One year of PaperPict: what we learned about figures
Eleven months, six tools, and a lot of figures. Some of what we learned we expected. Some of it we didn't.
Read article →The problem we kept running into
Everyone we talked to told some version of the same story. The figure ate a weekend. A reviewer asked for two words to change. The weekend happened again. Image generators made the first draft faster and the second draft impossible, because a pixel image has no labels to retype and no arrows to move.
What PaperPict is
PaperPict is an AI figure generator built for research. You give it a text description, a sketch or photo, or the abstract or full PDF of your paper. About 30 seconds later you have a figure drawn with scientific illustration conventions — activation and inhibition arrows, panel letters, legends, consistent line weights — and every element is still a live object.
What comes out
The master is a layered SVG with true vector paths and real text. From it you export PNG at 600+ DPI at column width, JPG for drafts, and an editable PPTX for slides and co-authors. Nothing you export is a dead end; each format is rendered from the same editable source.
What it deliberately does not do
PaperPict does not invent data. Plots inside a figure are drawn from numbers you supply or from the paper you upload, and we would rather leave a panel empty than fabricate a curve. It does not replace your judgement about scientific accuracy: the draft is fast, but the check is yours.
Where we start
We launch with text-to-figure, image-to-figure, and reference-to-figure, six journal palettes including the colour-blind-safe Okabe-Ito set, and tools for mechanism diagrams, graphical abstracts, and posters. A free plan with monthly credits is available today; Researcher and Lab plans add SVG and PPTX export, PDF input, and shared credits.
What comes next
Over the coming months we will add PRISMA and phylogenetic tools, region regeneration, background stripping, and lab-wide palettes. We will write about each of them here, and about the craft of figures in general — not just our product.
