Importing Existing Designs

Not every design starts from a blank frame and a prompt. Often you already have something — a screenshot of a design you like, a flyer someone made in another tool, a logo, a product photo — and you want it inside Lega. There are two fundamentally different ways to bring existing material in, and picking the right one matters.

Two ways to import

As a flat image layer. You drop an existing image onto the canvas and it becomes a single image layer — exactly like uploading a photo. It sits on the canvas as one unit: you can move it, resize it, crop it, or use it as a background, but you can't independently edit "the text inside it" or "the shape behind it," because as far as Lega is concerned, it's one flat picture. This is the right move when the image is a finished asset in its own right — a photo, a logo, an icon — that you want to use as-is inside a larger design.

As a rebuilt, layered composition. If what you actually have is a reference design — a poster, a social post, a flyer — and what you want is to edit it, a flat image layer won't get you there; you'd be stuck moving one inert rectangle around. Instead, use Recreate: upload the reference image, and Lega's AI rebuilds it as a real composition of separate, editable layers — text you can retype, shapes you can recolor, a background you can swap — matching the original as closely as it reasonably can. This is the tool for "I want this, but editable" and "I want this, but with our logo and colors instead."

Getting this choice right up front saves rework. If you're not sure which you need, ask yourself whether you actually want to change the internal pieces of the image later. If yes, that's a Recreate job, not a plain upload.

Importing a flat image

Use the image tool from the bottom toolbar, or drag a file directly onto the canvas. Supported formats cover the common raster types (PNG, JPG, WebP) plus SVG for vector assets. Once placed, the image behaves like any other layer — reposition it, resize it, adjust its opacity, crop it, or set it as a background behind other elements. See Image Layers for cropping and asset-resolution details.

This path is also how you bring in brand assets — a logo file, a product photo, a texture — that you want to combine with AI-generated elements around them. A common pattern: generate a layout with AI, then drop in your own logo as an image layer on top.

Rebuilding a design with Recreate

To turn a reference image into an editable design, open Recreate and upload it. Lega analyzes the image and reconstructs it as layers — text, shapes, image regions, decorative elements — positioned to match the source as closely as the analysis allows. What comes out the other side is a normal Lega composition: select any piece, retype the headline, swap a color, replace a background image, just as you would with anything the AI generated from a text prompt.

Recreate is a strong starting point, not a pixel-perfect guarantee — treat the result the same way you'd treat a first AI draft from a text prompt: a fast, editable approximation you then refine by hand. Full details on what it does well and where it needs a manual touch-up are in Recreate: Rebuild From an Image.

Custom illustrations instead of stock imagery

If what you're missing isn't an existing design but a specific illustration or icon that doesn't exist yet — a hand-drawn coffee cup, a custom badge shape — you don't need to source it externally. Sticker Generation creates a custom image asset from a text description directly inside the editor, which then behaves like any other image layer once it's placed.

Practical import scenarios

• You're migrating a batch of old marketing assets. Import each as a flat image if you just need them stored and lightly repositioned; use Recreate for the ones you actually intend to keep editing going forward.
• You have a competitor or inspiration design you want to riff on. Recreate it, then edit copy, colors, and layout — this gets you a genuinely new, on-brand design rather than a traced copy.
• You're bringing your logo into every design. Import it once as a flat image layer, save it to your Brand Kit if that feature is available to you, and reuse it across designs without re-uploading each time.
• You're moving from another tool entirely, including Canva — see Migrating from Canva to Lega for the practical steps, which leans heavily on Recreate for rebuilding your existing library as editable Lega designs.

Where to go next

Once an import is in place, treat it like anything else on your canvas — the same layer, properties, and AI-refinement tools apply. If you imported a flat asset, Image Layers covers cropping and replacement. If you rebuilt something with Recreate, Recreate: Rebuild From an Image covers how to get the closest match and what to expect from the reconstruction.