2- Prompting Fundamentals

This section covers the key concepts that will help you write effective prompts for Ideogram. Whether you're aiming to generate the exact image you have in mind or to explore more creative, open-ended interpretations, these fundamentals apply to both prompting styles.

Prompting Uses Natural Language

Ideogram uses plain natural language to interpret prompts. There are no hidden parameters, weights, or coded instructions you can embed in the prompt—everything must be described the way you would say it to another person.

This means:

You can’t assign weights to parts of a prompt (e.g., ::1 or (important)
You can’t use hex codes or RGB values for colors (e.g., #E4BC73 ). Describe them instead with ordinary words (e.g., “deep red,” “pale blue,” “golden-yellow”). You can still influence the color in the image to be generated with the Color function.
You can’t use technical flags or shortcuts like --ar or --v or --style

Positioning still matters: things written earlier in the prompt tend to be given more importance. So place the most important subject or idea near the beginning whenever possible.

If you’re coming from other text-to-image tools, this may feel simpler—but that simplicity is also what makes Ideogram especially good at interpreting well-structured, natural descriptions.

You can write your prompt in your preferred language: Ideogram generally understands prompts in any language, but for the most reliable results—especially when including text—write in English. Non-Latin scripts (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic) often render incorrectly. Using Magic Prompt will automatically translate your prompt into English.

While short, tag-like prompts (such as “a man in the forest, fire, dramatic, painting”) may work in some cases, Ideogram—especially version 2.0 and higher—responds better to natural, sentence-style prompting. Full sentences or clearly structured phrases help the AI understand context, relationships, and composition more reliably. Writing your prompt the way you'd describe the image to another person generally produces better results. Ordinary grammar, punctuation, and descriptive flow help the model understand context, relationships, and visual intent more accurately.

How Ideogram Interprets Prompts

When you write a prompt, Ideogram doesn’t guess what you mean like a person might—it tries to visually represent every word. It reads your words literally, and each one affects what appears in the image.

A tall man in a red coat walking through a snowy forest.

Ideogram will try to include all of those elements: the height, the red coat, walking action, snow, and the forest.

The clearer and more specific your wording, the better chance the AI has of generating an image that matches what you imagined.

The Importance of Visual Grounding

Visual grounding refers to including concrete, observable details in your prompts—such as colors, shapes, objects, and settings—that the AI can accurately render.

For example, instead of saying:

A beautiful scene.

Provide specific details:

A sunset over the ocean with orange and pink hues reflecting on the water.

This specificity helps the AI generate more accurate and visually coherent images.

Even when you’re being creative or poetic, including some visually grounded elements gives Ideogram a stronger base to work from.

Prompt Length and Clarity

The length of your prompt affects how Ideogram interprets your request. Longer prompts can give you more control and precision, but only if they’re well structured. Short prompts, on the other hand, leave more room for artistic or unexpected outcomes.

Prompt adherence is influenced by the clarity and specificity of your prompt. Longer, well-structured prompts with detailed descriptions can guide Ideogram to produce images that closely match your vision. However, overly complex or ambiguous prompts may lead to unexpected results.

When to Use a Short Prompt

Short prompts are useful when you want to explore creative or poetic ideas without strict control over the result. They often work best when paired with tools like Magic Prompt or Random Style.

Short and creative:
A woman drifting through a quiet dream, shapes and colors shifting gently around her.

This kind of prompt leaves much up to the AI’s interpretation. You might get surreal, abstract, or symbolic results—great for inspiration or exploration.

When to Use a Longer Prompt

Longer prompts help when you want to control multiple parts of the image: the subject, background, lighting, mood, or style. They’re ideal when you already have a specific result in mind.

Visually grounded and detailed:
A red fox standing beneath bright autumn trees, surrounded by golden leaves falling onto a quiet forest floor.

This kind of prompt tells the AI exactly what to render, and how to stage the visual.

Tips for Using Longer Prompts Effectively:

Break the prompt into logical pieces: subject, details, background, atmosphere.
Put the most important ideas near the beginning.
Avoid packing in too many unrelated concepts—this can confuse the AI.

About the number of words:

Ideogram supports prompts up to approximately 150 – 160 words (around 200 tokens). Prompts longer than this may be ignored or generate less accurate results. Make every word count, and always lead with what matters most.

Tip: Prompt length isn’t tied to prompting style. You can write short or long prompts whether you're using visually grounded, abstract, or hybrid language.

Use short prompts when you want looser interpretation, to spark creative exploration or want to use Magic Prompt.
Use longer prompts when you want to guide specific elements like subject, background, style, or lighting.

Start simple, lead with what's most important, and build up detail only as needed.

