--- title: "Can a general AI image generator make product photos? | Herofab" description: "ChatGPT, Gemini or Midjourney for product photos? What a general-purpose generator is built for, what marketplaces require and how to check the result." url: https://herofab.app/guides/general-ai-image-tools-vs-product-photos language: en updated: 2026-09-24 --- # A new picture, or the item you ship? ChatGPT, Gemini and Midjourney are general-purpose image generators: they create a new picture from a request. A product photo has a narrower job. It must show the exact item a buyer will receive — the same print, logo, buttons, colour and cut. This guide sets out the difference, what Google, Amazon and Zalando ask of AI images, and how to check any AI product image against the real item. ## 1. A new picture versus the item on the shelf ChatGPT, Gemini and Midjourney are examples of general-purpose image generators. They are built to create a new picture from a request, and a good result is one that looks convincing and fits the request. A product photo is judged by a different test: does it show the item that ships? The buyer compares the picture with the parcel. A print that has moved, a logo with a changed letter or a button the real garment does not have turns into a return or a complaint, however good the picture looks. ## 2. What must stay the same For a fashion item, five things carry its identity: the print (motif, scale, colours and placement), the logo and any text, the buttons, zips and pockets, the colour, and the cut — length, neckline, sleeves and fit. A buyer who orders from the picture expects each of them. A prompt describes a product in words; a photo of the item shows it. Whichever tool produces the image, the result is a new image, and only a side-by-side comparison with the real item shows whether those five details came through. ## 3. Google Merchant Center: match the product you sell Google’s image requirements ask sellers to “match the image you submit to the product that you're selling, and ensure your image shows the correct color, pattern, and material”, and to show the correct variant. For AI-generated images, Google requires metadata that marks them as AI-generated, using the IPTC DigitalSourceType tag TrainedAlgorithmicMedia, and asks sellers not to remove it. Such images are accepted in image\_link, additional\_image\_link and lifestyle\_image\_link. ## 4. Amazon and Zalando: people and distortions Amazon asks sellers to add the metadata keyword contains-synthetic-performer, with an IPTC-compatible image editor, to images that show photorealistic people created entirely by AI. Images of real people are excluded, even when they were edited with AI. Zalando’s AI image content policy states that synthetic content must meet its editorial and technical criteria, and that assets which fail to represent the product accurately can be rejected. Its examples of unacceptable distortions include distorted text, mispositioned buttons, artifacts in logos and details that show inconsistently across an image set. Visible on-image labels are not allowed; identifying data belongs in the metadata or an invisible watermark. ## 5. Where a general-purpose generator fits Images in which no stocked item has to be reproduced are a different case: a mood board, a campaign concept, a background texture or a social post around a theme. There, a convincing new picture is the goal. Once an image goes into a listing, the tool that made it matters less than the check it passes. The list below applies to every AI product image, from any source. ## Checklist - Lay the real item next to the screen and compare in daylight, colour first. - Print: the same motif, scale and placement; a back print stays on the back. - Logo and text: every letter as on the item, in the same position. - Buttons, zips and pockets: the same number, in the same place. - Cut: length, neckline, sleeves and fit as on the item, with nothing added that the item does not have. - Metadata: the AI marker still in the file after resizing; for Amazon, contains-synthetic-performer when the image shows an AI-generated person. > **With Herofab** > > Herofab starts from a photo of the item itself: the front is required, and the back and a close-up can be added. Every image is briefed to keep the product unchanged. Where a print can be matched, the real print is carried over from your photo; back prints stay on the back and inside labels stay inside. A photo that shows only the back, or a product still in its packaging, is flagged before a credit is spent. If a detail still needs correcting, you mark the area and say what is wrong; plans include free fixes every month. Every delivered image carries the IPTC DigitalSourceType marker, and the contains-synthetic-performer keyword when it shows a person Herofab generated. ## Sources - [Google Merchant Center Help — Image link \[image\_link\]](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324350?hl=en) - [Google Merchant Center Help — AI-generated images](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/14743464?hl=en) - [eWeek — Amazon requires sellers to disclose AI-generated people](https://www.eweek.com/news/amazon-ai-generated-product-images-labels-new-york-law/) - [Zalando Partner University — Image guidelines](https://partner.zalando.com/university/article/zalando-image-guidelines) Checked 26 September 2026. Rules change; the official pages are the final reference. ## In short. **Can I use ChatGPT, Gemini or Midjourney for product photos?** Marketplaces judge the image, not the tool. Google Merchant Center asks that the image match the product you sell, in the correct colour, pattern and material, and that AI-generated images keep their IPTC metadata. An image from any tool has to pass that test against the real item before it goes into a listing. **Is an AI image acceptable if it makes the product look better than it is?** No. Zalando reserves the right to reject AI assets that fail to represent the product accurately, and Google asks for the correct colour, pattern and material. The buyer receives the item, not the picture, so an improved image becomes a difference on delivery. 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