

Image generation is a technique of automated or semi-automated images creation. Creating a complete and eye-catching image with API from scratch could be a challenging task.
Great graphic designers usually don't know how to code, so they use visual editors like Photoshop, Sketch or RenderForm to create their drafts and mockup.
Image generation software uses templates created by graphic designers and API just replaces properties like texts, colors or images to
meet the final requirements.

## Step 1: Create a template

Add components and design your template in our [Template Editor](/docs/general/template-editor/).

![Online Editor for Image Generation](/blog/simple-online-design-editor.png)

Check every added component on canvas.

### Set image fit
Click on image and on the right side adjust image fit option. Set image fit to `cover` if it can be cropped on sides in order to fill whole space, or use `contain` option if the image must be showed without cropping.
The contain option is useful when you add logos or brand visuals.

### Adjust text box
By default, RenderForm will scale down your text if it will be bigger than blue rectangle.
You can set width and height of a text box to make sure your text can freely grow.

![Text alignment](/blog/text-component-alignment.jpg)

### Adjust text alignment
Click on text and on the right side scroll down to 'Alignment' section.
You can decide how the text will grow if it will be bigger than used placeholder on draft.

## Step 2: Automate and scale

Now, you are ready replicate your template with different texts, images and more!
No matter which integration you will choose, the general rule of thumb is that you need to know which component you want to update and what property.
![Layout plus Data equals your image](/blog/image-generation-api.jpg)


General format of change looks as follows:

`YOUR_COMPONENT_ID.PROPERTY=YOUR_VALUE`

Example:

`myNameComponent.text=This is my name`


Check [list of properties](/docs/general/template-properties/) which you can edit with any integration.


![Example of generated image from Image Generation API](/blog/example-of-generated-image-from-image-generation-api.jpg)



What is Image Generation?


Benefits of personalizing email content are that they are more likely to be opened by recipients, recipients are
more likely to read them in full, and they are often shared with other people - because they show up as more personal emails.
Personalized e-mails are not new, but it is time to take those personalized e-mails to the next level.
One of the newest technologies that can be used for this purpose is image generation. In this article
I will show you how to send an e-mail with personalized image to your customer once he makes some action
in your application or website. I will use [Make.com (Integromat)](https://make.com) to take advantage from no-code automations.


## Create Integromat webhook

I started from creating a scenario in Integromat and adding a webhook module. The module generates an unique
webhook URL where I can send my requests from server or from frontend application. The CORS won't be a problem here because
Integromat accepts requests from frontend applications.

![Integromat webhook configuration](/blog/integromat-webhook-configuration.png)


## Send request on click

Let's go to the code part! I started from creating a simple `<a href=""/>` tag in my React application.
It looks pretty standard I added `href` attribute with link to some article and custom `onClick` method.

[comment]: <> (![Send request from ReactJS application to Integromat with axios]&#40;/blog/send-personalized-email-image-on-click.png&#41;)

```tsx
<a href="https://renderform.io/blog/posts/multi-language-image-variants/"
   target="_blank"
   onClick={onLearnMoreClick}
   className="btn btn-link d-flex align-items-baseline">
    <span>Learn how to quickly generate multi-language images</span>
    <i className="far fa-arrow-right ms-2"/>
</a>
```

The `onLearnMoreClick` method will be invoked once somebody clicks the link. The `onLearnMoreClick` will send a
POST request to endpoint generated by Make.com (Integromat). I used [axios](https://github.com/axios/axios) but you can use
any other library to do this. If you don't want to use any library check [Fetch API](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fetch_API).

```tsx
const onLearnMoreClick = () => {
axios("https://hook.integromat.com/your-webook-url",
  {
    method: "POST",
    data: {
      firstName: account.firstName,
      email: account.email
    }
  });
}
```




We are passing two values which we will need in next steps:
- `firstName` - user first name,
- `email` - user e-mail to send him personalized e-mail.

## Edit image template

I used existing template from RenderForm template library. However, if you want, you can create
your own template using template editor in RenderForm.
We will edit the top component with 'Hey Jakub!'
text, and we use Integromat to replace the text for every webhook request.

![Example template for coupon code and image generation](/blog/personalized-image-template.png)

## Configure Integromat scenario

Below you see a whole Integromat scenario where I connected everything together. The scenario is self-explanatory, we have 4 modules:
- Webhooks module - receive requests from application
- RenderForm - generate image based on data from request
- HTTP - download the image from RenderForm
- Email - send e-mail to a customer

![Integromat scenario with image generation and SMTP](/blog/integromat-personalized-image-flow.png)

![Add text to image using RenderForm module](/blog/add-changes-bannerly.png)

HTTP module is only for downloading image from received URL from RenderForm module.
![Download generated image with text using HTTP Integromat module](/blog/http-module-download-image.png)

Thanks to the HTTP module we can add the image itself instead just the URL.
![Send attachment using Integromat email module](/blog/e-mail-module-add-attachment.png)



## Test

Click **'Run once'** button in created Integromat scenario and then click link to open the article from which we created
in the first section. Now the request from our frontend application should be sent Integromat Webhook module, after that
data will be passed to RenderForm module where a new image will be generated. RenderForm will take your template
and replace title on the image and return a link with ready to download image. Next, HTTP module will download
the image generated by RenderForm module and add it as an attachment in the last step. In E-mail module we composed a simple
e-mail message which we sent to the user who clicked the link!


![example email with personalized image](/blog/example-email-with-personalized-image.png)

Presented Integromat scenario is just a simple example what you can do with batch image generation. Possibilities are
unlimited! Your flows can be much more complex, you could generate an image for every occasion with RenderForm, for example
you could add user avatar to make it more engaging. Image that your customer gets a personalized image with his name and
profile image! Have fun with RenderForm!


Zapier

Make.com

Integrately

WordPress Plugin

Mailchimp

Airtable Extension

Google Sheets

Excel/CSV file

HTML Embed

REST API

RenderForm CLI

Webhooks

HTML to Image

Posts with #generation

What is Image Generation?

Send Personalized E-mail from React Application