# General

SleekPixel generates images from a design rather than from an upload: a social
sharing card, a featured image, a quote card. You lay the image out once in a
visual editor, bind its text and pictures to WordPress data such as the post
title or the author's avatar, and Pixel renders one image per post on the
server with ImageMagick.

## Where it lives

Pixel runs in two forms with the same screens:

- **In the suite**, Pixel is a product in the workspace sidebar. It opens on its
  image library and lists Images, Settings and License beneath it.
- **As the standalone SleekPixel plugin**, it has its own **Pixel** entry
  under the **SleekWP** menu in the WordPress admin, which shows only Pixel's
  navigation.

Both need the Imagick PHP extension. Without it Pixel registers neither its
front-end output nor its REST operations, so its screens cannot load; see
[Troubleshooting](/docs/pixel/troubleshooting.md).

## What you can do

- **Design images** on a canvas of any size with text, image and section
  elements, in the [image editor](/docs/pixel/images.md).
- **Start from a template.** The editor's Templates view offers 259 starter
  designs in eight formats: Open Graph, Twitter Card, Featured Image, Instagram
  Post, Instagram Story, Facebook Cover, YouTube Thumbnail and Pinterest Pin.
- **Fill an image from WordPress data** with
  [dynamic data](/docs/pixel/dynamic-data.md) about the post, its author, the
  site, the archive and the query, or with
  [your own entries](/docs/pixel/custom-data.md).
- **Choose where an image is used** in its [Conditions](/docs/pixel/locations.md)
  view: Open Graph and Twitter Card tags, the featured image, or a panel in
  the block editor sidebar, each limited by rules such as the post type.
- **Render it yourself** with the [PHP functions](/docs/pixel/rendering/function.md)
  or the [shortcode](/docs/pixel/rendering/shortcode.md).
- **Use your own fonts**: upload font files or connect
  [Google Fonts](/docs/pixel/settings/custom-fonts.md).
- **Work with the assistant**, which can read and edit the open design; see
  [Assistant](/docs/pixel/ai/chat.md).
- **Script it** with the [`wp sleek pixel`](/docs/pixel/cli.md) commands.
- **Keep designs as files** under `sleek/pixel/` in the active theme with
  [Agent Sync](/docs/ai/agent-sync.md), to version them or let a coding agent
  edit them.

## How an image is produced

1. You save a design. Pixel stores it as an image record with its elements,
   canvas settings and conditions.
2. A page is requested. When a design's conditions match that page, Pixel
   renders the design for the current post, or reuses the file it rendered
   before, and writes it into the page.
3. Rendered files are cached under `wp-content/uploads/sleek-pixel/images`.
   A file is rendered again when the design, the post, the data passed to it,
   the language or the plugin version changes.

[Options](/docs/pixel/settings/options.md) decides the file format and whether a
missing file is rendered during a signed-in user's request or in the
background; for visitors it always renders in the background.

## Reference

- [Hooks](/docs/pixel/reference/hooks.md)
- [WP-CLI commands](/docs/pixel/reference/cli.md)
- [REST operations](/docs/pixel/reference/rest.md)
- [Settings](/docs/pixel/reference/settings.md)