Contents

01 Overview

ImageCreator makes pictures from words. You type what you want to see, and a few seconds later it appears. Then you keep talking to it — “make the sky darker”, “remove the fence”, “put a dog in the front” — and it changes just that part while leaving everything else alone. If you don't like a change, one tap puts it back exactly as it was.

It runs in your web browser, so there's nothing to install and it works the same on a Windows PC, a Mac, an iPhone or an Android tablet.

Key Benefits

• Just Describe It — No sliders, no layers, no art training. Type a sentence and you get a picture.
• Change It By Talking — Ask for one change at a time. The rest of the picture stays exactly as it was.
• Instant, Free Undo — Undo brings back the identical picture you had before, immediately and at no cost.
• Works Everywhere — Phone, tablet, laptop. Add it to your home screen and it behaves like a normal app.
• You Pay Cost Price — You buy credit directly from OpenRouter. There's no subscription and no markup on each picture.
• Your Key Stays Yours — Your key is saved only on your own device and is never sent anywhere except OpenRouter.

02 Getting Set Up

There is one setup step, and you only do it once on each device.

2.1 Why You Need Your Own Key

Making a picture uses a powerful computer somewhere else, and that costs a small amount of money each time. ImageCreator talks straight to a company called OpenRouter from your browser, and you pay them directly at cost.

Think of it like a coffee machine in your kitchen: we sell you the machine, and you buy your own beans wherever you like. That means no subscription, no monthly fee, and no charge from us per picture.

An API key is just a long password that tells OpenRouter the pictures are being paid for by your account. It looks something like sk-or-v1-...

2.2 The Four Steps

The welcome screen walks you through these, and each step has a button that opens the right page:

1. Create a free OpenRouter account. Email and password, nothing more.
2. Add some credit. A few dollars goes a long way — see section 11.
3. Create an API key and copy it. OpenRouter shows it to you once, so copy the whole thing.
4. Paste it into ImageCreator and press Test my key.

When the key works you'll see a green message telling you how much credit you have, and the app opens automatically.

03 Quick Start

The things you'll use most:

Keyboard Shortcuts

04 Making Your First Picture

1. Type a description in the box at the bottom.
2. Press Send.
3. Wait a few seconds. A timer shows how long it's taking.
4. Your picture appears with a small #1 label in the corner.

In a hurry? The welcome screen has three example buttons — tap one to fill in the box for you.

4.1 Writing a Good Description

More detail gives you more control. Rather than “a dog”, try “a black labrador running through shallow water at sunset, splashing”.

Useful things to mention:

• Subject — what's in the picture
• Setting — where it is, what's around it
• Light — sunset, overcast, candlelit, bright midday
• Style — photograph, watercolour, pencil sketch, oil painting
• Mood — cosy, dramatic, peaceful, gloomy

4.2 Choosing the Shape

The shape menu at the top sets how the picture is proportioned:

05 Changing a Picture by Talking

This is what makes ImageCreator different. Once you have a picture, just say what you'd like changed:

Each time, the picture you're looking at is sent along with your request, so everything you didn't mention stays as it was. Ask to remove a fence and you get the same barn, the same sunset, the same clouds — just no fence.

A small note above each picture reads “edited image #2” so you can always see what was changed from what.

5.1 One Change at a Time

You'll get better results asking for one thing at a time than bundling five changes into one sentence. It's also easier to undo a single change you didn't like.

5.2 Softening After Many Edits

Each edit builds on the last, a bit like photocopying a photocopy. After about five edits in a row fine detail can start to soften.

ImageCreator keeps count and shows an edit depth marker once you're three deep, turning red at five. When you see it, use Edit this on an earlier, sharper version instead of continuing to stack changes.

5.3 Starting Something Completely New

Type start over, new picture or from scratch and ImageCreator begins a fresh conversation instead of editing what's on screen. Your old conversation is kept in History.

06 Undo and Redo

Undo brings back the picture you had before — not something similar, the identical picture, right down to the last pixel.

