Specimen Studio

SpecimenStudio

Not saved

Gallery

Request an icon ↗

Templates

Start from a layout and replace what you need. Everything stays editable.

My templates

Shapes

Arrows & lines

Or press A and drag. Drag the ends to reconnect, and the middle dot to bend. Arcs and circles have round handles to open them from a short arc to a full circle.

Forms

Forms work as labels too: double-click a form to write inside it. Delete all the text and it is a plain form again.

Annotations

Text

Sizes are real points at print size. Click to add, or select text first to restyle it.

Font for the whole figure

Most journals ask for Arial or Helvetica, 5–8 pt minimum.

Draw

Pick a brush, then draw on the figure. End near your starting point to close the shape (cells, organelles). Start at the end of an existing line to extend it. Double-click a drawing to reshape it.

Mode

Size Spacing Colour

Molecule to repeat Rotate along the path

Fill closed shapes

Or add

Colours

Click a colour to apply it to the selection, or to the selected part of an icon.

Style presets for icons

Applies to the selected icons, or to every icon if nothing is selected.

Presets don’t stack: each one starts from the original colours.

Colours in this figure

Point at a colour to see where it is (green), then change it to recolour it everywhere at once.

Your palette

Draw with AI

Describe what you need. Claude draws it as an editable vector icon in the library style.

AI drawing (beta) is in the Claude version of Specimen Studio: open in Claude (browser or Claude app). Can't find an icon? Use Request an icon in the gallery. Everything else works here.

Icon Style

Colours (optional)

Variants

Best quality (slower)

Results

From a reference image

Use a picture from a paper, another icon set, ChatGPT or a sketch as a reference. Claude draws a new, original icon in our style.

New illustration from chosen icons

Drag the icons that are the starting point onto the canvas, e.g. a brain, a syringe and a virus.
Select them and group them (Ctrl+G).
Describe the illustration you want, then press Compose.

Nothing to combine yet: put the icons on the canvas, select them and group them (Ctrl+G).

Let Claude look at the result and correct it

Claude makes a new illustration from them: complex icons such as organs stay exactly as they are, others are redrawn in the same style with the changes needed (e.g. a longer needle, the right liquid, a virus label), and markers or glows are added. Selecting the group also shows this as “AI draw” in the right panel. Ctrl+Z undoes it.

Each request uses your own Claude usage. The first time, Claude asks you to allow this page.

Uploads

Bring in icons from other tools, AI-generated pictures, microscopy or blots.

Drop files or click to choose SVG, PNG, JPG, WebP · or paste with Ctrl+V

Where are these files from?

Source: ·change

The licence travels with each icon, and the credit line for your figure legend is written automatically.

Crop, Remove background and Convert to vector and Redraw with AI appear in the right panel when a picture is selected.

Free icon libraries

Figures

On your computer

Save the open figure as a file (compressed, fully editable) in any folder, e.g. on the lab drive, and open it again later or on another computer.

mm

✓

Drop to add to the figure

Grid & guides

Show grid

Grid spacing

Snap to grid Smart guides (snap to objects & guides) Rulers

marginmm colsrows guttermm

Margins and panel guides show as dashed lines. Objects snap to them, and they never appear in exports.

Export figure

File name Also renames the figure in Specimen Studio.

Format

Resolution

Background

Area

How to credit this figure

Other sources in this figure

Icons from other websites only show up here if their source is set: when uploading, or later by selecting the icon and choosing Source & licence in the right panel.

Icon library (for the methods)

Some journals restrict AI-generated images. Check your journal’s AI policy before submitting.

Tool citation (optional)

Specimen Studio

A figure editor for the life sciences: our own icon library, templates, brushes and AI drawing.

Concept & design

Nuria López-Alcántara

Icon library

Specimen Studio icon library by Nuria López-Alcántara, licensed under CC BY 4.0: free to use and adapt, with credit. The icons were generated with ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Claude (Anthropic) from human-written prompts, then vectorised and reviewed. For a figure legend, “Figure created by the authors using Specimen Studio. Icons were generated from human prompts using ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Claude (Anthropic).” is enough; Export shows it ready to copy. Please also check your journal’s AI policy.

Claude version

Specimen Studio also opens in Claude (browser or Claude app), with AI drawing (beta): open in Claude. Your figures there are separate from the ones saved on this website.

Built with

Claude (Anthropic)

Preview

Refine this version

Save as a new figure

The figure is saved as a separate copy. The original stays as it was.

Name