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UI screenshotsBy Prompt TemplateVerified on GPT Image 2 / Nano Banana

Lock the chrome before you describe the screen

UI screenshots fail when the model mixes platforms, ratios, and button labels. Name the OS first, quote the copy, and put unusual aspect ratios on line one.

2026/09/01

A “mobile app screenshot” is not a spec. GPT Image 2 and Nano Banana will happily invent a hybrid: iOS status bar, Android nav, Xiaohongshu double-column, X’s blue check, and a TikTok spinning disc — all in one frame. The fix is boring and it works: platform, ratio, layout, then quoted labels.

What actually breaks

We asked both models for “a screenshot of the Prompt Template gallery on a phone.” The first round mixed a Dynamic Island with a Material back arrow and put 小红书-style heart counts on an iOS tab bar. Second round, we only added “make the text readable.” The buttons became Startt and Favortes. Readable, just not English.

The same prompt on a car-dashboard request defaulted to 9:16 until we moved 21:9 landscape HUD to the first sentence. Ratio last is ratio ignored.

The rule we use

  1. Platform is a proper noun. iOS 18, iPhone 15 Pro, status bar with Dynamic Island, bottom tab bar — not “mobile UI.”
  2. Ratio is line one for anything that is not a phone. Car HUD 21:9, iPad 4:3, marketing web 16:9.
  3. Layout in one sentence. “Top search, two-column masonry, bottom tabs Home / Guides / Saved.”
  4. Quote every string that must appear. "Filters", "Prompt Template", "See why →". “Readable Chinese” is not a string.

Live vs shopping livestreams need the same treatment: pick the scene first (product shelf on the right vs barrage-heavy talent stream) or the chrome will mix both.

Example we actually ran

Weak

A screenshot of our prompt gallery app on a phone, modern UI, readable text.

Locked (this is the structure we keep in the template)

9:16 iOS 18 iPhone screenshot, dark mode, status bar with Dynamic Island.
App: Prompt Template. Layout: top search field, two-column masonry of prompt cards,
bottom tab bar with labels "Home", "Guides", "Saved".
Visible card title: "Lock the chrome". Primary button label: "Copy prompt".
Filter chip: "GPT Image 2". No Android nav, no social-app discs, no extra badges.
Text must match the quoted labels exactly. No lorem, no misspellings.

On GPT Image 2 the quoted labels survived. On Nano Banana they survived when we repeated “exact labels, no extra words” in the last line. Drop that last line and a third tab named Discover appears.

For a 21:9 car HUD, start with the ratio, then the OS (Android Automotive, no phone status bar), then the three widgets (map, now-playing, prompt queue). If the phone-ish chrome still leaks in, add not a smartphone, not 9:16.

When to open this guide from a control

The platform, aspectRatio, layout, and copy slots exist so you can change iOS to Android without rewriting the skeleton. Change one slot at a time and keep the quoted strings. If a generate looks “almost right” but the tabs say something you never wrote, the copy slot was too vague — not the style slot.

Sources

Rewritten from public pitfall notes; examples are Prompt Template’s own gallery / HUD prompts, not copies of the originals.

Controls this guide covers

  • platform

    Name the exact OS or app chrome. Vague “mobile UI” mixes iOS, Android, and social apps.

  • aspectRatio

    Put the ratio first. A 21:9 car HUD collapses to phone 9:16 if you mention it last.

  • layout

    Lock nav, columns, and tab bars. Without a layout sentence the model invents one.

  • copy

    Quote the exact labels. “Readable text” still produces gibberish buttons.