A Text-Rendering Demo for a Tuned SD1.5 VAE

lostinspaz · reddit · 2026-07-20

A hands-on demo testing how far the SD 1.5 VAE can go on text rendering. The author starts from the common belief that SD 1.5 is terrible at text because its 4-channel, 8× compression VAE is “garbage,” then tests that assumption with a custom VAE tuned to prioritize text replication over image fidelity. The result: while 14pt text is still limited, the model can render almost perfect 16pt font in some cases. The linked repo includes a sample image and the tuned VAE.

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