diff --git a/Changelog.md b/Changelog.md
index 5a2cead..6cec920 100644
--- a/Changelog.md
+++ b/Changelog.md
@@ -13,6 +13,12 @@ adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
 - ...
 
+## [3.0.1] - 2025-10-30
+
+### Added
+
+- New method `QrGenerator.writeToImage(String)` that returns a `BufferedImage` for a given payload without touching the file system.
+
 ## [3.0.0] - 2025-04-04
 
 ### Added
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 0fc9c77..617a731 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 
     <groupId>com.github.aytchell</groupId>
     <artifactId>qrgen</artifactId>
-    <version>3.0.0</version>
+    <version>3.0.1</version>
     <packaging>jar</packaging>
 
     <name>QR code generator</name>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/github/aytchell/qrgen/QrGenerator.java b/src/main/java/com/github/aytchell/qrgen/QrGenerator.java
index 567bcfa..57e06ec 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/github/aytchell/qrgen/QrGenerator.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/github/aytchell/qrgen/QrGenerator.java
@@ -453,6 +453,31 @@ public Path writeToTmpFile(String payload, String tmpFilePrefix)
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Actually create a QR code with the given configuration and payload
+     * <p>
+     * This method takes the configuration collected up to here (by using
+     * the other methods) and a payload string and creates a {@link BufferedImage}
+     * containing a QR code.
+     * <p>
+     * Note that calling this method does not change the configuration.
+     * So you can keep the instance and generate more QR codes without
+     * repeating the configuration steps.
+     *
+     * @param payload the string to be encoded into a QR code
+     * @return a {@link BufferedImage} containing the generated QR code
+     * @throws QrGenerationException thrown in case the computation of the
+     *                               QR code goes wrong.
+     */
+    public BufferedImage writeToImage(String payload)
+            throws QrGenerationException {
+        try {
+            return generateImage(payload);
+        } catch (WriterException e) {
+            throw new QrGenerationException("Failed to write QR code to Image", e);
+        }
+    }
+
     private void writeQrCodeToFile(Path tmpFile, String payload)
             throws WriterException, IOException {
         final BufferedImage image = generateImage(payload);
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/github/aytchell/qrgen/QrGeneratorTest.java b/src/test/java/com/github/aytchell/qrgen/QrGeneratorTest.java
index a493922..6885aa6 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/github/aytchell/qrgen/QrGeneratorTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/github/aytchell/qrgen/QrGeneratorTest.java
@@ -139,6 +139,12 @@ void tooBigPayloadsFail(SizeAndLevel sizeAndLevel) throws IOException {
         }
     }
 
+    @Test
+    void generatorCanCreateBufferedImage() throws QrGenerationException {
+        final BufferedImage image = new QrGenerator().writeToImage("https://github.com/aytchell/qrgen");
+        assertNotNull(image);
+    }
+
     void generatePayloadWithLvl(int payloadSize, ErrorCorrectionLevel lvl) throws QrGenerationException, IOException {
         final QrGenerator gen = new QrGenerator()
                 .withErrorCorrection(lvl);