Visually Grounded vs. Abstract Prompts

Ideogram responds well to both visually grounded and abstract prompts—but not in the same way. The way you phrase your prompt has a major impact on the kind of image you get, and how closely it matches your intent.

Visually Grounded Prompts

These prompts focus on what can literally be seen in the image: the subject, setting, lighting, style, colors, and composition. They’re best when you have a specific image in mind and want the AI to render it as clearly and accurately as possible.

A stone lighthouse standing on a rocky cliff in heavy fog, its beam shining across calm gray waves at dusk.
A woman sitting in a dark room beside a table, reading a book under the warm glow of a single candle.

Visually grounded prompts tend to produce more consistent and accurate results, stronger prompt adherence, and better layout control, especially when generating images that include text.

Abstract or Poetic Prompts

These prompts use figurative language, emotion, or symbolism to guide the image in a more open-ended way. They’re ideal for creative exploration, unexpected results, or evoking a feeling rather than a scene.

A lighthouse fading into the mist, its light barely reaching the waves as the sea swallows the horizon.
A woman reading by candlelight, her face half-shadowed, as time seems to pause around her.

Ideogram handles abstract prompts surprisingly well—especially when they include some visual or emotional anchors. The results may be unpredictable, but often striking.

Hybrid Prompts

You can also blend both approaches: use a clear visual structure with a poetic tone, or add symbolic elements to an otherwise grounded prompt. This lets you guide the AI while leaving room for interpretation.

A watercolor of a ballerina mid-spin on a quiet stage—like a moment of silence captured in motion.
A detailed ink sketch of an old lighthouse on a cliff. The sea below vanishes into mist like a forgotten memory.
A portrait of a young woman in a red cloak, standing still. The forest behind her blurs into colors like wet paint on glass.

This style is especially useful when:

You want a specific subject but an open-ended or expressive background.
You want artistic interpretation while keeping a core idea intact.
You want to inspire variation in mood or atmosphere while locking down style or composition.

Use hybrid prompts when you want the best of both worlds: direction and discovery.

Tip:

Use visually grounded prompts for accuracy and control
Use abstract prompts for creativity and exploration
Use hybrid prompts when you want something expressive but anchored

Generating Text in Images

Ideogram excels at rendering text within images—especially for posters, logos, titles, labels, headers, and other designs that incorporate typograpy—making it a powerful tool for any project that combines visuals and words.

The way you phrase your prompt can influence how well Ideogram renders the text within an image. Below are a few natural-language examples that show how to include quoted text early in your prompt, while keeping the description visually grounded and realistic.

On the wall behind the artist, the phrase “Inspire Daily” is painted in large brush strokes across a mural, at the back of a vibrant and creative studio.
A vintage poster design with the words “Ride Free” curving along the bottom in retro lettering, featuring a smiling woman on a bicycle on a countryside road.
A chalkboard sign outside the bakery reads “Fresh Bread Daily” in handwritten white letters, surrounded by loaves and pastries arranged on rustic wooden shelves.

To achieve the best results:

Use Visually Grounded Prompts: Clearly describe the text's appearance, placement, and style within the image.
Position Text Early in the Prompt: Mention the desired text near the beginning of your prompt to get better results.
Enclose Text in Quotation Marks: Use quotation marks to specify the exact text you want to appear in the image.
Break longer text into chunks. If you're trying to generate more than one line of text, it's often better to split the content into sections with specific visual placement:
A restaurant sign with the title “La Pasta” at the top, and the phrase “Fresh handmade Italian dishes” written below.
This gives Ideogram clearer structure and lowers the risk of spelling errors.
Reduce visual complexity if possible. The more intricate the rest of the scene is—busy backgrounds, multiple subjects, fine textures—the harder it is for the AI to cleanly render text. Simple backgrounds and good contrast between text and its surroundings improve results.

That said, there are a few limitations to keep in mind:

Text length matters. The longer the text you want to include, the higher the chance of spelling errors, distortions, or incomplete words. Think of it like taking a group photo: the more people in the shot, the greater the chance someone will blink. Short, punchy phrases work best.
Not suitable for layouts with full textual content Ideogram is not designed to generate complete, text-heavy documents—such as full restaurant menus, website mock-ups with all copy in place, or multi-paragraph flyers. It can create the overall design and insert titles or short blocks of text, but long passages should be added later in a graphic editor or page layout application.
Foreign language support is limited. While you can write prompts in your own language, Ideogram’s text rendering is most accurate in English. Other languages, especially those that don’t use the Latin alphabet (like Chinese, Arabic, or Cyrillic scripts), often produce unpredictable or unreadable results.

If precise, readable text is important to your design, consider using Ideogram to generate the visual concept and then add the text manually using graphic editing tools afterward.

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