Recraft

The designer's image model: V4.1 for expressive posters and concepts, Utility for predictable production work, with real SVG vector output.

What it nails

Watch out for

Recraft is built for designers. Where most image models chase photos, Recraft V4.1 (released 14 May 2026) makes finished design work: posters with custom titles, magazine covers on a grid, invitations with every line of text in place, and logos you can export as real vectors.

The Lab runs two versions with opposite personalities, V4.1 and V4.1 Utility, each in Standard or Pro quality, and up to 6 pictures per run.

At a glance: Recraft. The live spec card, price calculator and Generate button show here on the site.

Recraft V4.1 (Recraft)

What Recraft is secretly great at

Posters that look art-directed

Describe the hero, the world behind it, the palette and the title lettering. V4.1 "experiments with angle, light, and composition" to give you key art, not a stock picture.

Finished square streaming poster for an original stop-motion animated adventure titled "NIGHT POST." A determined pangolin night courier is the distinctive central hero, riding a compact vintage red motor scooter directly toward the viewer, articulated scales catching sharp golden rim light, canvas mail satchel overflowing with sealed envelopes. Behind the courier, a vast subterranean postal city spirals downward through terracotta tunnels: tiny sorting balconies, brass chutes, suspended bridges, glowing windows and streams of airborne letters create depth and motion. Cinematic low-angle composition, bold triangular silhouette, expressive handcrafted character design, tactile miniature sets, subtle clay and paper textures, sophisticated family-film appeal rather than childish cartoon styling. Deliberate warm high-contrast palette using saturated saffron, vermilion, burnt orange, parchment cream and deep near-black shadows, integrated naturally with the supplied background color. Strong highlights, dramatic shadows, crisp focal detail, atmospheric falloff, premium theatrical lighting. Large legible custom title NIGHT POST across the upper third in chunky cream-colored letterforms inspired by vintage postal stamps, with enough clear space around the lettering; no other text, no logos, no border, no mockup, one polished standalone poster image.

Example by Runware · source ↗

Finished square streaming-series poster for a fictional prestige conspiracy thriller titled "THE LAST SWITCHBOARD." Central focal subject: a poised female telephone operator in 1968, shown waist-up and facing the viewer, wearing a period cream blouse, dark cat-eye glasses, and a single vintage telephone headset. Her wary expression suggests she has just overheard something dangerous. Behind her, a monumental manual switchboard fills the composition; dozens of black cables and brass plugs radiate toward her like a tense geometric web, with one vivid red cord leading to a small blinking line indicator. Subtle silhouettes of two suited men appear behind the perforated switchboard panels, ambiguous and threatening. Art direction combines polished cinematic portrait photography with crisp mid-century editorial poster design, strong symmetry, controlled negative space, slight screen-printed texture, sharp facial detail, smooth tonal gradients, and dramatic hard-edged lighting. Deliberate warm high-contrast palette: burnt orange, saffron yellow, warm ivory, vivid signal red, and near-black against a deep oxblood background. Add large, clean, condensed ivory title typography at the bottom: "THE LAST SWITCHBOARD"; above it in small uppercase letters: "A LIMITED SERIES"; minimal fictional billing line beneath. Premium, intelligent, suspenseful, historically credible, uncluttered composition, instantly legible at streaming-thumbnail size, no logos, no interface, no mockup, no border.

Example by Runware · source ↗

Pages of exact text

Recraft reads everything in quotation marks as text to set. Give it seven lines of copy with their order and size and it sets them like a typesetter.

Create a polished square invitation for an oceanographic research vessel christening, presented as a finished flat graphic rather than a photographed card or mockup. Precise modern maritime art direction with a clean, front-facing composition. Center a simplified technical side-profile illustration of a white research vessel with antenna masts, compact cranes, bridge windows, and an orange hull stripe, floating on three crisp horizontal wave lines. Surround it with restrained bathymetric contour lines, tiny coordinate ticks, and a thin double-line border inspired by nautical charts. Use flat colors, sharp geometric forms, generous negative space, and highly legible typography. Palette: deep ink navy, warm off-white, pale sea cyan, and safety orange accents. Formal yet optimistic mood, suitable for a marine science institute. Set the following exact copy with clear hierarchy: "YOU'RE INVITED" at the top in small spaced capitals; "RSV TIDELINE" as the large main title; "RESEARCH VESSEL LAUNCH" beneath it; then "SATURDAY · 18 OCTOBER · 10:30 AM"; "PIER 7 · NORTH HARBOR"; "CHRISTENING · DECK TOUR · LIGHT LUNCH"; and "RSVP BY 4 OCTOBER" at the bottom. Keep every word correctly spelled, evenly aligned, and easy to read. No logos, no QR code, no envelope, no hands, no tabletop, no shadows, no photographic scene.

