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Product and packaging

AI image models generate convincing product photography but cannot render legible packaging text and must never be used to depict a product that does not exist as it is shown, which is a trading-standards problem rather than a quality one.

This is the one niche on the site where the main risk is not accuracy but honesty. The images are good; the temptation is to show a product looking better than it is, or to show one you do not actually stock. That is a different category of mistake from a wrong benzene ring, and a more expensive one.

What this cannot do

Never present a generated image as a photograph of an item you sell. Showing a product with features, materials, colours or contents it does not have is misleading advertising in most jurisdictions regardless of how the image was made, and marketplaces increasingly require AI imagery to be disclosed. Use generation for mood, backgrounds and mockup frames — and photograph the actual item.

4 prompts

Blank packaging mockup

A mockup frame to place your own real artwork onto.

Plain unbranded cardboard box standing on a seamless pale background, soft even studio lighting, subtle contact shadow, slight texture visible on the card, completely blank surfaces, no text no logos no markings

Things to change

  • — "kraft brown" versus "bleached white"
  • — "pouch", "jar" or "tube" for other formats

Lifestyle scene, product absent

A background to composite a real product photograph into.

Warm lifestyle scene of a tidy kitchen counter in morning light, empty space in the centre of the frame where a product would sit, soft natural shadows, muted neutral palette, shallow depth of field, no products visible

Things to change

  • — "bathroom shelf", "desk", "workbench" for other categories
  • — "evening lamplight" for a different mood

Material texture, macro

Backgrounds, category headers and print material.

Extreme macro of a textured material surface, woven fabric fibres catching raking light, neutral colour, sharp detail across the frame, seamless and tileable, purely textural, no objects

Things to change

  • — "brushed metal", "recycled paper", "matte ceramic"
  • — "seamless and tileable" is what makes it reusable

Flat lay frame, empty

Social and listing images. Drop the real product into the gap.

Overhead flat lay composition on a clean surface, small props arranged around a large empty central area, soft diffused light, minimal muted styling, generous negative space in the middle, no product, no text

Things to change

  • — "dark moody styling" versus "bright and airy"
  • — "seasonal props" for campaign work

Common questions

Can I use AI images for product listings?
For backgrounds, mockup frames and lifestyle scenes you composite a real photograph into, yes. For depicting the product itself, no — showing an item with features it does not have is misleading advertising however the image was produced.
Why is packaging text always wrong?
Small text on a curved or angled surface is the hardest thing image models do. Generate blank packaging and apply your real artwork as a mockup, which is faster and gives you the correct text by definition.
Do marketplaces require AI disclosure?
An increasing number do, and the requirements are changing quickly. Check the current policy of each platform you sell on rather than relying on what was true last year.

Get the numbers right too