That's worth explaining, because it's not how these tools usually work. Many would re-run the request and hand you a slightly different picture each time, the way asking an artist to “paint that again” never gives you quite the same painting twice.

ImageCreator instead keeps every picture you've made and simply steps back to the one before. It's more like turning back a page in a book than repainting anything.

Three Ways to Undo

• Press the ↩ Undo button
• Type undo, go back, never mind or scratch that
• Use Edit this on any earlier picture to jump straight to it

↪ Redo puts back whatever you just undid.

07 Starting From Your Own Photo

You don't have to start from words. Give ImageCreator one of your own pictures and describe what to change about it.

Three Ways to Add a Picture

• The 📎 button — pick a file from your device
• Drag and drop — drag an image onto the window (computers)
• Paste — copy a screenshot and press Ctrl+V

Your picture appears as a small thumbnail above the text box. Remove it with the × in its corner. Then describe the change — “make this look like an oil painting”, “change the background to a beach” — and press Send.

Accepted file types: PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP.

08 Saving Your Pictures

This is the most important section in the guide.

Every picture has a Save button underneath it.

• On a phone or tablet — the normal share sheet opens, so you can save to Photos, or send it to Messages, Mail or anywhere else.
• On a computer — the file downloads to your Downloads folder with a dated filename.

Tap any picture to view it full-screen, then tap outside it to close.

8.1 Backing Up Everything at Once

Under ⚙ Settings, Export all saves every conversation and every picture into a single backup file.

Use Import to restore that file later, or to move your work to another device. This is the only way to get your conversations off one device and onto another.

09 Conversations and History

Each time you start a new picture from scratch, ImageCreator begins a new conversation — a picture plus all the changes you made to it.

Tap ☰ to see them all. Each entry shows a thumbnail, its name (taken from your first description), how many pictures it holds, what it cost, and when you last worked on it.

10 Settings

At the very bottom of the app there's also a small credit line linking back to the-Automator.com, alongside the two tip links described in section 14.

11 What It Costs

You pay OpenRouter directly for each picture. At the time of writing, the default model costs roughly 4 cents per picture — so about 25 pictures per dollar.

Two things are always free: undo and redo, and the Test my key button.

The running total in the corner of the screen, and the figure in Settings, both come from the actual amount charged — not an estimate.

12 Installing It On Your Phone

ImageCreator can sit on your home screen and open full-screen like a normal app, with no app store involved.

iPhone & iPad (Safari)

1. Open ImageCreator in Safari (this doesn't work in Chrome on iOS).
2. Tap the Share button.
3. Choose Add to Home Screen.

Android (Chrome)

1. Open ImageCreator in Chrome.
2. Tap the ⋮ menu.
3. Choose Install app or Add to Home screen.

Windows & Mac (Chrome or Edge)

Look for the small install icon at the right-hand end of the address bar and click it.

13 Tips & Troubleshooting

Getting Better Pictures

• Describe, don't command — “a quiet harbour at dawn, boats at rest” beats “make a good harbour picture”.
• Name the style — photograph, watercolour, pencil sketch, 1950s poster.
• Mention the light — it changes the mood more than almost anything else.
• One change at a time — easier to steer, and easier to undo.
• Branch early — when you get one you like, use Edit this on it rather than stacking more edits.

Common Problems

14 Supporting This Tool

ImageCreator is free to use, and it stays that way. There's no subscription, no licence to renew, and nothing charged per picture.

The money you spend on pictures goes straight to OpenRouter at cost. None of it comes to us — which is exactly why your key stays on your own device and you top it up yourself.

If ImageCreator saves you time or earns its keep, a small tip helps cover the time spent building and maintaining it. Five dollars is plenty, and every little bit genuinely helps.

Both links are also at the bottom of the app itself, next to the credit line.

ImageCreator is developed by

the-Automator.com

User Guide • Version 1.0
Pictures are generated through OpenRouter and billed to your own account.