Introduction
This guide explains how image editing with Imagine works: where you can start an edit, what happens when you finish, how your edit history (sessions) is kept or cleaned up, and which file formats are supported.
🌀 Insight: Imagine is Gamma's full-canvas image editor. Advanced editing opens an image in that canvas, where you can generate variations, restyle, crop, erase, remove backgrounds, expand, and make agent-driven edits.
🔷 Note: Image editing with Imagine is available on all plans except Business and Enterprise, and uses credits.
To learn more about Imagine, please see:
Where can I start editing an image?
You can open an image in Imagine from several places. The entry point you use also decides what the finish button looks like (see the next section).
The control looks different depending on where you are - sometimes it's a single button, sometimes a button with a dropdown, and sometimes a pill among other suggestions. In all cases, the action that opens the full canvas is Advanced editing.
Workspace AI Images library: a single Edit button
On an image in your workspace library, there's a single rounded Edit button. Clicking it opens Imagine.
Inside a document, AI Images / AI Infographics drawer: an Edit button with a dropdown
On an image selected in the in-document drawer, the same rounded Edit button has a dropdown caret (▾). Opening it gives you two choices:
Edit with Agent - quick, in-place edits via the agent (stays in the doc; does not open Imagine).
Advanced editing - opens the full Imagine canvas.
Inside a document, image formatting toolbar: a dropdown that opens a menu
When you select an image on a card, the formatting toolbar shows an Edit with Agent button with a dropdown caret (▾). Opening it reveals a menu whose top item is the Advanced editing pill (alongside quick actions like Remove background, Upscale, etc.). The Advanced editing pill opens Imagine.
Buddy chat: an Advanced editing pill
When you have an image selected and open Buddy chat, an Advanced editing pill appears as the first chip in the row of suggested actions. Tapping it opens Imagine.
🔷 Note: In every case, Imagine opens with your image already on the canvas, ready to edit. The Advanced editing option only appears for image formats Imagine can edit (see Which file formats are supported? below).
How do I finish an edit?
What you see in the top-right of the canvas depends on whether you started from a document or from the library.
Started from a document (editor flow)
There are two controls:
Apply selection (top-right) - puts the image you've selected back into your document, replacing the one you started from.
You must have exactly one image selected. If nothing is selected, or more than one is selected, the button is greyed out with a tip to select a single image (or to use Back to editor to leave).
Applying the original, unchanged image is allowed. Even if you made no edits, you can apply the image you started with.
‹ Back to editor (top-left) - returns to your document without applying anything. Any edits you made stay saved in the session, so you can come back to them later.
There's also an Export button to download the image to your device.
Started from the library (library flow)
Return to library (top-right) and the ‹ Return to library breadcrumb do the same thing: take you back to the library.
There is no "apply" step in the library flow. Every image you create or edit in the canvas is automatically saved to your AI Images library as you go.
💎 Pro Tip: Always move between the editor and Imagine using the in-app buttons (Edit, Advanced editing, Apply selection, Back to editor, Return to library) rather than your browser's back and forward buttons. Browser navigation between the two isn't supported and can prevent your edit from applying correctly.
What happens to my edit history (sessions)?
Each time you edit an image in Imagine, your work lives in a session (the canvas, its images, all their versions, and any agent chat). Your sessions appear under the Graphics tab in your workspace, so you can return to them.
When a session is kept
A session is preserved (you can reopen it later) whenever any of these is true:
You applied an image back to your document - even if it was the original, unedited image.
You made edits - even if you then chose Back to editor and didn't apply anything.
You chatted with the agent in the session.
It's a session that wasn't created purely for a one-off image edit (for example, a session you built up in the create/generate flow). These are never cleaned up automatically.
When a session is automatically cleaned up
If you open Advanced editing on an image but never actually do anything - no edits, no generations, no agent chat - and then use Back to editor / Return to library, that empty edit session is discarded so it doesn't clutter your gallery.
You opened an edit, and… | Result on going back |
made at least one edit/variation (applied or not) | kept |
chatted with the agent | kept |
applied an image (even the original) | kept |
did nothing at all, then went back | cleaned up |
🔷 Note: Closing the browser tab or navigating away by URL doesn't trigger the automatic cleanup - only using the in-app Back / Return controls does. An untouched session left behind that way can always be removed manually from the gallery.
How do I delete a session or an image?
Deleting a session (from the Graphics tab) removes that edit history and its canvas. The image you already applied to a document, or that was saved to your library, is not affected - it stays where it is. That image simply no longer offers to resume a previous edit.
Deleting an image from within a session removes that image (and its versions) from the canvas. The rest of the session - other images and your chat - stays intact. Any versions already saved to your Images library remain there.
How do I resume an edit session?
The first time you choose Advanced editing on an image that has never been edited, Imagine creates a fresh session for it on the spot and opens the canvas. You don't need to do anything to set this up. From then on, that image can resume its session (until the session is deleted).
If you open Advanced editing on an image you've edited before, Imagine reopens that image's existing session with all of its edit history, rather than starting over. (This applies to images you own.)
One small exception: Advanced-editing an original that you added by web search or upload always starts a fresh session - those originals don't carry edit history. Edits you then make are saved to your library and resume their session as usual.
Which file formats are supported?
Advanced editing works with standard raster image formats:
JPEG.
PNG.
WebP.
HEIC / HEIF (Apple photos - converted to JPEG on upload).
The following are not supported for editing, and the Advanced editing option won't appear for them:
SVG and other vector formats.
GIF and animated images.
AVIF, BMP, TIFF, ICO.
Video (MP4, MOV, WebM, M4V, AVI, MKV, WMV) - including AI animations that are really short videos.
FAQs & Common Issues
Can I use my browser's back and forward buttons to move between the editor and Imagine?
No - browser navigation between the editor and Imagine isn't supported, and is the most common reason an edit fails to apply.
Start each edit session with the Edit or Advanced editing button, and finish with Apply selection, Back to editor, or Return to library.
If you navigate with browser buttons, an in-app message will guide you back to the supported flow.
Why did editing my uploaded image start a new session instead of resuming my previous one?
Originals added by upload or web search don't carry edit history, so Advanced-editing the original again starts a fresh session.
To resume where you left off, open Advanced editing on the edited version of the image (or reopen the session from the Graphics tab) - that returns you to the same session.
Can I edit images I uploaded to my Media library?
Not yet - Advanced editing currently isn't available for files uploaded directly to the Media library.
You can still edit images that have been added to a document or generated with AI.
Does Advanced editing use credits?
Yes - generating and editing images in Imagine uses your Gamma credits, the same as other Imagine actions.
My edits weren't applied to my document. Where did they go?
If you used Back to editor instead of Apply selection, your edits weren't applied - but they're saved in the session.
Reopen Advanced editing on the image (or open the session from the Graphics tab), select the version you want, and click Apply selection.