HOW TO...
Generate free images using LibreOffice’s AI
by Nik Rawlinson
What you need: LibreOffice Time required: One hour
There are many reasons why we love LibreOffice: it’s free, regularly updated and works with most office file formats. We’re also pleased to see that (unlike Microsoft and Google) it’s introducing AI tools gradually rather than overwhelming its software with new AI features you might not need or like.
One way LibreOffice adds new features is by allowing independent developers to create extensions. There are 48 pages’ worth of extensions at www.snipca. com/56318. Currently, only two are AI extensions: Localwriter (www.snipca.com/56361), which edits text in documents; and ‘AI images for LibreOffice’, which generates images based on your description. We liked the latter tool best, so we’ll explore it here.
1 Try Stable Diffusion online
‘AI images for LibreOffice’ uses a number of image-generating models, including Stable Diffusion. You can try it at www.snipca.com/56416. Type a description in the box beneath ‘What do you want to draw?’, add any details of things you want to avoid in the Negative Prompt box, and select an aspect ratio. If you want a particular look and feel, click one of the Style options, then tick the checkbox to prove you’re human and click Generate.
We asked for a picture of ‘a cat driving a car at high speed through the French countryside’. After repeating the process a few times – as initial attempts lacked a car, didn’t show the cat driving, or weren’t in a style we liked – it came up with the image pictured right. Granted, there’s nothing specifically ‘French’ about the scenery, but you couldn’t claim with certainty that it isn’t France either.