What is ControlNet?

ControlNet lets you use a start image to control your generation in specific ways — much more powerfully than a plain start image.

A start image on its own (image-to-image) just initialises the diffusion process instead of starting from random pixels; it doesn’t actively guide the result. ControlNet models, by contrast, guide the generation, a bit like a visual prompt. For example:

• Pose to Image — generate a person in the same pose as the person in your start image.
• Depth to Image — keep the same depth layout (foreground size and position, background distance) as your start image.
• Canny Edge to Image — follow the outlines and edges of your start image.

ControlNet Steps

By default, ControlNet runs for 100% of the chosen steps. Lowering this stops ControlNet early and lets the normal diffusion process finish the image. This is useful when you want ControlNet to set the initial direction, then let the model take over for the rest.

Skip Preprocessing

By default, your start image is pre-processed for certain ControlNet models — e.g. converted to canny edges for “Canny Edge to Image”, or to a depth map for “Depth to Image”. If you already have a depth map or edge map, turn on Skip Preprocessing to use your start image directly.