Chalkboard Menu

Text-to-Image Photorealism Text Rendering

9 models were given the same prompt, and the community voted blind on which outputs looked best. How it works

This challenge forces models to use one consistent handwritten style across an entire dense menu instead of defaulting to clean printed text for the smaller details, a very common failure that reveals how well they actually understand and maintain stylistic coherence.

Blind Vote This Challenge

#1 — DALL-E 3

Prompt

“Handwritten-style chalkboard menu in a cozy café, all text rendered in the exact same realistic chalk handwriting style with natural variations in letter size, slight slant, and chalk texture — no printed or digital fonts anywhere on the board. Title at the top in elegant cursive chalk handwriting: ‘TODAY’S SPECIALS – APRIL 30, 2026’. Below it, three menu items also in the same handwritten chalk style: ‘Truffle Mushroom Risotto – $24’, ‘Grilled Octopus with Lemon & Herbs – $28’, ‘Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies – $9’. At the very bottom, smaller text in the identical handwritten chalk style (slightly smaller but still clearly legible with the same handwriting characteristics): ‘All items made fresh daily • Ask about our gluten-free options’. Warm ambient café lighting, visible chalk dust and smudges, realistic handwriting imperfections, no clean printed text anywhere.”

Voters were asked to judge by Text Accuracy Handwriting Consistency Legibility Chalk Realism

Challenge Rankings

9 models

#	Model	Price	¢/img	Elo
1	DALL-E 3 OpenAI	$$	4¢	1179
2	GPT Image 1 Mini OpenAI	$	0.5¢	1170
3	Qwen Image 2.0 Pro Alibaba	$$$	7.5¢	1138
4	Grok Imagine Image xAI	$$	2¢	1127
5	FLUX.1 [schnell] FP8 Black Forest Labs	Free	Free	1115
6	Recraft V4 Pro Recraft AI	$$$$	25¢	1063
7	FLUX.2 [klein] 9B Black Forest Labs	$	0.6¢	1055
8	Wan 2.7 Pro Alibaba	$$$	7.5¢	1000
9	Wan 2.7 Alibaba	$$	3¢	994

GPT Image 1 Mini leads the challenge with an 1170 Elo, maintaining stylistic coherence 15x cheaper than the second-place Qwen Image 2.0 Pro (1138 Elo). Despite its low 1063 Elo, Recraft V4 Pro carries the highest price point at $0.250 per image, while the free FLUX.1 [schnell] FP8 remains competitive within 55 points of the top spot.