AI image generation has come a long way. We’ve moved past the era of six-fingered hands and cursed typography, and we’re now at a point where people actually expect AI to generate usable images — including those with readable text.
That’s where things get interesting. Because while most tools can create pretty visuals, not many can handle text properly. And let’s be real — if your use case involves signage, infographics, or even UI mockups, that’s a big deal.
So today, we’re comparing Midjourney V7 and OpenAI’s GPT-4o head-to-head in one very specific category: how well they generate text on images. I’ll show you exactly what each model can do using the same prompts, and we’ll find out which one is more reliable.
What is Midjourney V7?
Midjourney is an AI image generation tool that focuses on aesthetics and visual storytelling. Instead of chasing realism, it aims to create visually appealing, often stylized outputs that lean into creativity. If you’ve ever seen AI art trending online, there’s a good chance it came from Midjourney.
Its latest version, v7, offers stronger prompt understanding, better visual clarity, and improved handling of composition and lighting. You can generate anything from digital art to photorealistic landscapes with very little prompt tweaking. It’s especially useful for artists, designers, and content creators who want fast visuals without sacrificing quality.
What is OpenAI’s 4o Image Generation?
GPT-4o’s image generation is OpenAI’s most refined model yet. Built into ChatGPT, it allows you to generate high-quality visuals directly from a text prompt — no third-party tools or complicated interfaces needed. It’s fast, responsive, and more accurate than any of OpenAI’s previous image tools.
Its biggest upgrade is how well it handles text in images. For the first time, you can include detailed written content in your prompts — like signs, labels, or product descriptions — and get results that are actually readable and correctly formatted.
This is a major step up from DALL-E 3, which often turned words into random symbols. Now, you can generate things like infographics, UI mockups, and educational visuals without having to manually edit the output. Overall, based on my testing, GPT-4o delivers strong, usable images — especially if you need visuals with reliable text.
Midjourney V7 vs. OpenAI’s 4o: Text Generation
Test #1: Simple Logo
Prompt: A barbershop logo. The name of the barbershop is “Barber’s Tales”
We’re starting simple with this one, and both Midjourney and 4o performed well. Both followed the prompt and generated the words “Barber’s Tale” without messing up. I will say though, 4o was a lot simpler, but Midjourney had a more creative take on the logo — deserving of extra points.
Test #2: Blackboard
Prompt: A still from a stereotypical 90s sitcom. A teacher in a classroom. He’s in his 60s. He’s wearing a checkered shirt. It’s 7am. He’s writing the following on the blackboard:
“Newton’s Laws of Motion””One: Objects stay still or move unless influenced.””Two: Force equals mass times acceleration””Three: Every action has an equal opposite reaction.”
This time, I tried a longer prompt, and Midjourney completely failed to deliver. It’s just complete non-sense. None of the words were correct. If talking about text generation only, this would be a zero out of ten. I’ll give it a point for following the “90s sitcom” part of the prompt though, but that’s about all there is to it.
On the other hand, 4o is completely correct. No missed words, misformed letters, or additional artifacts. This is text generation at its peak.
Test #3: Mileage Sign
Prompt: A mileage sign taken by a phone. The content of the sign must be as follows: Line 1: “Manila” “10.1KM” Line 2: “Antipolo” “20.4KM” Line 3: “Batangas” “34.5KM” Line 4: “Quezon” “49.44KM” Line 5: “Naga” “142.4KM”
Same story as the one above. 4o created the perfect mileage sign. Not only are the words flawless — it’s perfectly aligned, correctly labelled, and appropriately spaced too. Midjourney 7, however, was none of those things. It seems like the only thing Midjourney is good at is nailing down the non-text generation aspects of each prompt.
Test #4: Game Screenshot
Prompt: A screencap of an old-school GBA RPG (dark fantasy) with a knight talking to a necromancer. His dialog says:
“You have reigned for too long.””It is now time to meet your fate.”
In terms of following the prompt, both really did well to capture the “old-school GBA RPG dark fantasy” vibes here.
But if we’re talking about text generation, yep… Midjourney is again the loser here. At this point, it’s become clear to me that Midjourney doesn’t really get text still, even with their newest update. This was a short text too, so I kind of expected it to do relatively okay, but no luck.
Test #5: Teenager’s Diary
Prompt: A teenager’s diary, wherein the following is written:
“April 27”
“Ugh, today was such a mess. First, I totally bombed my math quiz (like, seriously, who even needs to know what a hypotenuse is?), and THEN Emma decided to sit with them at lunch like we weren’t even friends?? I pretended not to care but it kinda hurt. On the bright side, Josh smiled at me in the hallway (!!!) and I basically floated all the way to English class. Maybe today wasn’t a complete disaster after all. Gonna binge some cheesy rom-coms tonight and pretend my life is that dramatic.”
For this one, I wanted to try really long paragraphs. Midjourney is, predictively at this point, just giving me nonsense text along with the image.
The real story here is how 4o still manages to write perfectly even with a long paragraph of text. This is unheard of in AI image generation. 4o is clearly a cut above the rest.
Test #6: Shop Names
Prompt: A real image taken by an iPhone (or any smartphone) of three small stores next to each other. The first one is called “The Marketplace” the second one is “The Pet Shop” and the last one is “The Tech Store”.
We don’t even need another one at this point, but hey, maybe Midjourney can win one…
…but it didn’t. It still fell way short of what OpenAI’s 4o image generation can offer.
The Bottom Line
Yep, this one’s no contest at all. Even as a Midjourney fan, I must concede that 4o is faaar better on text generation.
Even though Midjourney V7 has made massive improvements in visual quality, lighting, and prompt interpretation, it still can’t get text right. Whether the prompt is short or long, simple or complex, the output almost always falls short of readable — let alone accurate.
On the other hand, GPT-4o is clearly built for this. It not only understands the structure of text but also places it correctly inside images: formatting, grammar, and even tone intact. That’s something we haven’t really seen from other image generators yet.
That doesn’t mean Midjourney is obsolete. If your priority is artistic style, cinematic visuals, or aesthetic experimentation, it’s still the top-tier choice. But if you need text to be legible, correct, and placed exactly where it should be, GPT-4o is the better tool — by far.
At the end of the day, it depends on what you’re trying to make. But for anything involving words? This round goes to OpenAI.
