The Auto-Image feature automatically generates an article image using a SocialMagick template and saves it directly into the article's Intro Image and/or Full Text Image field when you save the article. This is useful when you want every article to have a visually consistent, branded image even if you have not manually provided one.
Auto-Image generation is only available for Joomla core articles through the SocialMagick – Articles integration plugin. It does not apply to categories, menu items, or third-party components.
An image is generated and assigned only when the relevant image field is completely empty at the time you save the article. SocialMagick will never overwrite an image you have already provided.
When you save an article in the Joomla backend, the SocialMagick – Articles plugin inspects the article's image fields. If either the Intro Image or the Full Text Image field is empty (depending on your Auto-Image setting), SocialMagick renders an OpenGraph image using the configured Auto-Image template and the article title as the overlay text, then saves the rendered image file to the configured storage location and populates the empty image field with a reference to that file.
The generated image file is a standard image (PNG, JPG, or WebP depending on your Image Type setting in the Advanced options) stored in the Joomla Media Manager. You can view, replace, or delete it from the Media Manager at any time.
The most important thing to get right when configuring Auto-Image is the choice of template. The generated article image must look good as a standalone image — it will appear in article listing pages, category blogs, and potentially as the Extra Image in SocialMagick's own OpenGraph images.
For this reason, the Auto-Image template should not use the article's Intro Image or Full Text Image as its Extra Image source. At the moment the auto-image is generated (during the article save) those fields do not yet contain a value, so the template would render with no Extra Image. A solid-colour card template with the title overlay, or one with a static Extra Image, is the most sensible choice.
To enable the Auto-Image feature:
Go to → and click .
Open the Auto-Image tab.
Set Image Save Location to the Media Manager adapter where you want the generated files stored. Leave it at the default (Local - images) unless you have a specific reason to change it.
Optionally change Image Save Subdirectory from the default socialmagick to a directory of your choice.
Set Auto-Image to the image field(s) you want to populate automatically: Intro Image Only, Full Text Image Only, or Intro And/Or Full Text Image.
Set Default Auto-Image Template to the template you want to use. Remember: choose a template that does not depend on the article's own images.
Save the Options.
From now on, every time you save an article in the backend with an empty Intro Image or Full Text Image (depending on your setting), SocialMagick will generate and assign an image automatically.
You can override the Auto-Image setting and the Auto-Image template at the category and article level using the SocialMagick OpenGraph tab available in category and article edit forms. This lets you use different templates for different sections of your site, or disable Auto-Image entirely for specific categories or articles.