Ideogram 4.5

How Ideogram 4.5 reads a prompt

Ideogram presents 4.5 as an editing model first. Its pitch is that most image models add artifacts, pixel shifts and color changes with each edit, and that 4.5 avoids that buildup, so you can refine one image over many rounds. It still generates from a prompt alone, and Ideogram describes its models as known for prompt fidelity and crisp typography. Output is native 2K.

The model accepts long natural-language prompts, up to 10,000 characters, and follows a specific prompt closely. So the order of the details matters. Runware's guide suggests the same order every time: what the image is for, then the subject, the setting, where things sit, the light and the camera.

A structure that works

[Deliverable and format]: [subject]. [Setting].
[Where the subject sits and what the empty space looks like].
[Light]. [Camera and lens].
[Exact copy in quotes, each line with a size, style and place].

Lead with the deliverable. "Commercial product photograph for a 16:9 web banner" tells the model how to compose before it reads a single detail. Then plan the empty space: most ads get copy laid over them later, so say which third the subject sits in, how much of the frame stays empty, and what the empty part looks like ("a plain warm white wall with nothing on it"). Name the format in the prompt as well as in the aspect ratio setting, so a 9:16 story is composed head to toe and a banner spreads across its width.

Text, layout and color

Legible text is the reason many people pick Ideogram. To get it right:

• Quote every word that must appear. Quotes separate the copy from the description of the image.
• Give each line a size, a style and a place, in reading order: headline, subline, button. Describe the hierarchy line by line.
• Write dense layouts in the order they are read. For a pricing table or a menu, describe one block per card or panel, left to right and top to bottom.
• Say when the frame must hold only your copy. Otherwise the model may add a heading or a badge that a design of that kind usually has.
• Keep strings short and proofread them. Headlines, labels, prices and buttons render reliably; a paragraph of body copy is better set in a layout tool on top of the image.
• Any script works when you paste the copy in its own script and state its direction, such as "a vertical Japanese headline down the right side" or "a right-to-left Arabic layout". Have a native speaker check it before it ships.
• Brand palettes: list hex codes paired with plain color names, and say the design is "strictly limited to this color palette" so the model uses only those colors.

Editing an image

Attach the image you want to change and describe the change. Ideogram says pixels the edit does not touch are kept from your image, and the result comes back at your image's size.

• One change per round. A round that does one thing can be approved or rejected on its own. A round that repaints the wall, adds an awning and fills a window gives you one result to accept or reject.
• Close every instruction with what stays: "Keep everything else in the image exactly the same." This tells the model the edit is local.
• Name the target precisely. "The rectangular mirror above the sink", not "the mirror".
• Relight last. A change of time of day or weather touches most of the frame, so do it after the local edits are settled.
• Replace text in place. Ask for the new words "in the same font, size, color and position" to swap a headline or translate a banner.

You can also attach up to 4 extra reference images to guide the edit with a product, a material or a style. Say what to take from each one: the shape from one, the fabric from another.

Settings that matter

• Quality. Low, medium or high; medium is the default. Higher quality takes longer. Use low to check that the composition, wording or edit is right, then render the version you keep at high.
• Aspect ratio. Auto, 1:1, 4:3, 3:4, 16:9 or 9:16. Auto keeps the attached image's shape, or makes a square when there is none. Pick the ratio from where the image will run.
• Image and reference images. The first is the image to edit; the second holds up to 4 extra images that guide the edit.

Common failure modes and fixes

• Text placed somewhere you did not want. Attach each line of copy to a place, and describe the empty area it sits on.
• Extra elements you did not ask for, such as a badge or a second heading. State that the design contains only the listed copy.
• An edit that spills beyond its target. Narrow the instruction to one object and add the "keep everything else" clause.
• Wrong numbers or characters in non-Latin copy. Re-quote the exact string, shorten it, and check the output with someone who reads the script.
• Colors drifting from the brand. Use hex codes with names and "strictly limited to".