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Upload a lab photo
Microscopy, apparatus, field site, or specimen.
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PHOTO-TO-FIGURE
From lab photo
to publishable figure.
Upload microscopy images, apparatus photos, or field shots — SciFig converts them into clean, annotated, journal-ready figures.
Figure prompt
Describe the figure to create from this photo
Action / Details (e.g., simplified schematic, labeled)
How it works
Photo to scientific figure, in 3 steps
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Describe the target figure
Tell AI what a clean, annotated version should emphasize.
3
AI converts it into a diagram
SciFig photo to figure produces schematic output — ready for Methods or Figure sections.
Photo-to-Figure FAQ
Common questions about turning lab photos into reusable illustrated assets.
1.
Snap a photo. SciFig photo to figure gives you a publication-ready illustrated asset.
- From Real Life to Vector: Photograph your lab rig, sample, gel, plant, animal, or microscope view. SciFig converts it into a clean, editable illustrated asset in minutes.
- No Design Skills: You don't need Illustrator's pen tool or a drawing tablet. Point, shoot, upload — SciFig does the illustration.
- Publication-Style, Not a Photo: Output is a consistent, journal-grade vector illustration — not a raw photo with clutter and lighting issues.
2.
Yes. Build your own lab asset library in an afternoon.
- Niche Equipment Covered: Mass spec, bioreactor, custom rig, field sampler, or any lab-specific instrument BioRender doesn't carry. Photograph it once, use it forever.
- Reusable Across Papers: Each generated asset is a reusable vector file. Drop the same illustrated mass spec into every future methods figure.
- Lab-Specific Branding: Build a coherent set of assets unique to your lab — your figures stop looking generic.
3.
Yes. From petri dish to field site, SciFig photo to figure covers it.
- Biological Subjects: Tissues, organoids, plates, bacterial colonies, plants, insects, animals, field sites — all convert into clean illustrated vectors.
- Preserves Distinct Morphology: Unlike generic AI art, Photo-to-Figure keeps species-specific features that matter — streptococci show up as chains, not single cells.
- Ready for Methods Figures: Illustrated samples look consistent across panels — no more mixing iPhone photos with stock illustrations.
4.
Yes. Use WhiteBG to normalize a safely detected, edge-connected background to pure white.
- Content-Preserving: Labels, arrows, instruments, and other figure content remain in place. WhiteBG does not erase text or isolate a subject.
- Fail-Closed: If the background cannot be distinguished safely, the original stays unchanged and no credits are used.
- Need Selective Editing? Use Edit Text or Edit in Canvas for labels, objects, or manual selection.
5.
Raw photos look amateur in a paper. Scientific figure illustrations from SciFig photo to figure don't.
- No Lighting Clashes: Photos have inconsistent exposure, shadows, and clutter. Illustrated assets share one visual language across every panel.
- No Copyright Ambiguity: Stock-photo-looking figures get reviewer scrutiny. Illustrated assets are unambiguously yours.
- Fully Editable on Demand: Photos are locked pixels. Illustrated assets can be fully edited — recolor, resize, relabel without quality loss.
6.
Yes, at every level — shape, color, label, size.
- Separable Parts: Each component of the asset is its own vector object. Edit the microscope eyepiece without touching the base.
- Recolor for Journal Consistency: Match your target journal's preset or your lab's own palette in one click across every asset.
- Zero Quality Loss: Scale from 1" thumbnail to A0 poster — vectors stay sharp at every size.
7.
Every format your photo-to-figure asset needs for paper, deck, or poster.
- Direct Exports: PNG (recommended for journal submission), JPG (smaller files for sharing or email), and PPTX (a 16:9 PowerPoint slide with the asset embedded — drop straight into a deck).
- Vectorize for Layered Editing: Open the result in Vector Canvas and run Vectorize. One pass produces clean SVG (opens in Illustrator, Inkscape, Figma, or Affinity) plus an editable-shape PPTX where every element is a separately selectable PowerPoint object.
- Resolution: PNG/JPG up to 8K — clears 300 DPI at standard journal column widths.
8.
Yes. Your lab photos, samples, and equipment stay confidential.
- Never Training Data: Photographs of your rig, samples, or whiteboards are used only to generate your asset — never fed back into any model.
- Remove Sensitive Content First: Crop or redact faces, identifiers, and sensitive screen text on your device before uploading. WhiteBG changes a detected background to white; it is not a privacy-redaction or subject-isolation tool.
- Yours to Delete: You can remove uploaded photos from our servers.