Make and edit images
Create a picture from a description, change one you already have, and put it in your app.
Apps look better with pictures made for them. The Image Studio makes a new picture from a description, changes one you already have, or adjusts a picture on the spot, without spending an agent turn or waiting for a rebuild.
Opening the Image Studio
Four places open the same window:
- The wand labelled Make an image, in the toolbar under the preview.
- The same Make an image button at the top of Assets, which you reach through the Settings tab above the app.
- The wand beside any picture in Assets.
- While you are changing the app directly, the wand on a picture you have selected. Select Edit mode under the preview, click a picture in the app, then select the wand in the small panel that appears.
Making a picture
Describe what you want to see in the box under Pictures. With nothing attached, the label above the box asks What should it show?, and the box suggests "Describe the image you want to generate".
Below it, the Model list offers every way of making a picture that AppHandle has, each with its own price beside it. Choose one and the button at the bottom of the window shows what it will cost, for example Generate — $0.01. Nothing is spent until you select it, and the finished picture appears in the window.
Changing a picture
There is no mode to choose. Attach one or more pictures with Upload or From assets, and the same box becomes an instruction: its label changes to What should change?, with "Make the background a sunset" as the example. Select Apply change and the Studio changes what you attached.
Attaching several pictures at once asks for them to be treated as one scene. The window shows how many you have chosen, and each picture you attach raises the price. If the choice you picked cannot work from a picture, it appears greyed out in the list with the reason, so you can pick another.
Adjusting a picture for free
With a picture attached, open Resize · rotate · compress — free. Choose Resize, Thumbnail, Rotate, Compress, or Convert, set what that action needs, and select Apply — free. These actions happen straight away and cost nothing, because no new picture is being made. There is no crop.
Choosing who can see the result
Under the controls there is a Save as public checkbox, and it starts unticked. Left as it is, the picture is kept with the app but not served to anyone who opens it. Tick it and the picture is served with the app, so it loads for anyone who can view the app.
Putting the picture in your app
Select Use in app. The Studio hands the picture to the agent with a short note saying which picture it is and where it can be loaded from, and the agent adds it to the page where it fits. If you would rather describe the placement yourself in the chat, Copy URL gives you the picture's address.
Finding your pictures again
Every picture the Studio makes is saved with the app. Open Settings, then Assets, and the new picture is in the list with an AI generated badge.
Once you have made your first picture, a strip of the last three you made appears above the message box. Pictures the agent makes for your app while you chat appear there too, so you can see what it added. Select one to open it in the Studio again. To carry on from the picture you have just made rather than starting over, select Edit this one; each run saves a new picture and leaves the earlier one where it is.
What it costs
Pictures are charged one at a time. Prices start at $0.01, the dearest choice is $0.45 for a single picture, and attaching pictures raises the price. The amount is on the button before you confirm, and an attempt that fails is not charged. If someone is hired to work on your app, their picture work is charged to them rather than to you.
When a picture fails
A run that fails says so on the spot, in the Studio and in the chat, and it names the reason the picture service gave — a rate limit, a model that is briefly unavailable, a picture the service refused. Nothing is charged for it and no half-finished picture is left in Assets, so you can simply try again.
The reason is worth reading rather than skipping: a failure that repeats with the same words is not something a retry will clear, and it is the sentence to quote if you report the problem. The same reason is kept with the attempt, so the Recent Invocation Activity list in Monitoring shows it too.
Choosing the picture style you start on
The Studio starts on a style chosen for you. If you find one you prefer, select Use as this app's default under the Model list, and this app starts there from then on, for you and for the agent's own pictures.
For a choice that follows you between apps, open the account menu in the top bar, select Models, then set Image model. Catalogue default leaves the choice to AppHandle.
What the Image Studio does not do
- It cannot remove a background or make a see-through picture. Describe the background you want in the prompt instead.
- There is no undo and no history of versions. Every run saves a new picture, and removing a picture from Assets is the only way to take one back.
- There are no masks or layers, and each run makes one picture rather than a set of variations.
- A very large picture may be refused by the picture model itself, even though attaching it is allowed. Shrink it first if a run is refused.
- If the picture service runs short of credit, making a new picture may fall back to a simpler choice, while changing an existing picture stops with a message until credit returns.
Where to go next
Use images and files covers the Assets list in full, including who can see a file. To put your new picture in front of visitors, see Publish your app.