| name | photo-abstract-editorial |
|---|---|
| description | Use when one photograph must become a vertical photo-plus-abstraction editorial, visual memory panel, archival poster, or abstract diptych while the photographic region remains verifiably unchanged. |
Photo Abstract Editorial
Create one verified composition from one photograph. Generate only the motif; assemble photo, panel, and typography deterministically.
REQUIRED SUB-SKILL: Use imagegen for motif generation. Never ask imagegen to generate the finished composite or its typography.
Contract
- Invariants: one readable photo; full source retained by default; no unrelated content or generated text; machine and visual validation required.
- Defaults: shortened warm-ivory panel, lower-left optical grid, muted ink palette, one English title, no subtitle, high-contrast serif with native whole-run kerning.
- Overrides: accept panel, motif, text, alignment, and font choices. Reject source redrawing or invented content.
Workflow
- Require one photograph; ask if missing. Inspect local input with
view_image. - Read references/art-direction.md. Identify three to six source facts; choose panel ratio, mark family, muted palette, and exact title.
- Label the source reference image, not edit target. Generate a sparse motif on flat chroma key: two to four bands and one dark structure. If decisive vertical structure appears, add one primary and one subordinate irregular vertical stroke, unequal in height and width; otherwise use negative gaps or band offsets. Use muted source colors. Forbid literal infrastructure, recognizable tracing, dots, photo, text, swatch, logo, frame, shadow, and texture.
- Save the motif source. Use imagegen's installed
remove_chroma_key.py; validate alpha, corners, palette, edges, and no chroma specks. CLI/model fallback requires user approval. - Resolve absolute Python via
codex_app__load_workspace_dependencies. Run compositor--help, then pass source, transparent motif, a new PNG output path, and exact title. Optionally pass--title-accentfor one short connector (at); the compositor renders it smaller and italic while keeping the remaining title in optically placed whole-word runs. The compositor rejects input-path collisions and existing output or manifest files; choose another path instead of overwriting. - Run
scripts/validate_editorial.pyagainst the source, output, and generated.manifest.json. Continue only when its JSON reports"ok": trueand the process exits zero. - Inspect with
view_image: intact photo; abstraction before recollection; horizontal motif remains dominant; any vertical anchors are source-derived, unequal, and subordinate; connected but non-equal optical margins; natural kerning and clear title hierarchy; flat panel; exact title; no extra text, watermark, fringe, speck, or invention. - On failure, make one targeted motif correction and repeat. Stop after two motif attempts.
- Return only the image and saved path.
Quick reference
| Need | Use |
|---|---|
| Visual rules | references/art-direction.md |
| Deterministic assembly | scripts/compose_editorial.py --help |
| Delivery gate | scripts/validate_editorial.py --help |
| Validated example | references/example-pair.md |
Common mistakes
- One-shot generation cannot prove photo preservation or exact typography.
- A miniature trace is not abstraction; unrelated anchors are not a grid.
- Equal-height vertical marks look diagrammatic; use one primary and one subordinate anchor only when the source supports them.
- Uniform per-character tracking and mathematically equal margins often look rigid; use native word shaping and optical offsets.
- Script success alone is insufficient: validator and visual QA must pass.
- Examples prove structure, not a reusable palette or template.