Abstract: The present invention is a system and method for generating quotations from a reference document on a touch sensitive display device or other handheld device, including the following steps: (a) receiving a first input from a user designating a first point in a captured image of the reference document to define a first corner of a crop rectangle; (b) receiving a second input from the user designating a second point in the captured image to define a second corner of the crop rectangle, wherein the first input is released before the second input is initiated; (c) cropping the captured image from the first point to the second point of the crop rectangle when the second input is released to generate an image quotation; and (f) generating a quotation data object comprising the image quotation and a bibliographical reference to a referenced section of the reference document which contains the image quotation. After the image quotation has been cropped, it may be annotated using a similar two-touch method.