ERNIE Image Prompts Guide
Learn how to write prompts that leverage ERNIE Image's DiT architecture — accurate text rendering, layout understanding, and integrated prompt enhancement.
What Is an ERNIE Image Prompt?
A prompt is the text description you provide to ERNIE Image to describe what you want to generate. Unlike search engines, AI image generators interpret prompts as creative instructions — the more specific and structured your input, the more predictable and high-quality your output.
ERNIE Image has a key advantage: its integrated prompt enhancer automatically rewrites your basic description with professional art direction terminology before the image is generated. This means even simple prompts can produce great results — but understanding prompt structure helps you get exactly what you envision.
Tip: After generation, ERNIE Image shows you the enhanced version of your prompt. Copy it and use it as a starting point for your next iteration — this is the fastest way to learn effective prompt structure.
Anatomy of a Strong Prompt
A well-structured prompt typically contains these five components. You don't need all five every time — but each one you include increases control over the output.
Color-coded components assembled into a complete prompt
From Basic to Better
See how adding structure to a simple prompt dramatically improves results.
a forest
Dense pine forest at golden hour, sunbeams filtering through tree canopy, misty atmosphere, rich greens and warm golds, nature photography style, 4K detail
anime girl
Anime-style illustration of a cheerful girl with short brown hair, wearing a blue school uniform, sunlit classroom background, Studio Ghibli aesthetic, soft watercolor tones
product banner with text
Minimalist product banner, matte white background, centered bold heading "NEW ARRIVAL", clean sans-serif typography, single rose-colored product jar, professional e-commerce photography
Ready-to-Use Prompt Templates
36 templates across 6 categories. Click any tab to explore, then copy a prompt directly to your clipboard.
Prompts for lifelike, high-fidelity photographic results
Product hero shot
Close-up product photograph of a matte ceramic coffee mug on a white oak wood table, morning sunlight from the left casting soft shadows, shallow depth of field, commercial photography style, 8K detail
Portrait — natural light
Natural light portrait of a woman in her 30s sitting by a window, soft diffused daylight, slight lens blur on background, documentary photography aesthetic, skin texture visible, candid expression
Architectural exterior
Exterior photograph of a modern minimalist house, white render facade, surrounded by native landscaping, golden hour light, 35mm architectural lens perspective, clear sky, ultra-sharp detail
Food styling
Overhead flat-lay of a rustic wooden board with artisan sourdough bread, olive oil, fresh herbs, and sea salt flakes, natural light from above, food magazine editorial style, warm color palette
Street scene — cinematic
Cinematic street photograph of a rain-wet Tokyo alley at night, neon reflections on pavement, atmospheric bokeh lights, 50mm lens, film grain, moody contrast, lone figure with umbrella in mid-ground
Interior design
Interior design photograph of a Scandinavian living room, linen sofa, exposed oak beams, large windows, plants, afternoon light, clean and airy, professional real estate photography
What Each Style Category Can Create
The six categories in the templates above each unlock different capabilities of ERNIE Image. Here is what to expect from each — and how to get the most out of them.
Photorealistic
For lifelike, photography-style outputs — product shots, portraits, architecture, and food styling. ERNIE Image's DiT architecture handles proportions and perspective accurately, making it practical for commercial photography replacements, stock image creation, and product mockups. Key prompt elements: lighting direction (golden hour, studio three-point), material texture, camera lens references (85mm portrait, macro), and depth of field. Results improve significantly when you describe the exact light source position, color temperature, and subject placement.
Anime & Manga
Japanese-style illustration is one of ERNIE Image's strongest output categories. The generator accurately reproduces anime character proportions, eye styles, hair dynamics, and outfit construction. Reference specific aesthetics by era or studio: 90s anime linework, Studio Ghibli watercolor, modern isekai dark fantasy. For manga, specify panel-style framing, ink texture, and whether color or grayscale is desired. Character anatomy stays consistent when you describe build, hair color and length, and distinguishing features clearly.
