Choosing a look

Every graphic is drawn in a look — stained glass, neon, chalkboard, watercolor. You never have to choose one: Auto is the default, and it's a real answer, not a shrug. Psalmly reads what you wrote and picks a direction that suits it.

Pick one yourself when you already have an opinion.

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 type in the brief drives the picture. Ask for "a birthday poster for our pastor with a pink background and balloons" and that's what you'll get, on Auto, without touching the library 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 Browse looks and you'll get Pick a starting point — 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. Auto 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 dialog closes. To change your mind, click Change and pick again.

Mood, for a lighter touch

Under the look you'll find Mood chips — Dark, Warm, Serif, Sans, Fun, Whimsical, Traditional, Bold. Tick as many as fit. They nudge the result without committing you to a whole direction, and they work alongside Auto.

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 Auto where the look's name used to be.