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An alternative to making figures in PowerPoint
Most scientific figures are still assembled in PowerPoint out of ovals, arrows and clip art, because it is the program everyone has. BioDiorama is a free browser tool built for that job instead: 27,200 ready-made 3D biology and chemistry models, about 13,000 science icons, about 500 ready-made biology diagrams and about 320 templates, a 3D studio to pose them in and a page editor for panels — and it exports an editable .pptx in which every picture, shape, arrow and text box is still its own PowerPoint object. So you do not leave PowerPoint behind; you stop drawing biology in it.
Open BioDiorama See the 27,200 models
At a glance
| BioDiorama | PowerPoint | |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Free, with no account. | Part of a Microsoft 365 subscription or an Office licence. |
| What you start from | Ready-made cells, organs, molecules, animals, instruments and diagrams. | Shapes, lines and whatever clip art you can find. |
| Resolution | TIFF and PNG up to 600 dpi, and vector SVG and PDF. | Slides are 96 dpi by default; exported pictures are usually too coarse for a journal. |
| 3D | A real 3D studio — pose, light, cut open, animate. | Can display a .glb 3D model, but not build one. |
| Page sizes | Journal figure widths, A0–A4 posters, 16:9 slides. | Slide sizes, stretched for posters. |
| Staying editable | PowerPoint export keeps every item separate, so you can keep working in PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides. | Native. |
| Animation | Record the studio to MP4 or GIF; export .glb to spin a model inside a slide. | Slide transitions and object animations. |
| Working together | Share the file — .biofig, .pptx or .svg. | Co-authoring in OneDrive or SharePoint. |
What you get by switching
- A figure that looks drawn rather than assembled, in about the time it takes to group a dozen ovals.
- Resolution that passes a journal’s figure check: 600 dpi TIFF with transparency, or vector SVG and PDF.
- You keep PowerPoint: the .pptx export is a normal editable deck, so co-authors can still move a label.
- Poster sizes that are really poster sizes, from templates, instead of a stretched slide.
- Real anatomy, real protein structures and real molecules, rather than a shape that is roughly cell-shaped.
- Opens PowerPoint files too, so an old figure can be brought in and rebuilt piece by piece.
Where PowerPoint is still the better tool
Said plainly, because picking the wrong tool wastes more time than any figure saves.
- PowerPoint is still where the talk itself belongs: slide order, transitions, speaker notes, presenter view.
- Live co-authoring and comments in OneDrive or Teams have no equivalent here.
- Corporate and university templates, fonts and branding live in PowerPoint.
- If your figure really is three boxes and two arrows, PowerPoint was already fine.
Moving a figure across
- Open biodiorama.com and search the library for the objects your figure needs.
- Pose them in the 3D Studio; send each view to the 2D Studio.
- Lay out the panels with panel letters, arrows and labels, on a journal figure page or a 16:9 slide.
- Export PowerPoint (.pptx).
- Open it in PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides and keep editing — every picture, arrow and text box is its own object.
Questions people ask
Can I still edit a BioDiorama figure in PowerPoint?
Yes. The .pptx export keeps every picture, shape, arrow and text box as a separate object, so you can move, recolour, retype or delete them in PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides.
Why do my PowerPoint figures look blurry in the journal PDF?
Slides are built for screens, so pictures placed in them are usually well under the 300–600 dpi journals ask for. Export the figure itself as TIFF, PNG at 600 dpi, or as vector SVG or PDF — BioDiorama does all four.
Is there a free tool for making scientific figures if I only have PowerPoint?
BioDiorama is free, needs no installation and no account, and hands the figure back to PowerPoint as an editable file.
Can I put a 3D model into my slides?
Yes. Export .glb and insert it as a 3D model in PowerPoint, or record a turntable as MP4 or GIF.
Can I open my existing PowerPoint figure in BioDiorama?
Yes — a .pptx can be opened in the 2D Studio, so you can keep the parts that work and replace the ovals with real models.
Is BioDiorama affiliated with Microsoft?
No. PowerPoint is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation; it is named here to describe the comparison and the export format.
Other comparisons
PowerPoint is a trademark of its owner. BioDiorama is an independent project, is not affiliated with or endorsed by it, and nothing here is a quotation of its terms: plans, prices and features change, so check PowerPoint’s own site before you decide.