AI image tools: how to write image prompts and use them safely

Image tools turn a description into a picture. The description is the skill, and the rules of use are the part people forget.

What they do

An AI image generator makes a new picture from a text description (and sometimes from a picture you upload). It does not search for an existing picture; it creates one. Many chatbots now include an image generator, and there are separate apps for images.

Anatomy of an image prompt

Describe five things, in a natural sentence or a short list:

1. Subject: what is in the picture. "A street tea stall at dawn."
2. Details: colours, objects, people, clothes, the number of things.
3. Style: photograph, watercolour, flat illustration, cartoon, pencil sketch, 3D render.
4. Light and mood: soft morning light, warm lamps, cloudy, festive.
5. Framing: close-up, wide shot, from above, centred with empty space at the top for a title.

Example: "A flat vector illustration of a family lighting diyas on a balcony at dusk, warm orange and deep blue colours, simple shapes, empty space at the top for a title, no text."

Typical limits

• Text inside pictures is often misspelt or scrambled. Leave space and add the words yourself in a design tool.
• Hands, small details, crowds and exact numbers of objects can come out wrong.
• Real people and logos. Pictures of real people or real brands are often restricted by the tool, and can mislead or harm.
• Consistency. Making the same character in several pictures is hard.
• Indian contexts: check clothes, festivals, scripts and symbols for accuracy and respect.

Copyright and licence

The rules differ by tool and country and are still changing. Before you use a generated image for business:

• Read the tool's terms for the plan you use: who owns the output, and whether commercial use is allowed.
• Do not ask for pictures "in the style of" a living artist's name for commercial use, or copy a known character or brand.
• Keep your prompts and the date, in case you are asked how you made it.
• Remember that the law on who owns AI-generated images is not settled everywhere.

Be honest with your audience

Do not present an AI picture as a real photograph of a real event, product or person. For product photos, customers expect to receive what they see. Some platforms and some countries ask that AI-generated content be labelled. A simple "Image made with AI" line is good practice.

Safety

Never upload private photos of other people, children or identity documents to an image tool. Be careful with "photo editing" apps that ask for broad access.

A simple workflow

1. Write the prompt with the five parts.
2. Generate several versions and pick the best.
3. Fix small problems in an ordinary editor (crop, brightness, text).
4. Check the terms for commercial use, then save the prompt and the date.

This is an independent guide. It is not connected with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft or any other AI company; product names belong to their owners. Statements about companies are taken from their own help pages as read on 13 and 14 November 2026. The prompts are our own wording and were not run against every tool. Not legal, financial or professional advice.