AI blog hero image workflow: connect the article brief to an approved publication crop

An AI blog hero image workflow should begin with the article’s argument. A generic attractive scene may decorate the page without helping a reader understand the subject. Write an image brief from the actual draft, then review the chosen visual against both the article and the publishing layout.

Genace supplies image candidates, not an editorial publishing system. Cropping, text composition, accessibility decisions, file optimization, storage, and publication approval belong to your own application and editorial process.

Extract the visual purpose

Read the title, summary, and section outline. Decide whether the hero should establish a topic, illustrate a contrast, or provide atmosphere. Keep factual diagrams and real product screenshots separate from synthetic editorial illustration.

For an article about organizing a small workshop, the brief might request a clear workbench with organized tools and an empty region for the page title. It should not invent a specific interface or imply that a real customer uses the pictured workspace.

Define the placement before generation

Brief field	Practical decision	Review question
Topic	One article idea	Does the image support the draft?
Subject region	Left, center, or right	Can the layout preserve it?
Text region	Empty or text-free	Will live page text remain readable?
Crop family	Wide hero and narrow card	Does meaning survive both?
Editorial status	Illustration or factual evidence	Is the presentation honest?

Keep these fields in your local brief record. They are not additional parameters enforced by the image API. The supported aspect ratio can guide the candidate, but it does not implement your page’s crop behavior.

Review the actual derivatives

Choose a candidate with room for the intended layouts, then create crops in an editor or post-processing pipeline. Avoid simply resizing a wide image into a narrow box. Inspect both the hero and the card in the real page template.

MDN’s responsive-image guide explains browser source selection for responsive images. Your workflow should supply reviewed derivatives and accurate layout hints rather than assume the browser can invent a better composition.

Write any needed alternative description from the image’s role in the article. A decorative hero and an informative illustration need different treatment. Do not use the generation prompt as automatic alternative text; the prompt describes an intention, not necessarily the selected image.

Save editorial provenance

Attach the source output, article revision, crop recipe, description decision, and approval to the publication record. If the headline or argument changes substantially, review the hero again. An old image may remain visually attractive while becoming semantically wrong for the revised article.

Keep live page titles outside the raster whenever possible so text corrections do not require another image export. If text must be embedded, preserve the approved wording as a separate editable layer.

Acceptance checklist

Preview the article at wide and narrow widths, compare the visual with the current draft, inspect crop and readability, and verify the approved file mapping. Confirm that a later export failure can be retried without generating another candidate.

Continue with responsive derivatives, accessible descriptions, and creative approval.

Continue with creative workflows

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