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    6 apps for a poster with readable type

    Ideogram, Recraft, Canva, Versely, Firefly, and Figma letter a poster. Pick by baked words, marks, real type, model row, brand-safe gen, or a type layer.

    Versely Team••9 min read

    The poster has to carry words a stranger can read at arm's length. That is a type job, not a pretty-picture job. Six apps will take the file. Ideogram is the lettered generate. Recraft is the designed lockup and the vector. Canva is type you typed on a template. Versely is the model row: Ideogram V4, a quoted GPT Image 2 line, or a Recraft 4.1 mark. Adobe Firefly is the commercially safer plate under real type. Figma is always a type layer. This page is that list. It is not a pack-copy guide. It is not a GTIN tutorial. A flavor line on a carton is a different still.

    Read the poster aloud at 100 percent. If you stumble, the wall will not save you. Three to twelve words. One hierarchy. A margin the print shop would call a bleed, not a crop through a serif.

    What this list is for

    The job is a poster: print, a 9:16 story poster, a window, a title card that has to hold as a still. The test is letters, not vibe. If the words can change next Tuesday, they do not belong in the pixels. That is overlay in Canva or Figma. If the words are the poster (a concert name, a three-word claim, a logo lockup), you either typeset them or you generate them on a row that lists text rendering and then you proof them like a press check.

    This is not a pack still. A SKU label, a net weight, a barcode-shaped mark: different brief, different miss. A poster can survive a little style. A pack cannot survive a cousin flavor.

    Leave Imagen 4 out of the stack. Google shut the family (Gemini API page, 17 September 2026). Banana 2 is a fast still, not a typesetter. Do not iterate smeared letters at 4 credits and call it a poster process.

    The six apps

    1. Ideogram. Start here if the poster is the words and you are willing to bake them. Ideogram 4.0 launched 3 June 2026. The Ideogram 4.0 page still leads on brand work, readable headlines, and layout control. Ideogram pricing (read 20 September 2026, yearly): Plus $20 a month ($15 billed yearly, $180) with 1,000 priority credits, Pro $60 ($42 yearly, $504) with 3,500 plus batch. Subscription credits expire. Top-ups carry. Quote the string in the prompt: the poster reads "NIGHT MARKET / FRIDAY". One text group. Describe the type (bold condensed sans, tight tracking, all caps). Proof every character. Ideogram is a bad first app if the date will move and you do not want to regenerate the art. It is the right app when the lockup is the deliverable.

    2. Recraft. Open Recraft when the poster is a designed lockup, a wordmark, or a vector you will recolour for print. Recraft V4.1 shipped 14 May 2026. Paid plans (read 20 September 2026): Basic $12 a month ($10 yearly) for 1,000 credits, Pro from $20 ($16 yearly) for 2,000. V4.1 docs put Vector on logos, typography, and illustration, and Utility on calm, front-facing work. Recraft's V4 launch (17 February 2026) still names editable SVG with structured layers. If the printer asked for paths, that is a vector row, not a raster PNG that looks clean at 1x. Recraft is a bad first app if you needed a photoreal street and a short quoted line in the same still. It is the right app when the poster is graphic design.

    3. Canva. Open Canva when the letters must remain yours. Independent reads of Canva's 2026 AI table (The Rundown, 29 August 2026; Moda, 9 September 2026) put Pro at about $144 a year, with up to 2,000 Standard, 200 Premium, or 20 Ultra AI uses a month. Brand Kit holds fonts and colours. Typeset the headline. Generate a background only if the Premium or Ultra bucket can take a miss. "Create an image with Canva AI" is Premium AI. High-quality image is Ultra AI. Do not ask Canva AI to letter the head if you have a font file. Magic Studio will happily bake a cousin spelling into a pretty field. Canva is a bad first app if the brief is a dense illustrated lockup Ideogram would own. It is the right app when Friday's date is still moving.

    4. Versely. Versely sits here because "poster" is three published rows, and picking the wrong one is how you pay for a photograph of mush. The door is text to image. Ideogram V4 is 5 credits flat, posters and logos, accurate text rendering listed, 9:16 and 16:9 on the card. That is the lettered generate. GPT Image 2 Text to Image is 9 credits at SD/HD discounted (17 full) and 17 at 4K discounted (33 full), high-fidelity, prompt adherence, up to 4K. Use it when the poster is a photoreal scene that happens to carry a short quoted line, not when the still is eight to twelve words of design. Recraft 4.1 Text to Image is 3 credits, style control: the graphic lockup on this catalog. Banana 2 at 4 credits discounted will draw word-shaped texture. Stop after the first unreadable take. Do not "fix it in the video model." If the line will change, add a text overlay after the plate, or typeset in Figma. Versely is not Canva's font picker. It is the app when you wanted Ideogram, GPT Image 2, or Recraft on one bill, and you will still proof at 100 percent. Ideogram owns words in the frame is the specialist split. This page is the poster stack around it.

