Recraft V3 vs Seedream V4.5

Wedding invitations are an excellent test of typography capabilities—they require multiple text elements at different scales, mixing script and serif typefaces, with precision in letterforms and spacing. Poor text rendering is immediately obvious in this context.

Recraft V3 demonstrates its typography advantage clearly here. The script calligraphy tends to have proper letterform connections, consistent stroke weights, and appropriate flourishes. Serif text maintains clean baselines and proper kerning. Seedream V4.5 produces acceptable text—often better than most models—but typically shows subtle imperfections: slightly irregular letter spacing, occasional baseline wobble, or stroke inconsistencies that matter in design contexts.

Portrait photography demands precise handling of skin texture, subtle lighting gradients, and those indefinable qualities that separate a photograph from a render. The human visual system is highly attuned to faces, making this one of the most demanding tests for any image generation model.

Seedream V4.5 shows its photorealistic strength here. Skin rendering tends to include visible pores, natural color variations, and realistic subsurface scattering. Hair has individual strands rather than painted texture. Eye highlights appear correctly positioned with natural catchlights. Recraft V3 produces professional portraits but often with slightly smoother skin and less nuanced lighting transitions—perfectly acceptable for many uses, but Seedream edges ahead in pure photorealism.

Illustration work requires a specific aesthetic vocabulary—the balance of stylization, color palette, and visual language that defines a particular style. Consistency matters when creating multiple images for a project; they need to look like they belong together.

Recraft's style presets prove valuable here. Using digital_illustration or a specific sub-style provides predictable, controllable results that match the intended aesthetic across multiple generations. Seedream interprets the prompt intelligently—often beautifully—but with more variation between generations. For children's books, editorial illustration, or any project requiring visual consistency, Recraft's explicit control reduces iteration and ensures cohesion.

Product photography for beauty and cosmetics requires precise material rendering—the way glass refracts light, liquid catches highlights, and surfaces reflect their environment. These subtle details communicate quality and luxury to potential customers.

Both models perform well here, but with different characteristics. Seedream V4.5 often produces more physically accurate glass refraction and liquid behavior—the subtle caustics and reflections that make product shots feel real. Recraft V3 tends toward cleaner, more design-ready compositions with controlled reflections that might require less post-processing for catalog use. The choice depends on whether you want maximum realism or streamlined commercial aesthetics.

Macro photography of intricate natural subjects tests a model's ability to render fine detail coherently. Spider webs require hundreds of interconnected silk strands, each catching light differently, with water droplets adding optical complexity through refraction and reflection.

Seedream V4.5's support for 2K and 4K output gives it an advantage for detail-intensive work like this. Higher resolution means more fine structure can be rendered—individual silk strands, the way each droplet catches light, subtle color gradients in the background. Recraft produces excellent imagery at standard resolution but can't match Seedream's output size for print work or large displays where that extra detail matters.