=== Waypoint Royalty Free Image Generator ===
Contributors: usawebdev
Tags: ai image generator, stock photos, featured image, royalty free images, alt text
Requires at least: 7.0
Tested up to: 7.1
Requires PHP: 8.1
Stable tag: 1.1.0

License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Generate royalty-free images with AI and save them straight to your media library. No stock subscription, no attribution, no API key.

== Description ==

Stop paying for stock photos you cannot quite find. Describe the image you want, and this plugin generates it and saves it to your media library as an ordinary attachment — ready to set as a featured image, drop into a block, or use anywhere on your site.

There is no API key to paste in. The plugin uses the AI provider your WordPress site is already connected to, through the AI client built into WordPress itself. Your provider bills you directly and nothing is routed through our servers.

**Four ways to reach it**

* **Image Generator** in your admin menu, for generating images whenever you need them. They land in the media library and stay there.
* **A Generate image button on Media &rarr; Library**, beside Add Media File.
* **A Generate featured image panel** in the post editor sidebar, so you never leave the post you are writing.
* **A Generate tab in the media modal**, beside Upload Files and Media Library, for when you are already picking an image.

All four open the same generator and save to the same place.

**It knows what your post is about**

Open the generator from a post and the description is filled in from the post's title and excerpt. That is the difference between this and a general-purpose image tool in another browser tab: one click gets you an image that actually matches what you wrote, and you can edit the description before generating.

**Images that look like photographs, not clip art**

Image models take style direction literally, and a vague prompt gets you a cartoon. Every image is generated with a full brief naming lens, lighting, depth of field and palette, and with explicit instructions not to render text, captions, signage, logos, watermarks or borders — the things that make a generated image unusable as stock.

Choose a look:

* Photographic — realistic photos
* Editorial illustration — drawn, magazine style
* Flat vector — geometric, product-marketing style
* 3D render — soft shapes and studio lighting
* Product photo — studio sweep, catalogue lighting
* Custom — write your own style brief

And a shape:

* Featured image — wide landscape, 16:9
* Hero banner — 21:9, composed with clear space for a headline and exposed to stay readable under a dark overlay
* Square — 1:1, for social and grids
* Portrait — 4:5, for sidebars
* Natural — let the model frame it

**Alt text, written for you**

Every generated image gets alt text describing what a reader would see, saved to the attachment and editable like any other image. The prompt that produced the image is saved with it too, so you can tell later which images you generated and how.

= What "royalty-free" means here =

In the sense that matters day to day: no stock licence to buy, no per-use royalty, no attribution line to place, and no expiry. Use the images on your site and elsewhere, including commercially.

Two honest caveats, because you should know them before you rely on these images:

1. Those rights come from the terms of the AI provider your site is connected to, not from this plugin. If commercial redistribution matters to you, read that provider's terms.
2. In the United States, an image generated purely by AI is generally not eligible for copyright. Nobody is charging you for it — but you may not be able to stop others using a similar image either.

Some providers embed an invisible provenance watermark in the images they generate. That is the provider's doing; this plugin neither adds nor removes it.

= What generation costs =

Each image is a billed call against the AI provider your site is connected to, at that provider's rates. This plugin does not resell generation, does not mark it up, and never sees the transaction. "Royalty-free" describes the licence, not the price.

= Free and Pro =

Everything above is in the free plugin, in full, with no counter anywhere. All five looks, all five shapes, alt text, prompt prefill from your posts, and the media modal tab.

Waypoint Royalty Free Image Generator Pro adds:

* **Fill missing featured images** — generate one for every post that does not have one, in a single background run.
* **Saved style presets** — store a named look so every image on the site belongs to the same set.
* **Variants** — generate several images from one description and pick the one you want.

== Installation ==

1. Install and activate the plugin.
2. Make sure your site has an AI provider connected that offers an image model. The plugin tells you on its own screen if it cannot find one.
3. Go to **Image Generator** in the admin menu, describe an image, and generate it.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Do I need an API key? =

No. The plugin uses the AI client built into WordPress 7.0 and the provider your site is already connected to. There is no key field in this plugin because there is nothing for it to hold.

= Does this plugin send anything to your servers? =

No. Generation happens between your site and your own AI provider. The plugin has no endpoint of its own and makes no call to Waypoint Software.

= Why does it need WordPress 7.0? =

Because that is the release that added the core AI client. Requiring it is what lets the plugin work without asking you for an API key.

= It says no image model is available. What now? =

Your site either has no AI provider connected, or the connected provider is offering only text models. Connect a provider that supports image generation, then reload the generator screen.

= Where do the images go? =

Into your media library, as ordinary attachments. Nothing about them is special or locked to this plugin — if you deactivate it, your images stay exactly where they are.

= Can I edit the alt text it writes? =

Yes. It is stored as normal attachment alt text and you can change it in the media library like any other image.

= Does uninstalling delete my generated images? =

No. Uninstalling removes the plugin's settings only. Your images are attachments you may have used on published pages, so they are left alone.

== Screenshots ==

1. The generator screen: describe an image, choose a look and a shape, and it lands in your media library.
2. Generate a featured image from the post editor sidebar, without leaving what you are writing.
3. Settings, including a plain-English statement of what you may do with the images.

== Changelog ==

= 1.1.0 =
* New: a Generate image button on Media &rarr; Library, beside Add Media File.
* New: a Generate featured image panel in the post editor sidebar, and a matching button in the classic editor's featured image box.
* Fixed: the media modal offered a custom look with no field to describe it, so choosing it quietly generated the default look instead.
* Fixed: a preset or style name written in a non-Latin script was rejected as empty.

= 1.0.0 =
* First release.
