Synthwave AI art generator
A 2000s revival aesthetic built from remembered 1980s imagery: VHS cover art, early computer graphics, and the airbrushed futurism of the era's album sleeves.
Synthwave is nostalgia for a decade that never quite looked like this. Its vocabulary is small and rigidly consistent: a perspective grid receding to a horizon, an oversized sun in horizontal bands, chrome type, palm silhouettes, and a magenta-to-cyan gradient sky. That tightness is a gift when prompting, because naming three or four of those elements is enough.
The other essential is flatness. Synthwave is graphic rather than atmospheric, closer to a screen printed poster than to a photograph. Words like "flat", "graphic", "poster" and "high contrast" keep it from drifting into the wet, dense look of cyberpunk, which shares the palette but none of the composure.
Prompt keywords for synthwave
Add any of these to a prompt to push the model toward this style.
- synthwave
- retrowave
- perspective grid
- banded sun
- chrome
- 1980s poster
Generate synthwave art
Open the generator with a prompt in this style already loaded. Free, no sign-up required.
Start generatingPrompt examples you can copy
Each of these leans on the synthwave vocabulary above rather than just naming the style.
synthwave landscape, glowing perspective grid receding to a banded magenta sun, palm tree silhouettes, gradient sky from purple to cyan, flat graphic poster
retrowave sports car on an empty highway at dusk, chrome reflections, neon horizon, scanline texture, high contrast, 1980s poster style
synthwave city skyline in wireframe, glowing cyan lines on black, oversized moon, flat graphic composition, VHS grain
outrun style mountain range in neon gradient, grid valley floor, stars above, symmetrical composition, flat and graphic
retro 1980s computer graphics scene, chrome sphere on a checkered grid, magenta rim light, black background, airbrushed poster style
What defines the style
- A perspective grid receding toward the horizon
- An oversized sun split into horizontal bands
- Magenta to cyan gradient skies
- Chrome and glow effects with heavy scanlines or VHS grain
Recommended model
Kandinsky's saturated gradients and graphic sensibility suit synthwave's flat poster aesthetic better than a photographic model.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I get the grid and the banded sun?
- Ask for them by name: "glowing perspective grid receding to the horizon" and "banded sun" or "sun split into horizontal stripes". They are the two elements people read the whole genre from.
- How is this different from vaporwave?
- Synthwave is dark, neon, and driving, built around sunsets and grids. Vaporwave is pastel, washed out, and ironic, built around classical busts, Windows 95 chrome, and Japanese text. Different moods entirely.
- How do I add the VHS look?
- Add "scanline texture", "VHS grain" or "chromatic aberration". Those artefacts of old video are a large part of why the style reads as recovered from the past rather than made now.
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