Rebuild an ad so its words and typeface can change
Turn a finished ad image into text you can retype and a typeface you can swap — then re-render as many versions as you like for $0, with the artwork untouched.
In this article (5)
An image model sets type in its own built-in fonts. That is the whole problem: however good the picture is, the words are baked into it, so changing "50% OFF" to "40% OFF" — or setting the headline in your typeface — means generating again and getting a different ad.
The Editable ad template breaks that. It rebuilds the picture once as a background plus live text. After that, the words and the typeface are yours to change, and every new version re-renders for $0, because no AI runs again.
What you get
- The artwork is untouched. The photograph, the shapes, the hand-drawn arrows, the badge — all of it stays exactly as it was, as pixels. Nothing is redrawn, so nothing drifts.
- The lettering is removed from the image, not covered over, and comes back as real text on top. That is why nothing doubles up and no ghost of the old words shows through.
- The typeface is yours. Upload it under Settings → Brand assets and apply it to the whole ad or to one element — a serif headline over a sans badge, if that is what you want.
Doing it
The quickest route is from an image you already have. Open the Library, click an ad, and press Make text editable. That starts the conversion for that one picture and takes you to the run; when it finishes, press Edit by hand. From then on the same image offers Open editor instead.
To convert several at once, use the Editable ad template from the Builder and give it a batch of ads.
What the conversion actually does
| Step | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Trace shapes | Measures the ad's outlines in code — exact, free, and the same answer every time. Nothing about the geometry is guessed. |
| Image to HTML | Rebuilds the ad as HTML and CSS, transcribing your copy exactly (including a typo, if there is one — it is your ad, not the model's). |
| Change the font | Applies a brand typeface to a finished document. Optional: the editor can do this afterwards for $0, so the Library route skips it. |
| HTML to image | Renders the document back to a PNG at the original size. This step is the authority on what the ad looks like. |
The conversion costs $0.02–$0.60 depending on how much is in the picture, and takes up to a couple of minutes. Everything after it is free.
In the editor
Click anything to select it. Retype it, drag it, recolour it, change its size, weight or letter-spacing, and reorder the layers. Undo and redo work throughout, and Save keeps every version.
Fonts offer two scopes, side by side so there is no doubt which you are choosing:
- Just this one — the selected element only.
- Every other element — the document default, which anything with a font of its own keeps overriding.
Font files never reach your browser: they stay on the server and are embedded at render time, so the letterforms on the canvas are a stand-in until you press Preview fonts or Generate image. That render is the truth, and it is what you download.
Where it works well, and where it does not
It is built for ads: a designed layout with copy on flat colour or a simple gradient. Point it at a plain product cutout with no lettering and there is nothing for it to make editable.
Type is the honest limit. Your original typeface is not something we can recover from a picture, so the first render uses a stand-in and the words may set wider or narrower than the original. Applying your own brand font is the fix, and it is the reason the feature exists.