Pixel Style Poster Skill

Pixel Style Poster Skill

Turn the user's content into both:

1. a final image-generation prompt, and
2. a generated raster image made from that prompt.

Mode Policy

Use Standard Mode for all generation. Use the Fine Bitmap Prompt Compiler in this SKILL.md to convert the user's content into a compact, imageable, high-fidelity prompt.

The output canvas must be vertical 3:4 unless the user explicitly asks for another ratio.

Style Calibration

The style should be calibrated toward fine bitmap print posters, not chunky pixel art.

Prefer:

• one or two main dot-matrix elements as the visual subject
• a large enough subject, or a subject-text pairing, to carry the page; white or near-white background is acceptable when the subject has strong presence
• animal, flower, food, person, or animation-inspired motif translated into a fine bitmap print pattern
• small, tight pixels or halftone dots that create soft tonal transitions through density changes
• monochrome or near-monochrome ink with subtle density variation
• warm off-white, pale gray, or faintly tinted paper space with subtle fibers, not sterile dead white
• either quiet microtype or one prominent theme title near the subject, depending on the user's text intent
• integrated typography that supports the subject and usually occupies roughly 5%-18% of the composition; title-led requests may reach 15%-25%
• non-repeating visible text; each readable phrase, label, or date should appear once unless the user explicitly asks for repeated text-as-image
• 30% chance of diary-like pixel layout with small captions, date marks, thin pixel curves, or quiet page structure
• 10% chance of text forming the subject, silhouette, or decorative structure
• for person-focused outputs, close-up face or head-and-shoulders crops are usually stronger than full-body figures; prefer stylish, handsome/beautiful, Japanese editorial feeling, precise facial silhouette, and refined gaze

Avoid by default:

• oversized blocky pixels
• flat solid color with no tonal transition
• loud mixed colors or neon contrast
• cartoon sticker feeling
• game interface, game asset, or 8-bit icon logic
• chaotic layout
• text becoming more important than the visual subject
• text becoming too tiny or incidental
• repeated readable text in ordinary poster layouts
• forced large title when the user only supplied a subject and did not ask for title-led layout
• title and subject floating far apart without a designed relationship
• childlike craft-poster feeling
• generic full-body girl illustration when a person-focused prompt asks for style or mood

Standard Mode Prompt Compiler

Default generation should compile only the parts that become visible pixels in the final image prompt.

Visual Rules Used by the Prompt Compiler

Use these rule groups as prompt material:

• Style identity: fine bitmap editorial poster, 3:4 vertical canvas, white/warm paper or soft colored-wash paper space, large dot-matrix subject, optional prominent title or quiet microtype, low-resolution print language.
• Core visual rules: use concrete renderable rules for canvas, composition, subject scale, bitmap construction, title policy, small surrounding typography, color, texture, and flat scanned-paper mood.
• Stable common traits: vertical 3:4 poster, flat paper surface, fine visible pixels or dot matrix, controlled monochrome or two-color ink, soft tonal transition through pixel density, graphic design layout, non-repeating readable text, and restrained surrounding captions.
• Replaceable variables: subject, phrase, mood, layout, pixel density, ink color, typography mode, crop scale, texture process.
• Negative constraints: use as hard avoid material, especially anti-game-pixel-art, anti-chunky-pixel, anti-cartoon, anti-childlike-craft, anti-uncomposed-blank-background, anti-chaotic-layout, and anti-cinematic-realism constraints.
• Prompt shape: use the field order below, not the sample wording.

Do not use these as default prompt material:

• source path, sample count, README notes, or analysis notes
• long style explanation that does not become pixels
• exact captions, dates, logos, or names copied from reference images
• sample-specific subjects unless the user requests them
• vague aesthetic labels without visible construction rules

First-Principles Prompt Fields

Every Standard Mode prompt must answer these rendering questions in this order:

1. Canvas: What is the output frame and base surface?

   • vertical 3:4 editorial poster; white, warm off-white, pale gray, faint ivory, pale blue-gray, barely tinted paper, or a soft colored-wash paper background; flat scanned-paper view; no mockup. A whiter background is acceptable when the main subject is large and the typography is restrained.

2. Attention Geometry: Where does the eye go and how much is empty?

   • use deliberate negative space, but the subject plus any text must feel large enough to carry the full poster. The main bitmap subject may occupy 40%-80% of the canvas depending on the user's theme. Prefer one main element, or two coordinated elements at most. If a title is used, place it close to the subject, either above, touching an edge, wrapped around a corner, or balanced across the same visual zone. Small text should sit around the subject, not scattered randomly.

3. Imageable Subject: What visual form comes from the user's prompt?

   • convert the user's theme into one clear animal, flower, food, person, animation-inspired motif, plant, insect, face, symbol, everyday item, abstract silhouette, or text-shaped figure. If the user gives an abstract feeling, choose one imageable metaphor. For people, prefer a close-up face, head-and-shoulders portrait, cropped gaze, or stylish profile before choosing a full-body figure, but keep facial features visibly translated into dot-matrix and pixel-density marks.

