Style Reference
The Style Reference feature helps you create visually consistent and appealing images from a prompt. Choose from a curated library of ready‑made styles, or upload up to three reference images to design your own custom style. Reuse your styles anytime to keep your creations cohesive and polished.
Using Style Reference
To generate an image with a selected Style:
Click or tap inside the Prompt Box to reveal the option bar (if not already visible).
Select Style to open the Styles popup. (v3.0 models only. See Styles in Older Models for older models.)
Select one of the available options (see details below).
Enter your prompt and adjust any generation settings as needed.
Click or tap Generate.
Available Modes
Auto – Automatically selects the most suitable style based on your prompt.
General – A flexible mode suitable for most uses, including artistic and abstract work.
Realistic – Produces lifelike photography with authentic colors, textures, and lighting.
Design – Ideal for clean, vector-style images such as logos, posters, and other design assets.
Warning: The Random mode is deprecated and no longer available.
While Using a Character Reference
If a Character Reference is present in the Prompt Box, the available modes adapt automatically. The selected Mode applies to the next generated image and incorporates the active Character Reference:
Auto – Automatically determines the most suitable rendering style based on your prompt and the referenced character.
Realistic – Generates lifelike results, preserving the character’s facial features, colors, and textures as faithfully as possible.
Fiction – Interprets the character creatively, blending stylized elements while keeping key traits recognizable.
Style Presets
The following preset options are always available, regardless of whether you are generating normally or using a Character Reference.
Explore – Select a style from a curated library of popular aesthetics.
Recents – Reuse a style from your most recently used styles.
My styles – Choose one of your custom styles.
Quick reference – Upload or select up to three images to define a temporary custom style that will not be saved.
Examples
These examples show how different style presets reimagine Grant Wood’s American Gothic using the same prompt.
Prompt:
A stern couple in front of a white church with a Gothic-style window. The woman wears a brown polka-dotted dress with a white lace collar and a large brown brooch, while the man holds a pitchfork and wears a black suit with a light blue shirt, white collar, and round wire-rimmed glasses. The church's white exterior features vertical siding, and the background includes green trees and a red barn.
The following images show the output produced by a few preset styles.
Tips & Tricks
Creating Your Own Style
In addition to using preset styles, you can also create your own custom styles to achieve a personalized aesthetic.
How to create a style:
Select Style in the Prompt Box.
Open the My styles tab.
Select Create new style.
Upload or choose up to three images as visual references for your style.
Name your style.
Click or tap Create.
Your custom style appears under My styles and can be reused in any prompt.
Tips & Tricks
Selecting the best images for custom styles:
For a strong, unified style: Choose images that share a similar look, mood, aesthetic, and composition.
For creative, unexpected results: Mix diverse references to let the AI blend aesthetics and produce surprising outcomes.
Using gradients to control color: Upload a gradient-based image as one of your three references to influence the overall tone.
The reference images for your custom styles cannot be changed after creation. This ensures that anyone who uses your style in the future will see consistent results based on the images you originally uploaded.
Combine Style Reference With Other Features
Style Reference integrates seamlessly with other Ideogram features to expand creative possibilities:
Describe – Generate prompts from existing images and apply a style.
Remix – Reimagine existing images with a chosen style.
Character Reference – Maintain a consistent subject across different aesthetics.
Color Palette – Match your prompt to a specific mood or tone.
Describe + Style Reference
Use Describe to generate detailed text prompts from existing images, then apply a style to create a new version.
Remove any stylistic keywords from Describe results for cleaner, more controlled outputs.
Example using the image below:
Original Describe prompt:
A dynamic
indoor photographof a young man playing an electric guitar with intense emotion. The musician wears a burgundy red hoodie and light blue jeans, displaying an enthusiastic expression with eyes closed and mouth open in a passionate singing pose. He holds a cream-colored Fender electric guitar with a black pickguard. The setting features a dark green wall with two black and white framed photographs visible in the background. A brown leather couch is partially visible in the lower portion of the frame.The lighting creates a warm, indoor atmosphere, highlighting the musician's features and the guitar's cream finish. The composition captures a moment of musical expression, with the subject positioned slightly left of center in the frame.
Stylistic words and sentences shown with strikethrough were removed or replaced to optimize how the AI interprets and applies styles. Additionally, any words highlighted in green — which indicated the colors of elements in the image — have also been removed.
Adjusted Describe prompt:
A dynamic image of a young man playing an electric guitar with intense emotion. The musician wears a hoodie and jeans, displaying an enthusiastic expression with eyes closed and mouth open in a passionate singing pose. He holds a Fender electric guitar with a pickguard. The setting features a wall with two black and white framed photographs visible in the background. A leather couch is partially visible in the lower portion of the frame.
The images below show how different styles reinterpret the adjusted prompt.
Remix + Style Reference
Add a Style Reference to Remix to refresh existing images while preserving their structure. This method usually matches the composition better than using Describe alone.
Higher Remix weight → Keeps composition closer to the original image.
Lower Remix weight → Produces results more influenced by the selected style.
The example below uses Remix at 60% with the same original image and adjusted Describe prompt:
Character Reference + Style Reference
Combine a Character Reference with Style Reference to maintain a consistent subject across multiple images while exploring different aesthetics. Perfect for creating variations while maintaining consistency.
The following example shows how combining a character reference with different styles affects the final output.
Color Palette + Style Reference
Use them together to influence the overall tone and mood of your image. When a Color Palette is applied, the selected colors are incorporated while maintaining the style’s visual identity.
The images below show how different color palettes influence a single style. The selected palette appears in the lower-left corner of each image.
Last updated