Style references in Krea 2

By the Krea Team. Last updated May 2026.

Style references — S-Refs — are one of the most-used features in Krea 2. We spent as much time building the style transfer system as we did on the foundation model itself.

How it works

You drop an image into the add as style transfer slot in the prompt box. Krea 2 extracts the stylistic components from that image — palette, line work, texture, lighting, composition language — and applies them to whatever you prompt next.

Say you generated a retro cartoon cat on a bicycle and you love the style. Grab that image, drop it in as a style reference, type a new prompt — “a horse galloping in a field” — and hit generate. The model rebuilds the new scene in the same visual world.

Same style, new subject

Source image: retro cartoon cat on a red bicycle

Horse galloping in a field, generated with the cat image as the style reference

Strength matters

Every style reference comes with a strength slider. It controls how much influence the reference has on the output.

At 50% (the default), the model balances your prompt against the reference’s visual language. That’s the sweet spot for most cases.

Push it higher and the style dominates — the model will fight to apply every detail of the reference, sometimes at the expense of the subject. Push it lower — say, 20% — and the style influence becomes a tint. The reference’s palette might bleed through, but the model is mostly drawing from the prompt.

At very low strengths, the model can also do strange things: trying to find places to apply the reference’s colors and ending up painting them somewhere unexpected (like onto the horse itself).

Strength: high vs. low

High strength — the horse fully inherits the retro cartoon style

Low strength — the retro palette tints a more realistic horse

When to use S-Refs

You found a style in one generation and want to extend it across a series.
You have a single reference image — a photo, a painting, a sketch — and want Krea 2 to speak its visual language.
You want surgical control over style transfer. (For more open-ended aesthetic exploration with multiple references, mood boards are usually a better fit.)

S-Refs are the precision tool. Mood boards are the exploration tool. Both can be in your workflow at the same time.

Try style references in Krea 2

Drop in any image and transfer its style to your next generation.

Open Krea 2

Frequently asked questions

How many style references can I use at once?

Up to four. For more references, use [mood boards](/mood-boards-krea-2-v2) instead.

What does the strength slider actually do?

It controls how strongly the reference's visual language influences the output. Higher values lock the style in tightly; lower values let the prompt drive more of the result.

What's the difference between S-Refs and mood boards?

Style references are precise and focused on transferring style from a small set of images. Mood boards use a more complex system to capture style, concepts, expressions, and overall mood from a larger reference set.

Can I use any image as a style reference?

Yes — photos, paintings, illustrations, screenshots. Krea 2 will read whatever visual language is in the image and apply it to your prompt.