Fig 1.
The QuickFigures user interface.
An open figure is displayed. Black arrow points to the worksheet window where nearly all edits are performed with the mouse. Red arrows indicate toolbars. The main toolbar on the left contains drawing tools, the ‘Quick Figure’ tool and the ‘Inset’ tool indicated by violet arrow. A single pentagon is drawn and selected to demonstrate drawing and object selection. All objects can be selected and edited. The layers window displays a list of layers and objects (orange arrow).
Fig 2.
Popup menus are specific for different types of objects.
Screenshot shows the popup menus for three types of objects: an image panel that is part of a figure, a scale bar, a layout and a channel label.
Fig 3.
Handles and shortcuts are available when an item is selected.
Screenshot shows an example of a selected object. Several icons and handles are visible when the object is selected. User may change the length of the scale bar by dragging a handle or clicking an icon for a menu (green arrows). Similarly, the user may fine tune the location of an object with the handles indicated by orange arrows. Other options are also available (black and grey arrows). Descriptions and diagrams for each major object type are shown in user manual.
Fig 4.
Objects can be edited with dialogs.
Screenshot shows the dialog for one item (scale bar). Every option related to scale bar editing is listed by name in the dialog.
Fig 5.
Less time is required to create a figure using QuickFigures.
(A) Plot shows the time required to create a figure with each software. Error bars depict standard deviation. 3 replicates of each time measurement were done. (B) Images of figures created during the time measurement test are shown.