Generate custom images with Bing Image Creator

One of my favorite finds of the past year is Microsoft Bing Image Creator (formerly Craiyon, which itself was formerly Dall-e mini).

Image Creator is a tool that, well, creates images based on prompts that you provide. And when I say “creates,” I mean it – it doesn’t cobble together existing pictures, but rather generates new images from scratch.

For each prompt, the site returns four different images, each of which can be downloaded.

There are so many ways this can be used in teaching and schools. Just a few:

• Have students use Image Creator to creatively engage with content – this year, I’m planning to have my sixth graders use it to design spacecraft for exploration and to make their own alien creatures that could exist on other worlds.
• As a fun and quick break, I like to post all four images created from a prompt on a Google Slide and ask students if they can “Guess the Prompt.”
• My teaching partner used it to create an image for the cover of the science coursebook that we develop for students each year.

But if I’m being honest, most of my use of the site is for fun: I have it create fun things that I just want to see. Hover over the images below to see the prompts I put in (click for larger versions and full prompts), then keep scrolling for a few tips and the link.

“A statue of a dog with a shoe, seen at a park with a lake at the golden hour.”

“A vintage computer, in a retro 1980s style image.”

“A statue reminiscent of Michelangelo’s David in front of a European building, but the statue is of a dinosaur.”

“A nebula in front of a starscape, in the style of 1930s four-color national park posters”

“A futuristic flying machine, as if drawn by Leonardo da Vinci.”

“A black-and-white drawing of a cute jaguar playing basketball.”

“A science teacher in a lab setting, anime style drawing.”

“Pixel art of a winter landscape with mountains.”

A few tips:

• The more descriptive the prompt, the more specific and detailed an image will be.
• Using styles (e.g., “impressionism,” “digital art,” “black and white photograph”) will result in some amazing images.
• While the site is pretty forgiving, spelling everything correctly usually results in a better image.
• The site isn’t great with human faces – it creates some unusual (and sometime downright terrifying) people, but that can also be the fun of it.
• Get crazy with your prompts – try combining two seemingly-unrelated concepts (“deck furniture made of bacon”).

Try it yourself and share what you create: Image Creator from Microsoft Bing.