You can draw like a five-year-old and still get a finished image out of ChatGPT now.
Images 2.5 shipped on Tuesday, September 8, on every plan, free included. Three things changed that matter: you can sketch the layout and it builds the picture, there are templates so you don't start from a blank prompt, and edits stop wrecking the parts you didn't ask it to touch.
That last one is the big one. Anyone who's typed "change the text on the sign" and got a new sign and a completely different street knows exactly what I mean.
Sketch
Type @Sketch in the chat and a canvas opens. Draw the layout: a box where the product goes and a line where the headline sits. Then write one line saying what it is. It turns the scribble into the image and keeps your layout where you put it.
Desktop, web and phone. Phone is the fun one. Sunday on the couch counts as work now.
Templates
Images, then Templates. Poster and Merch are in there, more coming. Pick one, add your details and a style. (Templates don't show up in Work mode, so use a normal chat.)
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Right. Back to it.
The three things it's good for
I'd keep it to these.
The image for the thing you're posting Monday. LinkedIn header, Threads visual, newsletter banner and so on. Sketch the layout, one line of style, done in a minute.
A mockup before you pay a designer. T-shirt, poster, your product on a shelf. Pick a template, drop in your logo and your text. You're not shipping this one, you're deciding with it.
Fixing one thing in a photo. New background, remove the bin, change the colour of the chair. The precision edit is what the old version couldn't do.
What it's still bad at: anything with a lot of text (check every letter, every time), and anything that has to look exactly like your real product. Close isn't the same as right, and a customer notices.
The prompt, after the sketch:
This is a [poster / social image / product mockup] for [what it's for]. Style: [two or three words, e.g. flat, warm, minimal]. Keep the layout exactly as I drew it. The only text in the image is "[exact words]". Nothing else in the frame."Nothing else in the frame" is the line that stops it decorating.
Make it stick
2.5 lets you share an image with the prompt that made it. So when one works, save the image and the prompt together in a ChatGPT Project called Visuals. Next time, open the Project, add your new photo, change the words and reuse the prompt. Same look every time, which is the whole point of having a brand.
That's one visual you don't wait on any more. An owner needs one every day, and it should look like the same business every time.
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Quick one.
Sketch something today and hit reply with what came out. Worst drawing wins.
Talk soon,
Zephyr
