An image template is a reusable design — background, images, shapes and text — that turns any post into an image. Templates are drawn on your own server with PHP’s GD library, so they’re free to use as often as you like and nothing is sent to an outside service (unless a layer uses a stock photo or AI image).
The templates list
Go to Image Generator → Image Templates. Your templates are shown as a grid of large previews, each drawn with the template’s own name as the title. Badges mark the Default template and any Draft.
Each card has these actions below its preview:
- Edit — open the template in the Template Studio.
- Duplicate — make a copy to experiment with or to build a variation.
- Set as default — use this template for automatic featured images. On the default template the action reads Use a random template, which switches back to rotating through all of them.
- Export — download the design as a JSON file.
- Delete — delete the template and its preview. Images already generated from it stay in your Media Library.
Use Search templates to find one by name, or tick several and choose Bulk actions → Delete.
Creating a template
Click Add New. The Studio opens with Start from a design, a choice of 10 ready-made designs:
| Design | Good for |
|---|---|
| Bold headline | Big, punchy titles on a solid color |
| Classic centered | The classic centered title look |
| Photo with fade | An image fading into a color behind the title |
| Magazine serif | Editorial, serif headlines |
| Minimal frame | A clean frame around the title |
| Highlighted lines | Title lines on highlight boxes |
| Split with image | Half image, half title |
| Quote card | Quotes and testimonials |
| Stock photo with headline | A stock photo for each post, headline on top |
| Stock photo with card | A stock photo for each post, title on a card |
Each design is a normal template — change anything. Prefer a blank canvas? Skip the designs and start empty. Pro adds five more designs: Product review with rating, Sale announcement, Course or series part, Recipe card and Product price tag.
Draft and active templates
Every template has a Status in the Studio toolbar: Active or Draft (not used). Only active templates are used for automatic featured images and offered in the editor’s Templates tab — keep a template in draft while you work on it.
Moving templates between sites
- On the source site, click Export on the template card (or More → Export design (JSON) in the Studio).
- On the other site, create a template, then choose More → Import design (JSON) in the Studio and pick the file.
- Click Save to keep it.
Images chosen from the Media Library point to attachments on the original site, so pick them again after importing. Fonts you uploaded need to be uploaded on the new site too.
Who can manage templates
By default, administrators (users with the manage_options capability). Developers can change this with the aimg_manage_templates_capability filter — see the Developer Reference. Everyone who can upload files can use templates in the editor.
Templates made before version 1.7.0
Older templates (made with the classic form) are converted to the Studio format automatically in the background — only when the result looks exactly the same. Templates that couldn’t be converted keep working exactly as before, open in the Studio as usual, and are listed under Tools → Site Health. Their old settings are kept either way.