A book where page 3 looks like a cartoon and page 27 looks like a painting reads as unfinished. The style lock stops that. You pick one art style for the book, and the plugin adds the same style words to every image it makes for that book, including the cover and every reroll.
Where to find it:
Open the New Book tab, pick a book type, and look at Art Style in step 2, Idea & Style. Under the box it says Locked for the whole book so every page matches.
The four styles and the words they add:
- Classic Cartoon: classic cartoon style, bold clean outlines, flat cheerful colors, timeless kids cartoon look.
- Cute Kawaii: cute kawaii style, chibi proportions, big expressive eyes, soft rounded shapes, adorable.
- Bold Simple: bold simple style, extra thick outlines, minimal detail, large friendly shapes, toddler friendly.
- Storybook Watercolor: storybook watercolor style, soft painted washes, gentle textures, classic picture book illustration.
How the lock works:
- When you click Create Book, the style words are saved on the book.
- Every time the queue makes a page, it builds the page prompt from the book type recipe and the page's scene, then adds the saved style words at the end.
- Rerolls and the cover use the same saved words, so a page you redo next week still matches.
The style cannot be changed after the book is created. To try a different look, start a new book with the same idea.
How style and book type work together:
The book type recipe comes first. A coloring page always asks for black and white line art with clean bold outlines, no shading and no grayscale, and the style words then shape the drawing on top of that. A story page asks for full color storybook art, and the style words set its look.
So for coloring and activity books, pick a style that suits line art: Classic Cartoon, Cute Kawaii or Bold Simple. Storybook Watercolor is made for full color story books and journal covers.
Premise and style, two different jobs:
Your premise says what is on the pages: the animals, the places, the action. The style says how it is drawn. Keep style words out of your premise and let the Art Style box do that job. You get more even results that way.
A real example:
Ella picked Storybook Watercolor for Milo's Year Of Seasons, so all 24 pictures and the cover share the same soft painted look. For Space Explorers Activity Book she picked Bold Simple, so the spot the difference and matching pages have thick outlines that young children can follow.
Which style for which reader?
- Ages 2 to 4: Bold Simple. Thick outlines and big shapes are easy for small hands with crayons.
- Ages 4 to 8: Classic Cartoon or Cute Kawaii for coloring and activity books.
- Picture books and journal covers: Storybook Watercolor.
Tips:
- Look at the first few cards in the page grid as they arrive. If the style is not what you hoped, it is quicker to start again now than after 30 pages.
- A character lock and a style lock together give the most even books. See The Character Consistency Engine.