[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":75},["ShallowReactive",2],{"help-article-the-graphics-generator":3},{"data":4},{"title":5,"excerpt":6,"content":7,"help_category":8,"seo":11},"The Graphics Generator","How does the Graphics Generator work? Learn the Templates and AI Canvas tabs, the two-stage AI pipeline, and what Accept does to keep a generated image.","\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>What you'll learn\u003C\u002Fstrong>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>What the Graphics Generator is and the two tabs it ships with.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>How the AI Canvas two-stage pipeline turns a casual message into a brand-aware image.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>What "Accept" does, and where the Graphics Generator is still rough.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\u003Chr>\n\u003Ch2>Beta, up front\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>The Graphics Generator is in \u003Cstrong>beta\u003C\u002Fstrong> — it carries a BETA badge in the UI, and this article is honest about where it's rough. The pipeline works and produces images, but the flow has sharp edges (notably how a generated image is held as a temporary asset until you accept it, covered below). Treat it as a useful-but-young feature, not a finished one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>The concept: two ways to make a graphic\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>The Graphics Generator lives at \u003Ccode>\u002Fstudio\u002Fgraphics\u003C\u002Fcode> and has two tabs:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>Templates\u003C\u002Fstrong> — a layout-based generator. You pick a template (a spotlight card, a quote card, and so on), choose a format and theme, toggle whether to stamp the brand logo, and render a graphic from structured fields. No AI key needed. This is the predictable, repeatable path for things like social cards.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>\u003Cstrong>AI Canvas\u003C\u002Fstrong> — a chat-style image generator. You describe an image in plain language and an AI pipeline produces it, using your active brand's visual identity as context. This is the open-ended path. It's \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fbyok-why-we-do-this\">BYOK\u003C\u002Fa>-gated: the AI Canvas tab is disabled with a tooltip until you've set an AI key.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\u003Cp>The rest of this article is about AI Canvas, since that's the part with a concept worth teaching. For the step-by-step, see \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fyour-first-canvas-session\">Your First AI Canvas Session\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>Why AI Canvas exists: brand context without the prompt-writing\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>The usual problem with a consumer image tool is brand consistency. Type "a business meeting, flat vector illustration" and you get arbitrary colors and a random style. To force your identity onto the output you'd have to hand-write a long prompt full of hex codes and stylistic constraints — every time. People skip that, and the brand's visuals drift into a mismatched pile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>AI Canvas addresses this by knowing which brand you're working in. Because the whole workspace is multi-brand, the generator already has access to the active brand's colors, logo, and the content, tags, or assets you've attached to the message. You write the casual version; the pipeline supplies the context. What exactly gets injected is covered in \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Freferencing-your-brand-in-prompts\">Referencing Your Brand in Prompts\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>The two-stage pipeline\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>AI Canvas does not send your message straight to an image model. It runs two stages:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch3>Stage 1 — the prompt engineer\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\u003Cp>Your short message (e.g. "draw a picture of a laptop") plus the active brand's visual context goes to a text model. That model's job is to rewrite your casual request into a detailed image prompt that honors the brand's colors and constraints. You can inspect the result: each generated message has a \u003Cstrong>View prompt\u003C\u002Fstrong> toggle that shows the engineered prompt that was actually used.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch3>Stage 2 — the image model\u003C\u002Fh3>\n\u003Cp>The engineered prompt then goes to an image model, which renders the graphic and returns it to the chat. You choose which image model to use from the image-model selector in the AI Canvas toolbar; m18t doesn't bundle a model, so this runs on your provider key.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Both stages persist. Sessions are multi-turn — follow up with "make the laptop look more modern" and the pipeline keeps the prior context and produces a new iteration. The engineered prompt is stored alongside each generation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>Accept: from temporary to permanent\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>This is the rough edge worth understanding. A freshly generated image does \u003Cstrong>not\u003C\u002Fstrong> arrive as a finished asset. It lands with the status \u003Ccode>deprecate\u003C\u002Fcode> — an intermediate, "not yet kept" state — and shows an \u003Cstrong>Accept\u003C\u002Fstrong> button. Most generations are throwaway iterations, so nothing becomes permanent until you decide it should.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Click \u003Cstrong>Accept\u003C\u002Fstrong> on a generation you want to keep. That promotes the image to a permanent asset in your \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fthe-workspace-media-hub\">Assets Manager\u003C\u002Fa>, where it's available to attach to \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Flinking-assets-to-content\">content\u003C\u002Fa> and elsewhere. After accepting, the button is replaced by an \u003Cstrong>Accepted\u003C\u002Fstrong> badge. If you don't accept a generation, it stays in the temporary state — don't rely on it as a permanent file.