Custom colouring book pages

AI Skill: Image generation 

The Scenario: Ten minutes to fill, a bored child, and nothing new to do. AI can make a custom colouring page on any subject in about thirty seconds.

What you need

• ChatGPT or Gemini (the free versions work fine) 
• A printer, or a tablet with a stylus 
• Note: Claude cannot generate images.

How to do it

1. Open ChatGPT or Gemini on your phone or computer.
2. Type or paste the prompt below. Change the details in the brackets to whatever your child is currently obsessed with.

Generate a black and white colouring page for a [age]-year-old of [a unicorn riding a skateboard / a dog playing computer games / an F1 car racing around a football stadium].
Simple lines, no shading, plenty of white space to colour in.
Suitable for printing on A4.

3. Wait a few seconds for the image to appear.
4. Check it over. AI sometimes makes mistakes (like generating a six-legged unicorn).
5. Save it, print it, and hand it over.

Good to know

• Privacy: This specific task requires no personal information, making it very low risk.
• Refining: If the first version is not quite right, ask the AI to tweak it. Try saying “make the lines thicker” or “add a tree in the background”.
• Limits: Free tiers restrict how many images you can generate per day. Do this when you actually need it rather than testing endlessly.

Take it further

• Ask your child to invent the prompt themselves.
• Generate a series of pages to tell a story.
• Create themed pages for birthdays or a low-cost activity table at a party.
• Turn a real photo (like a family pet) into a colouring page.
  Privacy note: Do not upload photos showing children’s faces or identifying locations. Use Temporary Chat if uploading personal photos.

Download the PDF guide