Figure Builder reads the table you already have — a CSV, a TSV, an XLSX — works out what each column actually is, and offers only the figure types that shape of data can honestly support. 45 types across nine families, exported as SVG, PNG up to 1200 DPI, or true vector PDF. One credit reads the table; every figure and every export after that is free.
Why the figures are the part that gets rushed
The figures are usually made last, in whatever tool was already open, the week the deadline lands. A spreadsheet chart carries its own default palette, its own grey plot background and its own font, none of which belong in a journal. Reviewers notice, and a figure that has to be redrawn during revision is a figure that was drawn twice.
The other failure is quieter and worse: a chart that is drawn correctly from data that cannot support it. Error bars taken from whatever numeric column was nearest. A trend line through categories that have no order. A pie chart of values that do not sum to a whole. The tool that drew it did not check, because it was never asked to.
What it does
Reads the table's shape first — which columns are categories, which are numbers, which are dates, how many rows there are — and then offers the figure types that fit it. Of 45 types in the catalogue, a given table typically supports twenty-odd. The rest are not offered, rather than offered and wrong.
Every option is a live thumbnail drawn from your own table, grouped by family — comparison, distribution, relationship, trend, composition, matrix, model evaluation, clinical, and flow diagrams including PRISMA and CONSORT. You are choosing between pictures of your data, not between names.
Statistics are computed, not approximated. Quartiles, histogram bins, regression lines and confidence bands are calculated from your values using published methods, and each statistical function is tested against a worked example from the literature rather than against its own output.
Error bars are drawn only from a column you point at. A figure claiming a measurement nobody made is worse than no figure, so nothing is inferred from a spare numeric column.
Exports as SVG, PNG at 300, 600 or 1200 DPI, and PDF. The PDF is genuine vector output — text stays selectable text, lines stay lines — so it survives being placed, scaled and printed.
The default palette is neutral and colourblind-safe, picked for paper rather than for a screen. Brand colours are available and are never the default.
What it costs
1 credit per table, taken when the table is analysed. Everything after that — every figure type, every re-export, every size — is free. If no figure type fits the table, nothing is charged at all, and re-running the same table inside a day returns the same analysis rather than charging for it twice.
Every account gets 5 free credits per calendar month, which reset on the 1st. Most things cost one credit; a readiness check against a named journal and a conversion to your own uploaded template cost 2. Free credits cover all of it. Additional credits cost ₹500 each and never expire. There is no subscription and no card on file.
What happens to the data
The file is parsed in your browser. What crosses the network is the schema — the column names, the inferred types, the row count — and never the cell values. That is enforced by a test over the schema module, not by a sentence on this page. Figures are rendered locally from your own data, and nothing is written to disk.
What it does not do
It does not offer JPEG, TIFF or EPS. JPEG is lossy and wrong for line art; TIFF and EPS are legacy submission formats that a vector PDF now satisfies at almost every publisher. If a journal insists on TIFF, open the PDF and export one.
It does not interpret your results, choose your argument, or tell you which figure to publish. It draws what the data supports and leaves the judgement where it belongs.
It does not clean your data. A table with a broken column comes back with fewer figure types offered, not with a guess at what you meant.