Text in Image
ERNIE Image's most differentiated capability. The DiT architecture processes text as structured positional tokens, enabling readable, legible text inside generated images — a feature most competing diffusion models reliably fail at. Best practices: limit text to short phrases under eight words, specify font weight (bold, light), placement (centered, top third, lower right), and background contrast. Product banners, event posters, social media cards, infographic labels, and book covers all benefit from this. Include the exact text string in quotes in your prompt for highest accuracy.
Concept Art
Sci-fi environments, fantasy creature design, post-apocalyptic cityscapes, and steampunk vehicles. The layout understanding ensures complex multi-element scenes — a spaceship on a planet surface with two moons and a visible nebula — maintain spatial coherence between components. Reference specific concept art aesthetics: matte painting, game environment (isometric vs. cinematic), film production design, or illustrated map style. Adding lighting directives (rim light, volumetric light shafts, subsurface scattering for skin) dramatically improves cinematic quality.
Abstract & Artistic
Fine art, generative aesthetics, and expressive visual work — fluid pour painting, sacred geometry, glitch art, impressionist landscapes, and minimalist line illustrations. ERNIE Image follows art movement references well: Art Nouveau flowing organic forms, Bauhaus geometric reduction, vaporwave neon palettes. Color palette specification is particularly effective in abstract prompts: describe dominant and accent colors, warm or cool temperature, and surface texture (rough impasto, flat vector, smooth gradient). Medium references like oil on canvas, watercolor on paper, or screen print with limited ink colors also sharpen outputs significantly.
Layout & Composition
ERNIE Image's spatial reasoning sets it apart in layout-controlled generation. Unlike models that treat all visual elements as roughly equal, this generator understands compositional instructions: rule of thirds, foreground and background layering, negative space, split-screen arrangements, and grid-based multi-element layouts. Use geometric terms: centered symmetry, diagonal leading lines, left-right contrast. For multi-product or comparison layouts, specify the number of items, relative sizes, and desired spacing. These controls make it uniquely suited to design mockups, editorial layouts, and structured advertising creatives where precise spatial relationships matter. This capability is particularly valuable for packaging mockups, multi-panel editorial spreads, and banner ads where element positioning is as critical as visual style.
Mixing categories
The strongest prompts often combine elements from multiple categories. A product banner (Text in Image) with anime character illustration (Anime & Manga) placed using rule-of-thirds framing (Layout & Composition) is a valid combination. The integrated prompt enhancer handles cross-category prompts well — describe what you want naturally and let it resolve style conflicts. When two styles genuinely clash (photorealistic and pixel art, for instance), pick the dominant one and use the other as a texture reference rather than a primary style directive. Starting with a clear primary style and layering secondary elements produces more coherent outputs than trying to merge two equally weighted aesthetics.
Advanced Techniques
Negative prompting (what to avoid)
While ERNIE Image primarily uses positive prompts, you can add exclusion hints by phrasing them as constraints: "without text overlay", "no visible watermarks", "avoid cluttered background". This signals what the model should not include.
Aspect ratio and composition control
Specify camera orientation terms: landscape composition, vertical portrait format, panoramic widescreen, square crop. These guide the model's spatial planning before composition begins.
Art movement and era references
Reference specific art movements for consistent style: Bauhaus-inspired, Art Nouveau aesthetic, 1970s editorial photography, 90s anime aesthetic. These provide richer style signal than generic terms like 'artistic'.
Camera and lens specifications
For photorealistic work, add camera terms: shot on 35mm, 85mm portrait lens, macro photography, wide-angle lens distortion, film grain texture. These technical cues dramatically improve realism.
Iterating from the enhanced prompt
After generation, copy the enhanced prompt ERNIE Image used. Edit it directly — removing, changing, or adding components — to iterate toward your exact vision. This is far more efficient than starting from scratch each time.
Common Prompt Mistakes
"a nice picture""photorealistic anime 8-bit pixel art""image with paragraph of text explaining all product features""character and a city"Put these prompts to work
Open ERNIE Image, paste a template, and generate your first image — free with no credit card required.