4. Bitmap Construction: What makes the subject belong to this style?

   • build the subject from fine visible square pixels, dot-matrix halftone, ASCII-like repeated text, stepped aliased edges, low-resolution scan lines, missing pixel gaps, broken grid marks, or density-shifted dot fields. Details should be suggested through pixel density, dot spacing, and absence. The image should have gradual tonal transition made from denser and looser marks, not a solid flat fill.

5. Typography System: How does text behave visually?

   • do not force a large title when the user only provides a subject. If the user gives title text, asks for editorial/title-led layout, or the subject is too small to carry the page, include one prominent non-repeating theme title close to the subject. Otherwise prefer restrained microtype: one small caption, one date mark, or one side label. For titles, prefer elegant serif, soft retro serif, editorial italic serif, or calligraphic italic title typography like refined poster lettering; avoid the modern geometric sans-serif title style. Add smaller type near the subject edges or around its four sides: tiny lowercase captions, vertical labels, date marks, micro notes, or small type blocks. Subject-only posters should keep text around 3%-10% of the composition; title-led posters may use 15%-25%. Do not repeat the same readable word, phrase, or date in ordinary layouts. Only use repeated text when the selected recipe is the 10% text-as-image lane and the repeated text forms the subject silhouette or texture.

6. Color Logic: What is the restrained ink system?

   • default to one dominant ink color for the subject and any title: cyan blue, magenta pink, dusty rose, violet, lime green, black, or soft gray. Small surrounding text does not need to match the main subject color; it may be gray, black, or a restrained accent color. A second color is allowed as registration offset, thin bitmap curves, ghost text, soft wash, or small accent. Avoid full rainbow palettes.

7. Reproduction Texture: What print or screen process defines the whole image?

   • flat print surface, scanned poster, low-resolution bitmap, dot gain, risograph-like ink, printer noise, slight misregistration, broken scanline gaps, or uneven halftone density. No 3D depth.

8. Emotional Temperature: What should the viewer feel before identifying the object?

   • quiet, delicate, strange, observational, diary-like, early-digital, poetic, print-studio, experimental graphic design, soft but intentional.

9. Hard Avoids: What must not appear?

   • retro video game scene, game sprite, pixel-art landscape, UI screen, app interface, cute 8-bit character, anime mascot, childlike craft poster, generic full-body cute girl, photorealistic eyes or lips in person portraits, cyberpunk neon, vaporwave overload, glossy 3D, cinematic photo, airbrushed illustration, repeated readable text, dense scrapbook collage, product ad layout, CTA, logo lockup, long readable text block, title far from subject, forced title when not requested, overly modern geometric sans-serif title.

Standard Pixel Engine

This section defines how bitmap detail should be prompted.

• Use terms such as fine visible square-pixel grid, small dot-matrix halftone, aliased stepped edge, bitmap print texture, low-resolution poster scan, pixel-density shading, soft tonal transition through dot density, and missing-pixel negative space.
• If the subject is organic, preserve its recognizable silhouette while translating detail into square pixels or dot fields.
• If the subject is a person, keep the face attractive and refined but visibly bitmap-translated. Eyes, nose, lips, hair, cheek shadows, and clothing edges should be made from fine halftone dots, small square pixels, broken pixel highlights, and density transitions. Do not leave the eyes or mouth as smooth realistic photo detail.
• If the subject is typographic, allow repeated words or letters to form the silhouette, but keep the whole poster airy.
• Pixel marks should be visible at normal viewing size, but not oversized or blocky. Do not let the effect become smooth stippling, watercolor, vector gradient, photographic grain only, or coarse 8-bit blocks.
• Build color transitions through dot density, partial ink coverage, broken pixel fields, and scan softness. Avoid perfectly solid fills unless they are a small anchor area.
• The style is editorial and print-inspired. Do not prompt it as a game asset, sprite sheet, retro arcade, Minecraft, voxel, chiptune, or 8-bit videogame screen.
• For a single image, use one dominant bitmap method. For batches, vary the method across outputs rather than changing only the color.

Standard Color Engine

• Default to a monochrome ink poster with one controlled color, such as soft cyan-blue bitmap ink, magenta dot-matrix ink with density variation, dusty rose square-pixel ink, violet low-resolution print ink, pale green halftone ink, or black micro-pixel ink.
• Use two colors only when the layout needs motion, offset, or contrast. The second color should be visibly secondary.
• Keep the background warm off-white, off-white, pale gray, faint ivory, or pale blue-gray, with subtle paper grain or a barely visible tint. Avoid a sterile dead-white page.
• Do not use pastel gradients as the main construction unless the user specifically asks for the soft pink blur variant.
• Do not use many colors, glossy gradients, neon glow, saturated rainbow effects, or large unmodulated solid color fields.

