Generate a layout pack

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Set up your brand files and prompt

1. From the Drive view, select Layout packs in the left sidebar.
2. Click New layout pack, then select Generate layout pack.
3. Click the + button in the top right corner of any tile to add your brand files. For each section, you can upload files, import from Brand Studio, or import from your media library. Every section is optional, but you need at least a prompt to move forward.
   • Style guidelines & references: PDFs, Markdown (.md) files, or images that describe your colors, type, and visual style.
   • Media to display: logos, images, or video clips to place inside your layouts.
     • Images: must be < 30 MB per image
     • PDF uploads: up to 32 MB and 400 pages per PDF. When your PDFs total more than 60 pages, Descript chooses the 60 most relevant pages for your brand. See Long brand guide PDFs.
   • Fonts: font files such as .otf or .ttf. Custom fonts uploaded here stay with the generated pack and aren’t added to your Drive’s shared fonts.
4. Enter a prompt describing the brand, audience, mood, colors, and/or type of content you’ll be creating. Click through Inspire me to pre-populate the prompt field with starter ideas.
5. Choose an aspect ratio: 16:9, 9:16, or 1:1.
6. Click Generate design options.

You can also start from the Generate custom layout packs card at the top of the Layout packs tab, or from the one-time announcement on Home. Click Generate layout pack on either one.

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Get ideas with Inspire me

Each Inspire me suggestion describes a reusable pack: a video type, a few scenes, a style, a color palette, and typography. Click it again to replace the suggestion with a different one, and edit it as much as you like before you generate.

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Long brand guide PDFs

Descript rejects PDFs over 400 pages or 32 MB when you add them and shows “PDFs must be 400 pages or fewer and 32 MB or smaller.” Images over 30 MB aren’t attached, and Descript shows “Images must be 30 MB or smaller.” When your PDFs add up to more than 60 pages, Descript looks for the pages about color, type, logos, imagery, layout, motion, and voice, and skips pages with little text, like covers and section dividers. You don’t need to trim a long brand guide yourself. Pages are picked by reading their text, so a long scanned PDF with little selectable text can fail. If you see “This PDF is too long to read whole and has too little text to pick its brand pages,” upload a version with selectable text, or a PDF of 60 pages or fewer.

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Choose a design direction

Descript shows four preview layout packs built from your files and prompt.

1. Click through the directions to compare them.
2. To ask for something different, type in the prompt box under the directions and submit. You can change the attached files there, too. Descript either refines the direction you’re viewing or writes a new set, and always returns four directions.
3. Select the direction you want, then click Generate layouts. Generate layouts is unavailable while a newly added file is still uploading.

The prompt box shows the files Descript will use for the next set: up to three thumbnails and a file count, or a paperclip icon if no files are attached. Click it to add, remove, or retry files, or use Remove all to clear a section. Your next request and the final layout pack both use the updated files. Generation takes some time, so feel free to leave the page while Descript builds your layout pack.

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Leave and come back

If you leave while a layout pack is generating, a banner appears at the top of the Layout packs tab: “A layout pack generation is still in progress.” Click Return to generation to pick up where you left off. The new pack appears in the Layout packs list while it’s still generating. Clicking it opens the generation progress view until the pack is ready. If you start a new generation while one is in progress, Descript asks you to confirm that you want to start over.

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Generate and publish your layout pack

Once Descript has created it, the pack opens as a draft layout project. Edit any scene, adjust text layers, or swap in different visuals. Click Publish layout pack in the top-right corner to make it available for use in your projects. After publishing, you can use it like any other custom layout pack:

• Apply layouts to scenes in any video composition.
• Share the pack with your Drive.
• Set it as your default layout pack.

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Credit cost

Each design-directions run costs 50 AI credits; each generated pack costs 70 AI credits. The entire two-step workflow costs 120 without any additional re-direction or re-prompting. Each re-prompt is another directions run and costs another 50 credits.