Further Reading: Chapter 18 — Image Generation — Midjourney, DALL·E, and Stable Diffusion

Official Documentation and Platform Resources

Midjourney Documentation https://docs.midjourney.com The official Midjourney documentation covers all parameters, commands, and features. Particularly useful: the parameter list for v6 (with current values and effects), the prompting basics guide, and the tutorials on using reference images. Updated as the platform evolves.

Midjourney Quick Start Guide https://docs.midjourney.com/docs/quick-start For new users, this is the most efficient path to first working images. The 4-step guide covers account setup, the Discord interface, and basic prompting.

OpenAI DALL·E Documentation https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/images Technical documentation for DALL·E integration via API. More relevant for developers than end users, but contains useful information about capabilities, resolution options, and content policy specifics.

Stable Diffusion Web UI (AUTOMATIC1111) https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui The main repository for the most widely-used Stable Diffusion interface. The wiki (linked from the repository) contains extensive documentation on all features, including ControlNet setup and usage.

ComfyUI https://github.com/comfyanonymous/ComfyUI The node-based Stable Diffusion interface favored by power users. More complex but more flexible than Automatic1111. The community has created extensive workflow documentation.

Prompting Guides and Communities

Midjourney Community Showcase https://www.midjourney.com/showcase Browsing Midjourney's showcase is one of the fastest ways to build intuition for what the platform can produce and find vocabulary for styles you want to achieve.

PromptHero https://prompthero.com A community database of prompts and their results across multiple AI image platforms. Useful for finding prompts that produce specific styles or effects, and for understanding what vocabulary is associated with what visual output.

Civitai https://civitai.com The primary community hub for Stable Diffusion fine-tuned models (checkpoints, LoRAs, embeddings). If you use Stable Diffusion, Civitai is where you find models optimized for specific styles, subjects, or use cases. Also includes prompt galleries showing model outputs.

Copyright Registration of AI-Generated Works (U.S. Copyright Office) https://www.copyright.gov/ai/ The U.S. Copyright Office's guidance on AI and copyright. Updated regularly as policy evolves. Covers what can and cannot be registered, what human authorship means in the context of AI-assisted creation, and relevant pending decisions.

DALL·E and ChatGPT Usage Policies (OpenAI) https://openai.com/policies/usage-policies The current OpenAI usage policies govern what DALL·E-generated images can be used for commercially. Always read the current version — policies change.

Midjourney Terms of Service https://docs.midjourney.com/docs/terms-of-service Covers commercial rights for generated images across Midjourney subscription tiers. Understanding the difference between the basic, standard, and pro tiers' commercial rights provisions is practically important.

Research and Critical Perspectives

"Human Artists and AI Image Generation: Creative Collaboration or Competition?" (McKinsey Global Institute, 2024) McKinsey's research on AI adoption in creative fields documents both the rate of adoption among professional creatives and the specific use cases seeing highest uptake. The pattern of high adoption for ideation/concepting and lower adoption for final deliverables is well-documented here.

Andrej Karpathy: Stable Diffusion Explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFztPP9qPRc Karpathy (formerly of OpenAI and Tesla) provides the best accessible technical explanation of how diffusion models work. The video is more technically detailed than this chapter covers, but it is highly accessible and substantially deepens your conceptual understanding of why generation works the way it does.

"The DALL·E 3 Paper: Improving Image Generation with Better Captions" Available via OpenAI's research publications (openai.com/research) The technical paper behind DALL·E 3's improvements in prompt adherence. Accessible to non-researchers — the key insight (that better image captions in training dramatically improve generation quality) is explained clearly.

Tools and Utilities

Lexica.art https://lexica.art A Stable Diffusion image search engine and generation tool. Useful for finding prompts that generate specific aesthetics, and as a community resource for Stable Diffusion prompt research.

Adobe Firefly https://firefly.adobe.com Adobe's AI image generation tool, notable for its "commercially safe" positioning (trained only on Adobe Stock and licensed content). For practitioners whose use cases require clarity on training data provenance, Adobe Firefly is worth understanding as an alternative.

Note on Currency

Midjourney, DALL·E, and Stable Diffusion are all actively developing platforms. Model versions, parameter options, interface designs, and pricing all change. The Flux model family from Black Forest Labs represents the newest generation of open-source image generation as of early 2026 and is increasingly integrated into Stable Diffusion interfaces. For the most current capabilities and workflows, follow the official documentation and active communities for each platform rather than static guides that may be out of date.