ReadingRate · What's new · 2026-02-08
Illustrate a passage as you read
Select a passage while reading an EPUB in ReadingRate and choose Illustrate. The app writes a scene description out of the text you selected and generates a picture of it, which you can share, save, or regenerate if the first attempt misses. Selections that are mostly dialogue or abstraction are flagged as poor candidates before you spend anything on them.
Available on web.
It is scoped to a selection rather than a chapter because the unit of description in prose is a paragraph. A whole chapter averages out into mush; three sentences describing a room have something in them to draw.
Before the button lights up properly the selected text is scored on how visual it is — sensory words, colours, places and movement against dialogue tags and abstract nouns. A low score dims the button rather than disabling it, because a reader who wants to illustrate an argument should be allowed to try.
What it can't do
- Web reader only. The iOS reader shows an Illustrate button that currently does nothing.
- It needs an EPUB open in ReadingRate. You cannot illustrate a passage from a paper book you are tracking.
- Only the first two thousand characters of a selection are used.
- One fixed style — atmospheric book illustration. There is no choice of look.
- Credits are deducted before the image is made, and a failed generation is not refunded.
Questions people ask
- Can I generate an image of a scene from a book?
- Yes, in ReadingRate's web reader. Select the passage, choose Illustrate, and a picture is generated from a scene description written out of the text you selected.