Collections

Overview

A collection is a folder of reference images, such as a character from three angles, the five product shots a client sent, or a handful of images that share the palette and line quality you're after.

Use a collection when you keep attaching the same images to your prompts. You set up the references once and attach them by name, instead of one by one.

Collections belong to a project, so the references for your picture book don't show up while you're working on app icons. For references every project uses, such as a logo, the workspace has collections of its own. With All generations selected, open them from References in the project menu.

Create a collection

Open the project menu at the top of the page and choose Instructions & collections. Select New collection, give it a name, and drop your images in. You can also drag files straight onto a collection without opening it.

Already have the right images attached to a prompt? Open the tray menu and choose Save as collection. The images you've attached become a new collection in the current project.

Name collections for what they hold, and keep the name short: "Summer sky" beats "refs 2", and long names get cut off in the tiles.

Tell the model how to use it

Each collection has a note. Use it to say what the images are for.

Match the palette, the painted clouds and the soft cel shading. Never copy the subjects or the composition.

The note travels with the collection. Whenever you attach it, the note is added to the start of your prompt, so you write that instruction once.

A reference image doesn't say which part of it you want, so the model might copy the pose when you wanted the colors. The note tells it which part to use.

In this example, the same prompt of a hare having a picnic ran twice with the Summer sky collection, which holds a rain-wet street, a field with a power pylon, and green mountains under tall clouds. Without the note, the result added a railway line, telegraph poles and a village. With the note, the clouds, the deep blue and the soft shading came across, and the railway and poles stayed out.

Without the note

With the note

Prompt

The result with the note still has a small puddle from the wet street on the hillside. Look closely at every result before you use it, and name what to leave out when a detail keeps coming back.

Use a collection in a prompt

Type @ in the prompt and pick a collection. Its images land in the tray, the same as if you'd attached them yourself. From there you can remove any you don't need for this one image.

You can attach more than one collection. A common pairing is one for the character and one for the style.

Organize

Open a collection's menu to Rename it, Move to another project, or Duplicate to another project when two projects share a look. Drag collections to reorder them, and drag images inside one to do the same.

To add a single image, open its menu and choose Add to references, then pick the collection. In the feed, the menu is the ⋯ button on the image. In the library, right-click the image.

Delete collection removes it straight away, without asking. Images you've already generated with it stay as they are, and so do the images it held.

Limits

• A collection holds up to 12 images.
• A project can have up to 10 collections.
• Some models accept fewer reference images than others, and a few accept none. The Models table lists how many each one takes, so check it before you attach a big collection.

FAQ

Do references guarantee the same character every time? No. References steer the model strongly, but each model follows them differently. If a result drifts, add a note that says what must stay fixed. On Nano Banana 2 Lite, which isn't built for several references at once, move up to Nano Banana 2.

Can my teammates use my collections? Yes. Everyone in the workspace sees the project's collections.