# Make a branded image for your social posts

Build a go-live image with your own text, pictures and colours, then let a flow fill in your stream details.

Updated 12 October 2026

## Before you start

**Social images** are saved designs for the pictures your social posting flows send. Make one image, publish it, and use it in several flows. Your stream title, category, channel name and channel link can fill themselves in when a flow runs.

- The channel owner and authorised editors can create and edit designs. A moderator cannot author them.
- Use a computer for editing. On a phone you can preview designs and choose a published design in a flow.
- Connect the social account before its flow posts. Creating, previewing, publishing a design and downloading its PNG do not send a public post.
- Add a social posting flow first if you want Pebble to walk you through it. Find **Your first social image** on **Tutorials**; it is offered after first run when you visit the library and your channel has a social posting flow.

## Create your first design

Open **Social images** in the sidebar, or choose **Social image** under **Picture** in a social flow and press **Create design**. The flow link opens the library in another tab so your unsaved flow stays open.

1. Press **New social image**.
2. Choose a starter: **Bold announcement**, **Gameplay showcase**, **Clean minimal** or **Cosy illustrated**. Each has editable text, pictures and shapes. Choose **Blank canvas** to begin with only a background.
3. Enter a **Design name** you will recognise in the flow picker, such as Friday adventure.
4. Choose **Landscape** for a 1600 × 900 image or **Square** for 1080 × 1080 under **Canvas size**.
5. Press **Create design**. Select a layer on the canvas or in **Layers**, then change its words or appearance in the dock below the canvas.

**What you should see:** the rendered picture above the layer list and properties, with the draft status beside the design name. The draft saves automatically. It is available for posting only after **Publish changes**.

![The Social images creation form with Design name, Landscape canvas size and five real starter previews: Blank canvas, selected Bold announcement, Gameplay showcase, Clean minimal and Cosy illustrated, above Create design.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/social-image-library.jpg)

_Choose an editable starter, give it a name and choose Landscape or Square before creating the draft._

## Fill in stream details automatically

A linked badge on a selected layer and its source chip in the dock open the same source chooser. The chooser offers sources suited to that layer.

| Layer | Sources |
| --- | --- |
| Text | Static text, stream title, category, channel name or channel URL |
| Picture | A fixed picture from Media, channel avatar, category artwork or Twitch live preview |

1. Select the text or picture you want to change.
2. Press its linked badge or source chip and choose the source.
3. For automatic text, set fallback words for an empty value. Without fallback words the empty text can hide.
4. For automatic pictures, choose a fixed fallback from **Media** if you want one. When neither the source nor its fallback is available, that layer leaves the design background showing.

For example, use **Stream title** for the large heading and A new adventure starts here as its fallback. Add **Category** below it and a fixed logo from Media beside it. The same design then works for another game without retyping the title.

## Arrange and style your image

Drag a selected layer to move it, drag its handles to resize it, and use its rotation handle or rotation value to turn it. The properties show position and size for precise adjustments. Snapping helps line layers up.

- Use **Layers** to select, reorder, hide, lock or duplicate a layer. A locked layer keeps its position while you work on the others.
- Add text, a picture, a rectangle or an ellipse from the canvas toolbar. Select several layers for alignment and shared moves.
- Text has a curated font choice, size, weight, italic style, colour and alignment. A fixed text box wraps and shrinks toward its minimum size; text that still does not fit ends with an ellipsis.
- For a picture, choose cover or contain and use **Crop picture** to keep the part of its source you want.
- **Undo** and **Redo** let you correct recent edits. Keyboard arrows move selected layers; Delete removes them, and the toolbar offers the same actions.

The editor creates still images. Animation, video and uploaded fonts are not part of Social images.

Change **Design name** in the editor, or use **Rename** on its library card, to update the name shown in the library and flow picker. Renaming saves immediately and does not need **Publish changes**; publishing controls the picture’s text, images and layout.

## Preview and publish

1. Use **Sample** while arranging the design.
2. Press **Current stream** to preview your channel’s current details. Missing values use the fallbacks you set.
3. Try **Long title** to see how the text boxes cope with a crowded title.
4. Wait for **Draft saved**, then press **Publish changes** when the picture is ready.

