artwork without copy and typeset the approved text as normal editable Canva text over it.
Here is a deliberately flawed authored specimen, not a Canva output:
“Neighborhood Plant Swap — Sunday, 15 November — 10 a.m.–2 p.m. — Northside Park — $5 entry.”
| Review item | Flawed specimen | Required correction |
|---|---|---|
| Event name | American spelling and altered title | Use the approved headline exactly. |
| Day and date | Sunday, 15 November | Saturday, 14 November 2026. |
| Duration | Four hours | 10 a.m.–noon, two hours. |
| Venue | Park | Northside Library, Community Room. |
| Admission | $5 | Free entry. |
| Action | Missing | Add the plant-or-cutting instruction. |
A visually attractive poster with any of those errors is unfit to publish. Correct the text in an editable text layer where possible; do not assume a new generation will preserve every already-correct detail.
Check crop, layers and export separately
First inspect the poster at its intended 4:5 size. A 1080 × 1350 export has a 4:5 ratio. If you also need a square card, make a separate crop and check the headline, venue and time again; do not simply cut off the top and bottom. Read it at phone size, where thin lettering or low contrast can fail.
If you use Magic Layers, verify what became selectable: can you move or replace the headline without repainting the leaves, and can you edit the small venue line as text? Canva says Magic Layers transforms flat images into editable elements, but the article does not establish that it succeeds perfectly on every generated image. Keep a copy of the original and inspect the converted result. Canva’s Magic Layers description
The answer key for this exercise is the seven approved fields above. A finished poster passes only if all seven are present and correct, the text remains readable in the real crop, and the exported file still matches the reviewed design. The cover image on this page is an AI-generated editorial illustration, not a Canva screen capture or the exercise’s finished poster.