Example by Runware · source ↗

Create a finished square magazine cover for an independent specialist journal about contemporary pipe-organ building and conservation. Front-facing, symmetrical composition featuring a precise geometric arrangement of polished organ pipes in varied lengths, simplified into bold architectural forms. Integrate subtle technical cutaway details, small tuning slots, pipe mouths, measurement ticks, and thin drafting lines without making the design busy. Swiss modernist editorial art direction with the tactile character of screen printing and cut-paper collage. Restricted palette of deep oxblood red, warm parchment, electric cobalt blue, charcoal black, and restrained brass accents. Flat even lighting, crisp edges, minimal depth, strong negative space, immaculate print-design finish. At the top, set the large clearly legible masthead: "REGISTER". Beneath it, smaller clean sans-serif text: "PIPE ORGAN CRAFT". Add the compact issue marker "ISSUE 07" in one corner. Typography must feel intentional, aligned to a strict grid, and integrated with the pipe geometry. Quiet, rigorous, cultured mood; contemporary rather than ecclesiastical. The image is the standalone cover artwork itself, edge to edge, not a photographed magazine, not a mockup, no hands, no table, no room scene, no barcode, no extra copy.

Example by Runware · source ↗

Two personalities: expressive or predictable

V4.1 designs with you. Utility gives "flat lighting, front-facing composition, and simple scenes": exactly what you want for mockups, product shots and brand portraits.

Commercial personal-branding photoshoot of a confident Black woman in her early 40s who runs an urban beekeeping consultancy, standing on a clean city rooftop apiary. Front-facing three-quarter portrait, subject centered and looking directly into the camera with a calm, capable expression. She wears a tailored saffron-yellow beekeeping jacket with the protective veil folded neatly behind her shoulders, dark indigo work trousers, and tan leather gloves tucked into one hand. Natural hair in a short sculpted twist style, understated gold stud earrings, realistic skin texture. Two simple matte-white beehive boxes sit behind her at different distances, with a softly defined brick skyline and pale overcast sky; restrained scene with generous negative space and no visual clutter. Diffused daylight with a subtle warm reflector, even flattering illumination, crisp facial detail, clean commercial photography, controlled depth of field, sophisticated palette of saffron, indigo, warm white, charcoal, and muted brick red. Strong geometric composition suitable for a founder profile, editorial feature, press kit, or social avatar. Photorealistic, polished, approachable, credible, contemporary. No text, logos, labels, watermark, extra people, or decorative border.

Example by Runware · source ↗

Polished square advertising campaign key visual for agricultural crop insurance. A single healthy sunflower with vivid golden petals and crisp green leaves grows from a neat circular patch of rich dark soil, centered in the lower half of the composition. The flower is protected beneath a transparent hemispherical shield rendered like clear glass, with a subtle warm golden rim. Outside the shield, a severe hailstorm strikes diagonally: sharp white hailstones and cold rain visibly bounce and deflect away from the dome. Inside, the sunflower remains dry, upright, warmly illuminated, and completely intact. Deep storm-navy background with controlled icy blue highlights, bright sunflower yellow as the focal accent, restrained premium palette. Front-facing symmetrical composition, simple scene, crisp silhouette, flatter commercial lighting, realistic materials, high-end photographic compositing, precise edges, subtle ground shadow, strong graphic-design appeal. Generous uncluttered negative space across the upper third for campaign copy placement. Image-only unbranded advertising artwork without typography, logos, labels, borders, interface elements, or watermark.

Example by Runware · source ↗

Real vectors (SVG)

Switch on Vector (SVG) in the Image studio and Recraft returns a real vector file "that you can reshape, recolor, and tweak", ideal for logos, icons and lettering.

Which Recraft to pick

VersionPick it forQualityPictures per run
Recraft V4.1Expressive posters, concepts, illustration, photoreal with characterStandard · ProUp to 6
Recraft V4.1 UtilityPredictable, production-ready work: mockups, product shots, brief-driven designStandard · ProUp to 6

Pro doubles the size (2048 px square) for print. Draft in Standard, switch to Pro for the final. Turning on Vector (SVG) changes the price; the studio shows it before you run.

How to prompt Recraft

From Recraft's official V4 prompting guide.

  1. Short prompt, the model designs with you; long prompt, it follows your plan. Pick on purpose.
  2. Go from general to specific: concept, background, subject, details, secondary elements, lighting, camera, mood. Earlier items matter more.
  3. Put every word to be printed in quotation marks and describe its size and weight.
  4. For logos and vectors: define the shapes, a strict palette and "no gradients, no shadows". Avoid texture words.
  5. For photos: use concrete descriptions, not a pile of dramatic adjectives.

FAQ

What is the difference between V4.1 and Utility?

V4.1 is expressive and experiments with composition; Utility is clean, flat and predictable for production work.

Can Recraft make SVG logos?

Yes. Turn on Vector (SVG) in the Image studio and you get a real vector file.

Can I upload a reference picture?

Not with Recraft in the Lab. Describe the design in words, or use Nano Banana or GPT Image for reference-based work.

Why are the example prompts so long?

Long prompts make Recraft follow your exact plan. Short prompts are fine too: Recraft then makes the design choices for you.