Choosing a look

Every graphic is drawn in a look — stained glass, neon, chalkboard, watercolor. You never have to choose one: How should it look? starts on We'll choose a look, and that's a real answer, not a shrug. Psalmly reads what you wrote and picks a look that suits it.

Pick one yourself when you already have an opinion.

(This is about graphics. Your website has a look of its own, chosen a different way — see Your website.)

What you write matters more than what you pick

This is the thing to know before you go browsing: the look is a starting point, not the steering wheel. What you write under What's the graphic for? drives the picture. Ask for "a birthday poster for our pastor with a pink background and balloons" and that's what you'll get, letting us choose, without touching the forty at all.

So write what you actually want first. Reach for a look when you want to change the feel of it, not to describe the subject.

Browsing the forty

Click Pick a look and you'll see forty looks, each with an example picture. They're grouped by feel, because "what should this feel like?" is the question you can actually answer:

• Loud — bright, high-energy, hard to scroll past. Neon, Varsity, Marquee, Memphis.
• Handmade — made by hand: thread, chalk, paper, paint. Chalkboard, Collage, Gouache, Patchwork, Folk art.
• Warm — nostalgic and friendly, like a good old sign. Sign painter, Travel poster, Seed packet.
• Quiet — calm, spare, and easy on the eye. Watercolor, Botanical, Ink wash, Mid-century, Blueprint.
• Reverent — sacred craft: glass, gold, mosaic, ink. Stained glass, Illuminated, Icon, Mosaic, Art Nouveau.
• Real — photographs and objects, lit and shot. Cinematic, Duotone photo, Clay, Editorial.

The first time, it opens on Everything so you can see the whole range at once — and if you already picked a look it opens on that look's own feel. The list on the left narrows it to one feel rather than locking you into it. Let us choose is always the first tile.

The thumbnails are examples, not templates — each one shows what that look does best, on a different subject, so you're comparing looks and not the same picture forty times. Your graphic will be about your thing, not theirs.

Pick a look and the window closes. To change your mind, click Change and pick again, or Let us choose to go back to letting Psalmly pick.

Mood, for a lighter touch

Under More options you'll find Mood — Dark, Warm, Classic lettering, Modern lettering, Fun, Whimsical, Traditional, Bold. Pick as many as fit. They nudge the result without committing you to a whole direction, and they work whether you picked a look or let us choose. (In an image field's window they're under Change the look.)

Redraws keep the look

When you ask for a change — "warmer," "bigger text" — the graphic is drawn again in the same look. You're refining one design, not rolling the dice on a new one.

If a look disappears

We add and retire looks over time. A graphic made with one we've since retired keeps working exactly as it did — it stays in your library, it still downloads, and it simply shows as Retired look where the look's name used to be.

A graphic where you let us choose shows Look chosen for you in that spot instead.