Been paying for various image editing subscriptions to mock up ad creatives quickly. Most of them work okay for basic stuff but the moment you need readable text inside an image, like a headline on a billboard mockup or copy on a poster, it all falls apart. Garbled letters, weird spacing, total gibberish. So I'd still end up in Photoshop fixing it manually, which defeats the whole purpose.
A few weeks ago I came across LongCat-Image-Edit-Turbo from Meituan. It's open source, free, runs locally. The editing model is a distilled version built on top of their LongCat-Image foundation model. What surprised me is how well it handles text rendering inside images, which is exactly where every paid tool I've used keeps failing.
The attached image is an example. Left is the raw interior photo. Right is after prompting it to add a framed art piece with the text "Forest Retreat" above the bed. The typography is clean, the frame sits naturally in the scene, and the lighting and textures in the rest of the room are untouched. One prompt, done.
I've been using it mainly to mock up how branded visuals would look in real environments before committing to a shoot or buying placement, and to test different headline copy baked directly into hero images so the team can align faster on creative direction. It also handles both English and Chinese text well which has been useful for APAC campaigns.
Running it locally means no per-image credits, no watermarks, no monthly subscription creeping up in cost. For the volume of quick mockups a marketing team goes through in a week, that adds up fast. Not saying it replaces a full creative suite, but for rapid iteration on visual concepts it's been the most capable free option so far.
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