Master Midjourney’s sref and cref: Control Style and Content in AI Image Generation

Midjourney is a powerful text‑to‑image AI model that creates unique images from textual prompts.

sref (style reference)

sref allows users to specify one or more images as style references, guiding Midjourney to generate images with a similar visual style. It can be used to achieve styles such as realism, surrealism, abstract, impressionism, cubism, pop art, and many others.

cref (content reference)

cref lets users provide one or more images as content references, helping Midjourney generate images that contain similar subjects. Unlike image prompts, cref focuses on content similarity while sref focuses on style similarity. It works best with anime or game characters and is less suitable for realistic photos.

Using cref

1. Click the “+” button in the top‑left corner to upload one or more reference images (prefer clear, well‑lit portraits). 2. Send the images, then enter your prompt with the desired size and add

--cref <image‑URL>

. 3. Adjust the content weight with

--cw <value>

(default 100). Lower values (0‑30) prioritize the textual prompt, higher values (80‑100) increase similarity to the reference image.

High‑quality reference images should be high‑resolution, sharp, well‑lit, and free of blur or distortion.

cref examples

The girl wearing a denim suit tied a ponytail --ar 9:16 --cref https://s.mj.run/s9ahb_ilI0s --v 6.0 --cw 0

The girl wearing a denim suit tied a ponytail --ar 9:16 --cref https://s.mj.run/s9ahb_ilI0s --v 6.0 --cw 50

The girl wearing a denim suit tied a ponytail --ar 9:16 --cref https://s.mj.run/s9ahb_ilI0s --v 6.0 --cw 100

When

--cw 0

, the image matches the prompt closely but has lower visual fidelity; with

--cw 100

, the image closely resembles the reference but may lose some prompt detail. Values between 30 and 60 generally provide a balanced result.

sref (style reference) advanced usage

After uploading a style reference image, add

--sref <image‑URL>

and adjust the style weight with

--sw <value>

(default 100). Setting

--sw 0

disables the style influence, while higher values (up to 1000) intensify it.

sref examples

Girl, wearing a beret, a windbreaker, cool boots, holding a baseball bat in hand --ar 9:16 --sref https://s.mj.run/KG-wdaBGNdo --v 6.0 --sw 100

Girl, wearing a beret, a windbreaker, cool boots, holding a baseball bat in hand --ar 9:16 --sref https://s.mj.run/KG-wdaBGNdo --v 6.0 --sw 500

Girl, wearing a beret, a windbreaker, cool boots, holding a baseball bat in hand --ar 9:16 --sref https://s.mj.run/KG-wdaBGNdo --v 6.0 --sw 0

With

--sw 0

the style influence is minimal but the prompt remains accurate; higher

--sw

values produce stronger style fidelity while preserving prompt details.

Combined cref and sref

Cyberpunk style, girl, wearing beret, windbreaker, cool boots, holding baseball bat --ar 9:16 --cref https://s.mj.run/s9ahb_ilI0s --cw 20 --sw 500 --sref https://s.mj.run/KG-wdaBGNdo

The tutorial demonstrates that both sref and cref are powerful tools for controlling style and content in Midjourney, and encourages users to experiment with different weight settings to achieve the desired balance.