**What you should see:** a published revision is reported, and the design appears in your social flow’s picker. Later changes to its text, pictures or layout are an autosaved draft until you publish again. A post that is already preparing keeps the revision and stream details it started with, even if you publish changes meanwhile.

If another tab changes the same draft, the editor shows a conflict rather than overwriting it. **Load saved draft** reads that version; **Keep my edits** lets you review and save your own changes. Use **Retry save** for a failed save and **Retry preview** for a failed render.

![The Friday adventure Social image editor with its Stream title layer selected, Friday adventure starts here as fallback text, Current stream preview, Layers and text properties, and Publish changes.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/social-image-editor.jpg)

_The title follows Stream title, with your own fallback words. Current stream shows the rendered picture before you publish._

## Use the design in a flow

Open a flow with a **Post to** step, such as one from the **Socials** pack. [Announce your stream on social media](https://bloopbot.com/docs/announce-your-stream-on-social-media) covers accounts and go-live behaviour.

1. Select the **Post to** step.
2. Set **Picture** to **Social image**.
3. Choose the published design. The picker shows only designs from this channel; an unpublished draft is not a choice.
4. Check the actual image in **Preview**. It uses the published design and current stream details, converted for that destination.
5. Press **Save** in the flow.

**Edit** beside the picker opens the selected design in another tab. Return to the flow after publishing; its choices and image preview refresh when the tab regains focus. You can also refresh the image with its refresh control.

**Send test post** shows the actual converted image before asking to post publicly. If its published revision or rendered inputs changed, it shows the new preview and asks again. **Cancel** sends nothing. A whole-design render failure stops the social action, even if that network permits text-only posts, and appears in the connection warning and flow’s **Run log**.

![The Mastodon step with Picture set to Social image, Friday adventure selected and its actual published image preview with revision 2, while the account is not connected.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/social-image-flow.jpg)

_Friday adventure is selected in a Mastodon step, with its published revision rendered below. Connect the account before sending a public post._

![The published Friday adventure design on a phone with a Sample image preview, Current stream and Long title choices, Original canvas destination and Use in a flow, plus a note to author on desktop.](https://bloopbot.com/docs/screenshots/social-image-phone.jpg)

_On a phone, preview a published design and use the flow link to choose it in a social step. Create and edit the design on a desktop._

## Download or make another size

**Download PNG** exports the rendered image at its native Landscape or Square size. Choose the preview content you want before downloading. A destination may resize or re-encode the picture when posting; the flow preview shows that version.

Use **Duplicate to square** or **Duplicate to landscape** to create another design. Rearrange its layers for the new canvas yourself, then publish that version separately. Duplicating keeps the original design in place.

## Check usages and remove unused designs

The library and editor show which flows and groups use a design. A design referenced by a saved flow or group cannot be deleted, including retained selections in paused flows or the Trash. Switching **Picture** away from **Social image** remembers its selection.

1. Open each flow or group listed in the design’s usages and select its social post step.
2. Set **Picture** to **Social image**, then clear its picker by choosing **Choose a published design**.
3. Switch **Picture** to the source you want instead, then press **Save**.
4. For a flow marked **in Trash**, open **Flows → Trash** and **Restore** it first. Restored flows stay paused; clear and save the reference as above. If you no longer want that flow, **Delete forever** in the Trash releases its references instead, after confirmation.
5. Return to **Social images** and delete the unused design.

Restoring an older flow version also checks that its Social images are still published and available in this channel. If a design was removed, choose another picture in the current flow instead.

Media pictures used by a draft or a retained published design revision cannot be deleted either. Check their usages in **Media**. Discarding a draft does not remove the pictures needed by earlier published revisions.

Social images stay in their own channel. Flow export and sharing refuse a selected design; choose another picture source before sharing, then choose a published design on the receiving channel. An AI assistant can select a published design through the existing flow tools, but design creation, editing and publishing remain in this editor.