This article is republished with permission from Wonder ToolsA newsletter that helps you find the most useful sites and apps. Register here.
Napkin.ai turns text into graphics with AI. Type or paste text related to what you are writing, presenting or teaching. Wait a few seconds and you will see many related visualizations, such as flow charts, mind maps, and process diagrams.
Choose your favorite, then customize it with a different color or new icons. Edit text or edit visuals. Then export the images as PNG, SVG or PDF files. Or share a link to your Napkin virtual document.
- Price and platform: It’s free while in beta you can render as many images as you’d like in a desktop browser. Premium features may come later.
Ideas for using it
- Add visuals to your presentation. Replace the dry text bullet points with a visual metaphor to make the slide more engaging.
- Make a point in a meeting or workshop/class. Explain a complex lesson concept more memorably with a flowchart or mind map.
- Add descriptive visuals to your newsletter or blog post. Rather than adding a generic image from Unsplash, or a randomly generated AI image, use a data graphic that is directly related to your content.
Examples – here’s what I’ve been doing
- Quality vs Quantity tradeoff. I provided Napkin with a focus on the journalistic trade-off between getting the most clicks with quick content, and producing high-quality work. Check out the draft, and feel free to add comments to test the annotation feature.
- I “Pick, stick and dig” outline. I gave Napkin a detailed briefing explaining my approach to choosing digital tools. To begin with, choose a few tools to experiment with in a particular category; stick at least one moment to understand how it works; dimba on its features to understand its strengths and limitations. Here is a summary page that helped make the Napkin, with lots of pictures.
- The value of Napkin.ai has been evaluated visually. Using the text I wrote in this post, I made Napkin create a graphic about it. I enjoyed being able to produce and choose from a variety of visuals.
Visuals can be more powerful than plain text when it comes to explaining a complex concept. But it takes time to dream up. That’s why I was excited to find this new AI tool that guides the process of coming up with a draft. If you explain, present, or teach as part of your job, you will enjoy it.
Using Napkin to design your image from scratch
There are two ways to create graphics on Napkin. You can type or paste text and let AI write additional text and images. Alternatively, you can start with a “Blank Napkin” and customize your own from scratch.
On the first blank page you can type or paste text or use the tool palette. Select the sketch icon in the palette to draw a rough shape. Napkin will understand what you are trying to draw and give you a clean version of that shape or object. You can change its size and combine it with additional shapes, objects or text to create your own illustration. Once you’ve added text, you can call the AI again at any time to supplement your drawings with an AI-generated image.
To add more icons, you can select “spark search” from the palette and type a name. Napkin will give you the right icon. (You can also search and add images from the open source library). If I write in “journalism” I would choose from newspaper images, TV, photography and so on.
Warnings
- Some of the drawings the AI suggested to me were not appropriate for the concept I was writing about. Others were too simple to add tangible value. It was easy, however, to make new choices and discard low-quality proposals.
- Napkin.ai doesn’t produce charts yet, so it won’t help to visualize some numbers.
- You can’t edit or create photos on mobile yet.
- This service was just launched on August 7, so the service is still working. The help and guidance resources available in the app are still limited.
Other methods
- Canva AI’s magic tools can handily provide you with social media draft graphics and other visuals that you can customize.
- ChatGPT’s Data Analyst Custom GPT allows you to upload a data set and provide you with an initial analysis and visualization.
- Genially is an excellent tool for creating interactive graphics. Start from scratch or use templates. Add links, buttons, images and other elements to create an engaging visual. Why it is so useful and how you can use it.
- Note that despite the similar name, Napkin.ai is not at all related to Napkin.one, a useful app for collecting and brainstorming ideas.
This article is republished with permission from Wonder ToolsA newsletter that helps you find the most useful sites and apps. Register here.
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