Seedream 5.5 on PixelDojo: exact quoted text and see-through PNGs
Brian Lovett
5 min read
Abstract
Seedream 5.5 is live on PixelDojo, and the short version is simple: it is fast, it handles quoted text better than most image models, it can return transparent PNGs without a second background-removal step, and it does clean edits when you tell it what must stay and what should change. The post does not try to crown a winner against every other model this week. It sticks to what the prompts and results actually show.
If you want to use it well, the pattern is pretty practical. Put each line of text in double quotes, say where it goes, ask for exact text and no extra text, name the lens and the light, and if you are editing a photo, lock the face, framing, and anything else you do not want to drift. If that sounds like your kind of work, start on the tool page or go straight to the prompting guide and steal one of the ten prompts.
Seedream 5.5 from ByteDance is on PixelDojo as of November 12, 2026. I am not going to pretend we were first. A lot of other tools added it earlier in the week. What I can tell you is what it does well, based on the prompts and results on the model page and the prompting guide.
The short version: it makes a sharp 2K image in about 15 seconds, it spells the words you put in quotes, it can edit your own photos with up to 10 reference images, and it can hand you a PNG with nothing behind the subject. That last one is handy when you make stickers, logos, or product cutouts, because you can skip a second round in a background remover.
The live tool is on this page:
If you want the copy-ready prompts and the notes next to each one, use the Seedream 5.5 prompting guide. This post is the shorter version of that.
How to prompt Seedream for exact quoted text and see-through PNGs
Quoted text is the part that stands out. Put each line in double quotes, say where it sits, and end with something like "the text must be exact, no other text anywhere." The plant-shop photo in the guide comes back with a painted wall sign, a chalkboard line, and a paper tag on a pot, all spelled as typed. A concert poster in the same guide carries four separate lines the same way.
A Seedream 5.5 concert poster from the PixelDojo guide, with four quoted lines spelled as typed.
See-through backgrounds are the other one. In the tool, pick See-through in the Background menu and say "transparent background" in the prompt. The guide uses that for a six-sticker sheet and a circular surf-school badge. Both come back as PNGs you can drop onto a slide or a product page without cutting anything out by hand.
A six-sticker sheet from the guide, returned as a see-through PNG.
It is also fine as a regular camera. The guide's portraits, product bottle with a label, library interior, and ramen shot are each one prompt, at 2K. If you describe the lens, the light, and one or two physical details (individual hairs, wool fibers, droplets on glass), it tends to keep them.
The guide's library interior, one of the regular-camera 2K examples.
Edits are another mode. You can attach up to 10 reference images. The prompt pattern in the guide is boring and effective: list what must stay first, then describe the change. In the harbor-wall portrait example, the prompt asks it to keep the same man, face, smile, and tight 85mm framing, then move him to a snowy street in a camel coat. The face held. The coat, the street, and the snow were new.
The harbor-wall portrait after the edit: same face and framing, new coat, street, and snow.
What Seedream costs on PixelDojo
These are the public credit prices on the model page and the guide, not a comparison against anyone else's per-image API.
From a text prompt: 1 credit at 2K, 0.5 credits at 1K
With reference images: 1.5 credits at 2K, 1 credit at 1K
For context, Seedream 5 Pro is 2.75 credits at 2K on PixelDojo
Seedream 5.5 is included in every plan, from $10/month. It is also a model choice in Character Studio, Character Sheets, Consistent Characters, Reality Polisher, and Canvas, if you already work in those tools.
A Seedream prompt pattern you can steal
Here is the plant-shop one from the guide, unchanged. It is a good template for any scene that has more than one piece of type in it:
Photograph on a 35mm lens at eye level: a beautiful woman in her late twenties with long glossy chestnut hair, bright green eyes, flawless glowing skin and a radiant smile, in a fitted cream knit top and a mustard corduroy jacket, stands behind the counter of a small plant shop at golden hour, holding a terracotta pot with a fern. A hand painted wooden sign on the wall behind her reads "THE GREEN ROOM". A small chalkboard on the counter reads "REPOTTING EVERY SATURDAY". A paper tag tied to the pot reads "FERN 14". Low warm sun through the front window lighting her face, dust in the light, shelves of plants softly blurred, shallow depth of field, natural skin texture, the text must be exact, no other text anywhere.
The plant-shop photo from the guide, with all three signs spelled as typed.
Three habits make this kind of prompt work:
Give each piece of text its own sentence: what it is written on, where it sits, and the words in double quotes.
Name the lens and the light. "35mm at eye level" and "low warm sun through the front window" do more than a list of quality words.
If you are editing a photo, lock the face, the framing, and anything else that must not drift, then describe only the change.
If you are making a poster or an infographic, write it top to bottom. Headline, second line, the picture in the middle, then the lines at the bottom. Short labels of two or three words come out cleaner than long sentences.
Seedream compared with other image models this week
People have been posting same-prompt grids of Seedream 5.5 against MiniMax H3 Image, Nano Banana Pro, and GPT Image 2.6. PixelDojo now has Seedream 5.5 and MiniMax H3 Image in the same place, plus Seedream 5 on PixelDojo if you want to see the previous Seedream next to it. I am not going to pick a winner in this post. The prompting guide is a better place to look at the actual frames and decide for yourself.
If you want to try it, start on the Seedream 5.5 tool page, or skip straight to the Seedream prompting guide and copy one of the ten prompts.
Questions this article answers
When should I use Seedream 5.5's transparent PNG mode instead of generating a normal image and removing the background later?
Use the see-through route when the subject itself is the asset: stickers, badges, logos, product cutouts, or anything headed into slides, storefronts, or mockups. The article's examples suggest the gain is not just convenience, but fewer chances to damage edges or lose small details in a second tool. If the final image needs a scene or environment anyway, a normal render is the better starting point.
If I care most about text accuracy, what should I change in my prompt style beyond just putting words in quotes?
Treat each text element like its own object in the scene. Say what surface it is on, where it sits, and put only that line in double quotes, then close with a hard constraint like "the text must be exact, no other text anywhere." For posters or infographics, write the prompt in reading order from top to bottom, because the guide's examples imply layout instructions work better when the model can map text placement sequentially.
How should a small team decide between 1K and 2K here, based on the credit numbers in the article?
Use 1K for exploration and 2K for the version you plan to ship. The pricing makes that workflow pretty clear: text-only drafts cost half as much at 1K, and reference-based edits are also cheaper there, so you can test wording, layout, or scene direction before paying for the sharper final. That matters most for text-heavy posters and product assets, where you may need a few tries before the exact wording and placement feel right.