    5. Adobe Firefly. Open Firefly when the plate under the type has to be commercially safer, and the type itself will be real type. Adobe Firefly (read 20 September 2026): Standard $9.99 a month, 2,000 credits; Pro $19.99, 4,000, Express Premium, Photoshop on web. Adobe's own models train on licensed Stock. Firefly includes text-effects tools in the Adobe family, and Express is on the Pro seat. Partner models in Firefly are a different meter and a different training story. Generate the street, the paper grain, the crowd. Set the head in Photoshop or Express. Do not ask a partner generate to letter the venue name if legal will read it. Firefly is a bad first app if the whole poster is a baked lockup and you needed Ideogram. It is the right app when the art is a plate and the words are a layer.

    6. Figma. Open Figma when the poster is a layout, period. Figma pricing (read 20 September 2026): Professional Full $16 a month with 3,000 AI credits. Type on a path lives in Figma Draw. Variables hold the palette. Export PDF or PNG at print size. Figma Design AI can Make image for a background. The letters stay a text layer. That is the whole compliment. Figma will not invent a concert lockup as a single generate. It will let you restyle "SATURDAY" to "SUNDAY" without rerolling the art. If you needed a baked illustrated wordmark, go to Recraft or Ideogram, then place the PNG. If you needed a poster you will reprint with a new date, stay here.

    How to pick without a smeared head

    Name whether the type is the art or a layer.

    • The lockup is the poster, and you will proof it: Ideogram, or Ideogram V4 on Versely at 5 credits.
    • The lockup is a mark or a vector for print: Recraft, vector row if paths were requested.
    • The date, price, or venue might change: Canva or Figma. Real type.
    • Photoreal scene plus a short quoted line you will proof: GPT Image 2 T2I at 9 or 17 on Versely, or ChatGPT Images if that is already the chat. Still proof.
    • Brand-safety on the plate, type as a layer: Firefly's own models, then Express or Photoshop.
    • A design system poster: Figma.

    Two apps is a poster stack. Figma (or Canva) plus one generate. The generate is Ideogram, Recraft, Versely, or Firefly. Baking the head into Ideogram and keeping a Figma type layer of the same words is how you ship two spellings.

    Credits are not dollars on Versely. Do not convert 3, 5, 9, or 17 into USD. Ideogram, Recraft, Canva, Firefly, and Figma publish USD seats. Quote those dated.

    After the still is a poster

    Proof at 100 percent, then at the size it will hang. A letter that works on a 27-inch monitor can fail on a phone story. 9:16 needs fewer words than A2.

    If you baked the type, the file is the lockup. Changing a date means another generate and another proof. If you typeset the type, change the layer. That is why this list includes apps that do not generate letters at all.

    Printers want bleed, fonts outlined or packed, and a colour profile you named. A 1K generate is not a 24-inch poster. Recraft Pro and print-size Figma exports are the enlargement path. Do not upscale smeared glyphs and hope they become type.

    When the poster is a lettered generate on a published row, sign up and run Ideogram V4 or Recraft 4.1. When the poster is a date you will change, stay in Figma or Canva. The list is six apps. The wall is one spelling.

    FAQ

    Should I bake the headline or overlay it?

    Bake when the letters are the art and will not move. Overlay when a date, a price, or a CTA will move. Mixing those jobs is how a pretty poster ships with last week's Friday.

    Is Ideogram enough without Recraft?

    For a lettered poster still, often. Recraft is the mark, the vector, the illustration lockup. Ideogram is the readable head on a designed still. If the printer asked for SVG paths, Ideogram is not that file.

    Why is Versely in the middle of the list, not first?

    Because this page is the poster, not a homepage. Ideogram V4, GPT Image 2 T2I, and Recraft 4.1 are real lettering rows. They are not Canva's type layer or Figma's text styles. If you wanted those rows on one bill, Versely is the seat. If you wanted to restyle the date on Tuesday, it is not.