Background Engine

• The background should feel like scanned paper or lightly tinted print stock, not a blank digital canvas.
• Use subtle paper fibers, faint toner dust, low-opacity registration specks, very light gray wash, warm ivory texture, or a clean white paper base.
• Background texture must stay quiet. It should prevent dead white without becoming dirty, noisy, or scrapbook-like.
• If the main subject is large and the text is intentionally restrained, the background may stay mostly white or very pale.
• For warm subjects such as cocktails, fruit, summer food, or dopamine moods, prefer faint ivory or warm paper.
• For blue, violet, portrait, or night-adjacent subjects, prefer pale gray, pale blue-gray, or soft cool paper.
• For the soft-wash reverse-halftone lane, use a full pale colored paper ground with soft blurred ink fields, cloudy white paper blooms, scan grain, and a subject that emerges through white or pale reverse halftone gaps. Keep this as a print effect, not watercolor illustration or smooth digital gradient.

Title Policy

• Do not force a large title when the user only provides a subject, object, or animal. Default to a quiet subject-led poster with a small caption, date mark, side label, or micro note.
• Use a large title when the user supplies title text, asks for a poster with typography, requests an editorial title-led layout, or gives a concept that needs words to clarify the idea.
• If no title is supplied but the subject is too small, too abstract, or visually sparse, invent one short subject-related title and use it as a composition support.
• Title text should be non-repeating and close to the subject. It should not turn every output into the same template.
• When using only microtype, text may occupy 3%-10% of the page. When title-led, text may occupy 15%-25%.

Layout and Typography Engine

• Default poster logic: large bitmap subject + optional close title or quiet microtype + small surrounding text near the subject's edges.
• If the user supplies no title, usually do not invent a large title. Invent only a small caption such as quiet bloom, still running, soft royalty, or a date mark unless a title-led composition is clearly better.
• When a title is used, it should usually be the largest text element and occupy about 10%-18% of the composition. Use elegant serif, retro serif, editorial italic serif, or calligraphic italic type. Avoid modern geometric sans-serif headlines as the default.
• Small supporting text should be close to the subject, hugging corners, edges, stems, wings, body contours, or empty pockets around the object. It can be gray, black, or a restrained accent color; it does not need to follow the subject's color.
• Small text should use simple monospaced/typewriter-like lowercase or tiny editorial captions. Keep it short, non-repeating, and legible enough to read as design material.
• If the subject is too small or not strong enough to fill the page, use an ornamental frame, corner marks, border brackets, or a central art-title layout to carry the composition. The frame should be thin and editorial, not scrapbook-like.
• Prefer the composition quality of large botanical/bitmap subject posters and close title-subject pairing. Do not imitate numeric ASCII construction unless the user asks for ASCII or number-text imagery.

Multiple Subject Policy

• When the user gives two subjects, create hierarchy: one dominant subject takes roughly 55%-70% of the visual weight, and the second subject supports it at roughly 15%-30%.
• When the user gives three subjects, do not place them as three equal stickers. Use a specimen trio, diagonal study, orbiting accents, diary cluster, or one dominant subject with two small supporting motifs.
• If the subjects belong together, such as grapes, plate, and ribbon, compose them into one coherent still life or object system.
• If the subjects are unrelated, choose the most imageable subject as the main form and translate the others into small bitmap accents, labels, border marks, or supporting silhouettes.
• Keep multiple subjects within one restrained ink system and one clear poster geometry. Avoid icon sheets, sticker sheets, game inventory layouts, and chaotic collage.

Distribution Defaults

When the user does not specify a layout lane, use this rough distribution across multiple outputs or repeated uses:

• 40% quiet subject-led dot-matrix posters: one large main element, or two coordinated elements; animal, flower, food, person, or animation-inspired motif; fine pixel-density shading; restrained microtype, date marks, or one small caption instead of a large default title.
• 20% title-led editorial posters: one large main element with a prominent user-supplied or composition-needed title placed close to the image; small surrounding text supports the lockup.
• 20% diary-like pixel layouts: one refined main element plus small captions, date marks, thin pixel curves, vertical labels, ghost text, or quiet page structure; the layout stays clean, close-set, slightly assembled, and intentional. If the subject is a person, prefer a stylish close-up face, head-and-shoulders crop, or cropped gaze instead of a full-body cute figure.
• 10% soft-wash reverse-halftone posters: full pale colored-wash background, cloudy white blooms, reverse halftone subject, pale or white integrated type, visible scan grain.
• 10% text-formed compositions: repeated words, ASCII-like letters, or character fields form the subject or decorative structure; text still behaves as image, not as a paragraph.

For a single output, choose the lane that best fits the user's prompt. If unclear, default to subject-led dot-matrix.

Standard Prompt Shape

Write the final Standard Mode prompt as four compact paragraphs:

1. canvas + background + subject-text composition scale
2. subject metaphor + bitmap construction + detail behavior
3. title policy or microtype + small surrounding text + exact ink color strategy + print defects
4. flat scanned-poster mood + hard avoid-list

The structure is more important than reciting every rule. Prefer a concrete, imageable prompt over a long style essay.

Variation Engine

Before writing the prompt, choose one option from each axis. Randomness must change the visual grammar, not only the subject or color. If recent outputs used the same layout or bitmap method, choose a different one.