Creating images with ChatGPT is fun, but these simple tips will make them look way better

TechRadar AI Week 2025

(Image credit: OpenAI/Microsoft/Google)

(Image credit: OpenAI)

Using the Styles menu is a really easy way to select between various image styles, like Coloring Book, Cyberpunk or Anime. Selecting one of these adds a pre-written prompt into the prompt window that will make the resulting image appear in that particular style.

Don’t hit enter yet! You then type in the sort of image you want to see below the prompt in the same prompt window.

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Here we’ve gone for “A boy running across a landscape of trees that are made from sweets”, and selected the Anime style, but use your imagination and come up with an image you’d love to see.

(Image credit: OpenAI)

You can change the style of an image you’ve already created by simply selecting a new style from the Styles menu, which puts the new prompt in the prompt window, and clicking the blue arrow. Because it keeps the context, ChatGPT will know that this new style request refers to the previous image it created.

So, here we’ve simply selected Coloring Book from the Styles menu and hit the blue arrow to make a coloring book version of the previous image. You could now print this out, and it would be great for your kids to play with and colour in. You can do the same thing with all the other styles that the Styles menu has to offer.

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(Image credit: OpenAI)

But what happens if you want to make a small change to an image you’ve already created? ChatGPT actually comes with an image editor. Just click (or tap on mobile) on the image to enter a full-screen editing mode.

You’ll now see a few new icons at the top right of the screen. Click on the icon with a dotted circle and a brush. This enables you to select the parts of the image you want to change by drawing over the offending parts of the image with this brush. Now type what you want to change into the prompt bar. There are buttons to undo and redo any changes you’ve made.

(Image credit: OpenAI)

On mobile, image creation works in pretty much the same way. You select ‘Create images’ from the + menu, then type in what sort of image you’d like to create, just as you do on a desktop.

The only difference is that you don’t get the same Styles drop-down menu, so you’ll have to be more descriptive and type in text describing the style of image you want. However, you do get a handy slider in the Selection screen that enables you to change the size of the area you are editing when it comes to editing the image.

(Image credit: OpenAI)

One of the strengths of image generation in ChatGPT is that it can handle text very well. It’s still not perfect, but you can generally expect it to produce text that looks correct on, say, a party invitation.

You can specify what text the invite should contain in your prompt and the theme of the party, and ChatGPT will generally do a good job at creating the invitation. Just be aware that ChatGPT remembers context from images created previously in the chat, so start a new chat if you want to start with a, creatively, blank slate.

(Image credit: OpenAI)

One of the most powerful features of editing images in ChatGPT is what it can do to photos you’ve already taken. You can upload them to ChatGPT and request changes. So, you can upload a photo and then type something like “make the background a waterfall” into the prompt window, or you could write something more creative like “make me look anime style” or “make me float in space”.

The possibilities really are endless. Just hit the + menu and choose “Upload photos & files” to upload your existing photo, then type your prompt.

(Image credit: Future)