This place is for anyone who loves old styles of writing, calligraphy and typography, and wants to make art with AI. It is a resource for using Ideogram.ai to create new images inspired by different kinds of writing throughout history.
In this repository, there is a list of prompts (instructions) that help the AI create images with historical (and, sometimes, historically-inspired) writing styles.
The prompts are in prompts.txt.
This repository operates independently and is not officially associated with Ideogram.ai. Our work is driven by appreciation for their technology and its impact on digital art. (Ideogram, please don't sue us! 🙏)
Using the style tags typography and conceptual art can give great results. For more help, see Ideogram's guide for advanced prompting, and talk to other Ideogram users on the Ideogram Community Discord.
In Ideogram v2, Calligraphy and handwriting images are sometimes created as "calligrapher selfies" with hands and pens. Here are a few tactics you can try to steer the AI away from these Instagram-style action shots:
- Add text that indicates the work is in a gallery or otherwise on display. for example, putting text like "PLATE XIV: " before the piece's name, or "SCRIPSIT Showcase: [prompt goes here]; Mixed media, 2019"
- Append "Ultra high-definition scan" to the prompt
- As always, experiment with the order of elements in the prompt
The poster tag tends to create framed posters on the initial generation, but the poster and product tags sometimes help guide the AI away from hands and pens it's starting to create.
The hands and pens can be very difficult to get rid of in subsequent generations. You may need to postprocess your image to remove them.
Adding terms like "even-toned, pristine [paper/vellum/etc.]" can help persuade the AI to 'de-age' the canvas. Adding these terms towards the beginning of the prompt for several generations, then moving them to the normal description, can be useful. "Professionally restored" can be beneficial, too.
First, the nature of the technology means the text often won't come out properly on the first try. You refine the text by guiding the AI towards the correct appearance. For further guidance on general topics like this, please head over to the Ideogram Discord. Experienced community members can often lend a hand. Your primary resource for general questions about text on Ideogram should always be Ideogram's official documentation and the Ideogram Discord.
Historical typography and archaic letterforms present some new challenges, so we'll touch on this topic.
If the AI is consistently omitting letters, adding or removing text for several generations can be a good strategy. When you have the desired text, remember to correct the prompt as well. On v1, overloading the prompt with the phrase seemed to help, but this does not appear to be the case for v2. Adding spaces, alternate letter forms, or temporary lookalike letters for a few generations are also worth a shot. Lookalike letters are also useful stand-ins for creating archaic forms (e.g., f for s, or a letter with a shared foundational form (like 'o' in some Humanist hands.)
This is another case where retouching or correcting outside of the normal generation process can save a lot of grief. This is even useful for ornate letters that are difficult to touch up; drawing a crude version and then uploading the corrected image as an image prompt can get you out of a fix.
In Spencerian and other pointed pen hands, the AI may go overboard with flourishes. It helps to ask for flourishes or spirals in early prompts, and to dial back once they're created. An example: changing the part of your prompt that asks for 'elegant flourishes and spirals' to a broader term like 'elegant'. In this way, you'll 'seed' the AI with the flourishes without specifically directing it to make more. You can repeat this strategy as needed to provide more control over the appearance of your work.
Also observed in Spencerian, but not limited to it: the content of your text will also determine its appearance. On the positive side, this gives us effortlessly nice layouts and balances text. It's frustrating if you're not aware of it, though. To 'seed' the look you want, try using text that implies a look. For example, a prompt that starts with the text 'Dr. Sam Jones' can produce different results than one that begins with 'Mr. Sam Jones'. Once you have the desired appearance, try changing the text and remixing at a light to medium strength, like S5 or S4.
Watch this space for more ideas. Come share your tips with us on the Ideogram Discord, so we can collect helpful strategies specific to this niche.
You can talk to other people who like Ideogram on the Ideogram Community Discord. This is where the big conversations happen. This repository is just to help collect a list of good prompts for historical writing and typography.
When using these prompts, please remember to follow the rules. Don't use someone else's work without permission. And if you do, give credit where it's due.
You can change and use any single prompt you find here. The rules for using lots of them, or the whole list, are in another document. Each prompt is free to use, and the license does not change anything about your art or how you use your creations.
We don’t have a complete set of rules yet. But we are working on it. We want this to be a place where people are nice and professional to each other.
Now, let's make some amazing typographic AI art. Enjoy these prompts and create something incredible!