# Outlex Imagery v3.1: Photography and Generated-Image Rules

Version **v3.1**, dated **14 September 2026**. This file governs photography and generated raster imagery across every surface: website, product, email, social, slides. It extends `marketing.md` (which governs marketing-campaign asset routing and templates) with the rules the founder has stated directly and the specific generated-image failure modes found on 14 September 2026. Product-moment (screenshot) imagery is a separate contract; see `brand/compositions-v3.md` §1.

Precedence: current founder correction, then live canon (this file included), then project adapter, then surface-specific skill. Full statement: `brand/precedence.md`.

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## 1. Source and curation

- **Real, curated, assigned to one page.** No shared stock pool that any PR can reshuffle. Every image gets its own sign-off per page and per theme (P-14, `tokens/PRINCIPLES-v3.md`).
- **Never fabricate people, photos, or credentials.** Invented team photos, fake testimonial faces, or manufactured "trusted by" imagery are a hard no, deleted on sight, not edited down (P-15; `Brief` Hard No).
- **Registered, not loose.** Every image in a consuming repo's asset tree is entered in that repo's photo/image registry (pattern: `design/photo-registry.json` in outlex-corporate-website: id, page(s), usedBy, rights, master, checksummed files). An unregistered image is treated as unverified rights, not as free to publish.
- **Real rendered dimensions.** Ship an image resized to its actual display size; never ship a full-resolution original and let CSS scale it down client-side (P-16).
- **No visible placeholders in production**, in any locale. A missing localized asset is a defect that blocks ship, not a degrade-gracefully case (P-17).

## 2. Generated imagery: allowed use and the AI-photo traps (found 14 September 2026)

Generated (not photographed) imagery is permitted only where a real photograph is not the right tool, most often inner-page heroes where a bespoke human photograph is not available per page, and only through the verified path: imagegen or Creative Production with verified Images-2.5-backend identity. If backend identity cannot be verified, generation is blocked; do not substitute an unverified API-key route (`confirmed-design-learning.md` § All Outlex visual surfaces).

Two specific failure modes were caught in the 14 September 2026 inner-hero generation batch and must be checked on every generated image before it is registered:

1. **Generated photos can carry real logos.** Device screens, stickers, or background objects in a generated scene can render a real third-party brand mark (observed on 9 of the first batch of inner-hero generations). Check the full-resolution image for any legible logo, wordmark, or brand-identifiable device sticker before use, not just the thumbnail.
2. **Edits leave ghosts.** Removing a logo or mark with an inpainting edit can leave a visible ghost: a faint outline, a colour mismatch, or a soft edge where the object used to be. Re-inspect the *edited* image at full resolution, not just the original; an edit is not verified clean until it has been checked itself.

Every generated image used in production carries a `rights` note stating the exact generation method, model, date, and what was checked (see the corporate-website registry's `inner-hero-*` entries for the standard phrasing: "device logos and stickers removed and checked at full resolution; no identifiable real person, no third-party material").

## 3. What generated or photographed imagery must never contain

Carried forward from `marketing.md` § Background Rules, restated here as the general imagery rule (not marketing-campaign-specific): readable fake text, fake UI, logos (unless a verified, rights-cleared partner lockup), suits-and-handshake stock-photo clichés, stock smiles at the camera, gavels/scales/courtrooms, law-firm interiors, generic SaaS gradients, fake 3D, or generic glow-blob decoration.

## 4. Verification before publish

1. Rights and generation method recorded in the consuming repo's registry, including the exact prompt/master reference.
2. Full-resolution inspection for real logos, marks, or identifiable people (§2).
3. Both theme variants (light/dark) exist as separately produced images, or the single image is confirmed theme-neutral; never a pale CSS layer faked over a dark original.
4. Crop and focal point survive every derivative the channel needs (landscape / OG / square / portrait; `marketing.md` § Approved Photography Formats).
5. Alt text describes only what is visible; never infer a person's role or a document's identity from a generated photograph.