Limited-edition holiday packaging: concept renders from one photo

Before you ask a printer for a quote, you want to see the holiday edition next to the regular one. Starting from your existing product photo keeps the shape and label honest, and only the packaging story changes. Treat the result as a concept image for a meeting, not as print art.

Why Ideogram 4.5 for packaging text

Packaging carries words: an edition name, a year, a flavor. fal's Ideogram 4.5 page describes the model as generating images, posters and logos "with accurate text rendering" with low, medium or high quality tiers. On Sume it is ideogram/ideogram-v4.5. Without references it generates from text; with input_references it edits the first image and uses up to 4 more as references, 5 in total.

Order the references

Put the product photo first, because that is the image being edited. Add up to four more: a foil or pattern swatch, a ribbon, a seasonal color card. Name each in the prompt as image 2, image 3, and say what must not change: the product shape, the logo, the camera angle. An edit without aspect_ratio keeps the source shape.

import os
import requests

refs = [
    "https://example.com/product.jpg",
    "https://example.com/foil-pattern.jpg",
]
resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.sume.com/v1/images",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['SUME_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "model": "ideogram/ideogram-v4.5",
        "prompt": "Image 1 is the product. Put it in a deep green holiday "
                  "sleeve using the foil pattern of image 2, with the "
                  "words WINTER EDITION 2026 on the front. Keep the "
                  "product shape and camera angle.",
        "quality": "low",
        "input_references": [
            {"type": "image_url", "image_url": {"url": u}} for u in refs
        ],
    },
    timeout=60,
)
print(resp.status_code)
print(resp.json())

Draft cheap, finalize once

The fal page prices low at $0.03, medium at $0.06 and high at $0.22, whatever the size. Sume's catalog formula is list times 1.25 rounded up to the cent, so the rows below are what the wallet pays. quality takes low, medium or high; omitted defaults to medium, and resolution is 1K or 2K.

A six-colorway round

Run six colorways at low: 6 x $0.04 is $0.24. Pick two, rerun them at medium for $0.16, then render the winner at high for $0.28. The whole round is $0.68, with no photo shoot.

If a call asks for a field the model does not list, Sume answers 400 unsupported_parameter rather than dropping it, so a typo is visible. Reference URLs must be public HTTPS.

What a render cannot tell you

Use the images to choose a direction, then hand the winner to your packaging designer as a brief.

• Dieline, bleed and fold: the image does not know your box structure.
• Spot colors and foil behavior: match against a physical proof.
• Legal copy and barcodes: add them in your design file.
• Edition name spelling: read it letter by letter on every draft.