center-for-proteomics-and-metabolomics/labicons — explained in plain English
Analysis updated 2026-05-18
Drop a professional illustration of a mass spectrometer or chromatography system into a research paper figure.
Illustrate an experimental workflow using consistent, human-drawn molecule diagrams.
Combine LabIcons illustrations with NIH BioArt images in the same figure since both share a compatible style and license.
| center-for-proteomics-and-metabolomics/labicons | 1304674612/agentbench | aerdelan/housand-domaintoolmatrix | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | 22 | 22 | 22 |
| Language | — | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | easy | moderate | easy |
| Complexity | 1/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 |
| Audience | researcher | developer | developer |
Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.
No software involved, just browse and download illustration files from GitHub.
LabIcons is not really a piece of software. It is a collection of professional illustrations of laboratory equipment, made by the Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics, meant to be dropped into scientific papers and presentation slides. The repository is organized into two main folders: one called equipment, which holds drawings of lab instruments such as mass spectrometers and liquid chromatography systems, and one called molecules, which holds schematic drawings of molecules like antibodies. The README is short and does not describe any code, installation steps, or programming language, since this project is a library of images rather than an application. Researchers who need to explain their experimental workflow visually can pull individual illustrations from these folders and place them directly into a figure. All of the illustrations are released under the CC-BY-4.0 license, a Creative Commons license that lets anyone use the images, including in published papers, as long as the artist is credited. The README asks users to include a specific attribution statement crediting Manon Zuurmond, naming which graphical elements were used, whenever the illustrations appear in a figure. The project positions itself as a companion to NIH's BioArt, another library of scientific illustrations, and says the two are drawn in a matching visual style so they can be mixed together in the same figure without looking inconsistent. Most BioArt content is available under CC-BY-4.0 or the even more permissive CC0, so combining the two collections tends to be straightforward from a licensing standpoint. A notable point the README makes is that these illustrations were created by human scientific illustrators rather than generated by AI, which the maintainers present as a reason researchers might prefer them for depicting experimental workflows. Because this is an image collection rather than a codebase, there are no build steps, dependencies, or setup instructions to follow. Anyone wanting to use LabIcons simply browses the equipment or molecules folders on GitHub and downloads the illustrations they need.
A free collection of professional laboratory equipment and molecule illustrations for use in scientific papers and presentations.
Use freely, including in publications, as long as you credit the artist with the specified attribution statement.
Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.
Mainly researcher.
This repo across BitVibe Labs
double-check against the repo, no cap.