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>The BYOK economics\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>Image generation costs money to run, and m18t doesn't mark it up. As covered in \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fbyok-why-we-do-this\">Why m18t uses BYOK\u003C\u002Fa>, you supply your own AI provider key via the \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fthe-secret-vault\">secret vault\u003C\u002Fa> and pay the provider directly. No bundled tokens, no platform quota on generations — and no AI key means the AI Canvas tab stays disabled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>What's next\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cul>\n\u003Cli>\u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fyour-first-canvas-session\">Your First AI Canvas Session\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>\u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Freferencing-your-brand-in-prompts\">Referencing Your Brand in Prompts\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>\u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fthe-workspace-media-hub\">The Workspace Media Hub (Assets Manager)\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>\u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fbyok-why-we-do-this\">Why m18t uses BYOK\u003C\u002Fa>\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Ful>\n\u003Ch2>FAQ\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Why is the AI Canvas tab greyed out?\u003C\u002Fstrong>\nNo AI key is set. AI Canvas is BYOK-gated and disabled with a tooltip until you add an \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fget-an-openai-key\">OpenAI\u003C\u002Fa>, \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fget-a-gemini-key\">Gemini\u003C\u002Fa>, or \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fget-an-anthropic-key\">Anthropic\u003C\u002Fa> key to the \u003Ca href=\"\u002Fhelp\u002Fthe-secret-vault\">vault\u003C\u002Fa>. The Templates tab works without a key.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>My generated image isn't in the Assets Manager. Where is it?\u003C\u002Fstrong>\nIt's held as a temporary generation (status \u003Ccode>deprecate\u003C\u002Fcode>) until you click \u003Cstrong>Accept\u003C\u002Fstrong> on it. Accepting promotes it to a permanent asset. Unaccepted generations are not kept.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Which image model does AI Canvas use?\u003C\u002Fstrong>\nWhichever you pick from the image-model selector in the toolbar. m18t doesn't bundle a model — you bring your own provider key.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Do I need a key for the Templates tab?\u003C\u002Fstrong>\nNo. Templates is a layout-based renderer and needs no AI key. Only AI Canvas requires one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>Is the Graphics Generator finished?\u003C\u002Fstrong>\nNo — it's in beta. The pipeline produces images, but the accept-to-keep flow and light safety filtering are known rough edges. Use it accordingly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n",{"slug":9,"title":10},"graphics-generator","Graphics Generator",{"meta_title":12,"meta_description":6,"keywords":13,"canonical_url":14,"og_title":5,"og_description":15,"og_image":16,"robots":17,"json_ld":18},"The Graphics Generator | m18t Help","graphics generator, ai canvas, templates, two-stage pipeline, accept image, byok, brand graphics","https:\u002F\u002Fm18t.com\u002Fhelp\u002Fthe-graphics-generator","The two tabs of the Graphics Generator, the AI Canvas two-stage pipeline, and how Accept promotes a generated image to a permanent asset.","https:\u002F\u002Fm18t.com\u002Fog-default.png","index, follow",{"@context":19,"@graph":20},"https:\u002F\u002Fschema.org",[21,34,59],{"@type":22,"headline":5,"description":6,"articleSection":10,"inLanguage":23,"datePublished":24,"dateModified":24,"image":16,"author":25,"publisher":29,"mainEntityOfPage":32},"Article","en","2026-06-25",{"@type":26,"name":27,"url":28},"Organization","m18t","https:\u002F\u002Fm18t.com",{"@type":26,"name":27,"url":28,"logo":30},{"@type":31,"url":16},"ImageObject",{"@type":33,"@id":14},"WebPage",{"@type":35,"mainEntity":36},"FAQPage",[37,43,47,51,55],{"@type":38,"name":39,"acceptedAnswer":40},"Question","Why is the AI Canvas tab greyed out?",{"@type":41,"text":42},"Answer","No AI key is set. AI Canvas is BYOK-gated and disabled with a tooltip until you add an OpenAI, Gemini, or Anthropic key to the vault. The Templates tab works without a key.",{"@type":38,"name":44,"acceptedAnswer":45},"My generated image isn't in the Assets Manager. Where is it?",{"@type":41,"text":46},"It's held as a temporary generation (status deprecate) until you click Accept on it. Accepting promotes it to a permanent asset. Unaccepted generations are not kept.",{"@type":38,"name":48,"acceptedAnswer":49},"Which image model does AI Canvas use?",{"@type":41,"text":50},"Whichever you pick from the image-model selector in the toolbar. m18t doesn't bundle a model — you bring your own provider key.",{"@type":38,"name":52,"acceptedAnswer":53},"Do I need a key for the Templates tab?",{"@type":41,"text":54},"No. Templates is a layout-based renderer and needs no AI key. Only AI Canvas requires one.",{"@type":38,"name":56,"acceptedAnswer":57},"Is the Graphics Generator finished?",{"@type":41,"text":58},"No — it's in beta. The pipeline produces images, but the accept-to-keep flow and light safety filtering are known rough edges. Use it accordingly.",{"@type":60,"itemListElement":61},"BreadcrumbList",[62,66,70,73],{"@type":63,"position":64,"name":65,"item":28},"ListItem",1,"Home",{"@type":63,"position":67,"name":68,"item":69},2,"Help","https:\u002F\u002Fm18t.com\u002Fhelp",{"@type":63,"position":71,"name":10,"item":72},3,"https:\u002F\u002Fm18t.com\u002Fhelp\u002Fcategories\u002Fgraphics-generator",{"@type":63,"position":74,"name":5,"item":14},4,1786312170728]