---
title: "AI artifacts (AI artefacts): meaning and marketplace rules | Herofab"
description: "Visible errors that generative AI leaves in an image, such as warped hands, melted lettering, merged straps or patterns that do not match the real product."
url: https://herofab.app/glossary/ai-artifacts
language: en
updated: 2026-11-06
---

# AI artifacts

Visible errors that generative AI leaves in an image, such as warped hands, melted lettering, merged straps or patterns that do not match the real product.

Also called **AI artefacts** · **AI glitches** · **generation artifacts**

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![Forearm across the body, wearing the black leather cuff with silver studs](https://herofab.app/img/ex/bracelet-studs-1100.webp)

Made with Herofab · Jewelry studio

Artifacts arise because the model draws a likely image instead of recording a real one. The usual ones in fashion images are hands with extra or fused fingers, lettering on labels and prints that turns into lookalike characters, logos that change shape, buttons and eyelets in the wrong number, straps or chains that melt into skin or fabric, earrings that do not match, and patterns that break at seams. In scenes, shadows fall the wrong way and reflections show objects that are not there.

Some artifacts are cosmetic; others change the product. A misdrawn hand makes an image look cheap, while a changed print, a missing pocket or a different clasp shows the buyer an item that does not exist. Several marketplaces name such distortions as a reason to reject AI images, and buyers who spot one tend to distrust the rest of the gallery.

Most artifacts are invisible in a thumbnail and obvious at full size. A practical check opens every image at full size and compares it with the real product part by part: lettering and logos, fastenings, the count of repeated elements, the edges where product meets skin or background, hands and faces, and the run of a print across seams. A small artifact can often be repaired by regenerating only that area; an image in which the product itself is wrong is replaced, not repaired.

## AI artifacts, answered.

**Should I fix AI artifacts or generate the image again?**

Fix a small flaw in the scene, and generate again when the product itself is wrong. A stray shadow, an odd hand or a smudge in the background can be repaired by redoing only that area. A changed print, a missing pocket or misdrawn lettering on the product means the image shows something else, and a repair on top of it rarely holds up.

**Which parts of an AI product image go wrong most often?**

Lettering, hands and anything that repeats or has to match. Labels and prints turn into lookalike characters, fingers merge, buttons change in number and earrings or shoes in a pair stop matching. Checking these at full size against the real product catches most problems, and the edge where the product meets skin or background comes next.

## What marketplaces say about it.

Updated 25 September 2026

- **Zalando:** Not acceptable: an inaccurate representation of the article, such as distorted text, mispositioned buttons or brand logos merged with another brand; an implausible setting, such as wrong shadow angles or proportion errors; an inconsistent model appearance across an image set [Official page](https://partner.zalando.com/university/article/zalando-image-guidelines)
- **Wolf & Badger:** Not acceptable: visibly low-quality AI artefacts, such as warped hands, melted text, distorted seams or impossible reflections [Official page](https://kb.wolfandbadger.com/image-requirements-apparel)
- **Rakuten Ichiba:** Rakuten notes that AI-generated images, too, can be cut out unnaturally or have parts fused together [Official page](https://service.rms.rakuten.co.jp/column/detail/26)

Related

[Virtual try-on](https://herofab.app/tools/virtual-try-on) · [Canvas](https://herofab.app/tools/ai-image-generator) · [Image zoom](https://herofab.app/glossary/image-zoom) · [On-model image](https://herofab.app/glossary/on-model-image) · [AI image labelling](https://herofab.app/glossary/ai-image-labeling) · [Why do AI photos look fake? How to make them look real](https://herofab.app/guides/how-to-make-ai-product-photos-look-real) · [All terms](https://herofab.app/glossary/)

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