Style Reference

Match the look and feel of another image by using style references.

Want to match the look and feel of another image? You can provide Midjourney with a Style Reference!

What is a Style Reference?

A Style Reference is a way to capture the visual vibe of an existing image and apply it to your new Midjourney creations. It doesn't copy objects or people, just the overall style—like colors, medium, textures, or lighting—helping you achieve a consistent visual theme.

Using a Style Reference

• To add an image to your prompt, start by clicking on the image icon in the Imagine bar. This opens the images panel, allowing you to upload new images or pick from those you've already uploaded. You can even select multiple images to use in your prompt!

  

  Once you've picked your image, try hovering your mouse over it in the Imagine bar. This gives you more options! You can change the reference type or remove the image completely by clicking the X icon.

  If you'd like to use it as a Style Reference, just make sure the paper clip icon is selected. You can select more than 1 reference type by holding shift while clicking the other icons.

  If you want to use your images with multiple prompts, click the lock icon to keep your images pinned to the Imagine bar.

  Image Reference Types:
  Image Prompt (default)
  Style Reference
  Character Reference

• To use a Style Reference in Discord, start by adding the --sref parameter to the end of your prompt, then pasting your image URL. If you want to use multiple images, separate each URL with a space.
  
  
  
  It's important to ensure that you have a valid image URL, meaning the image should already be online. If your image is stored on your computer or device, you can host it on Discord to generate an image URL.

Best Practices

• Keep text prompts simple - Avoid adding style words that might conflict with your reference image's look.
• Add style words selectively - If achieving a specific style is difficult, include descriptive words that match your reference image.
• Focus on content, not instructions - Use your text prompt to describe what you want to see, not how Midjourney should modify the reference image.

Bad Prompt Examples:

Good Prompt Examples:

Style Weight

The style weight parameter --sw, allows you to control how strongly the style of your reference image influences your new image. You can set this parameter to any value between 0 and 1000, with the default being --sw 100.

Random Styles & Codes

Use --sref random in your prompt and Midjourney will select a preset style from its internal library at random. After submitting your prompt, "random" converts to a numerical code (an sref code), which you can reuse for the same style in future prompts.

Once your prompt has an sref code, using rerun/reroll or variations keeps the same code and style. If you use --sref random with a permutation or repeat prompt, each image will have a different style and code.

You can still use the --sw parameter with codes to adjust the influence of the random style on your image. You can also mix codes by using more than one, and combine images with codes.

Currently sref codes are only available for the random styles from Midjourney's internal library. You cannot create an sref code based on an uploaded image. See the instructions above to use an uploaded image. 

• There are four versions of the style reference feature. Use the --sv parameter to choose between them. --sv 4 is default. Each version may offer a unique way of interpreting and applying your Style Reference, so experiment and see what works best for you!

  --sv 1 The original style reference algorithm, more “vibey”
  --sv 2 The second iteration of style references
  --sv 3 An updated version of the more “vibey” --sv 1
--sv 4 An updated version of --sv 2

  

• • For your prompts to work, you need a text prompt in combination with your Style Reference.
  • Your image file should end in .png, .gif, .webp, .jpg, or .jpeg.
  • Style Reference can be used with Midjourney and Niji Version 6.
  • Style Reference can be combined with Character References and Image Prompts.
  • Individual Style References can also be assigned different weights: --sref URL1::2 URL2::1 URL3::1 For more information see our article on Multi-Prompts & Weights.