figure-designer

Figure Designer

Overview

A top-venue paper typically carries six to eight figures, with three

carrying almost all the storytelling weight: the Motivated Example

(Figure 1, on page 1 or the top of page 2), the Solution Overview

(inside the Methodology section), and the Experimental Results

figures (inside the Experiments section). Reviewers scan these three

in under a minute to decide whether the paper is worth reading in

detail; weak figures sink otherwise-strong papers.

This skill takes the user's intent (what they want to communicate)

plus context (research area, method name, target venue) and returns

the recommended paradigm, a layout sketch, labelling guidance,

tool suggestion, and a quality-control audit against a universal

rule set (vector format, font size, colour-blind-safe encoding,

self-contained caption, honest axis ranges).

When to use this skill

• Before drawing any figure in a paper.
• The user asks to 'design a figure', 'draw Figure 1', 'plot

experiment results', 'choose the right chart type'.

• The user has drawn a figure and wants a design audit.
• The user is unsure which figure type or paradigm to choose.
• Preparing camera-ready figures before submission.

When NOT to use this skill

• The user only wants generic plotting help (bar chart, line chart)

outside a paper. Regular assistance suffices.

• The paper is not yet structured; use intro-drafter or

tech-paper-template first to decide what figures the paper

needs.

• The user wants a review of an already-finished paper. Use

pre-submission-reviewer.

Core procedure

Step 1: Figure-type identification

Decide which of the three core types the figure is. If the user's

request does not match any, either it is a supporting figure (use

the experimental-results guidance as a base) or it does not belong

in the paper.

If the mode is figure-audit and the user has provided an image

path, load the image with the Read tool before proceeding to

Step 2. Vision-based inspection enables the universal rule audit

in Step 6 to check font legibility, colour palette, raster-vs-

vector tells, and chartjunk directly rather than relying on user

description. If no image is provided, continue in text-only mode

and mark vision-only rules (font size, raster detection, colour

palette) as "user must verify" in the final audit report.

Step 2: Paradigm recommendation

See: references/motivated-example.md, references/solution-overview.md,

or references/experimental-results.md depending on figure type.

Each figure type has two to three canonical paradigms. Pick the one

that fits the user's storytelling need, and explain why the other

paradigms fit less well.

Step 3: Layout sketch

Produce a text description of the layout: panel positions, element

placement, arrows, colour assignments. The goal is that the user

could draw the first draft from the sketch alone.

Step 4: Labelling and annotation guidance

• Name every visible element concretely (no "Module A", "X", "Y").
• Annotate critical points (failure highlight, success highlight,

comparison emphasis).

• Specify font sizes and colour palette. Default colour palette:

ColorBrewer Qualitative or Viridis for sequential.

Step 5: Tool suggestion

See: references/tools.md for the tool matrix and the decision

heuristic.

Default recommendations:

• Motivated Example and Solution Overview: PowerPoint (draft),

Figma (polish).

• Experimental Results: Matplotlib or Seaborn in a reusable

plot_utils.py script.

• LaTeX-integrated figures: TikZ or PGFPlots.

Step 6: Universal rule audit

See: references/design-rules.md for the full universal rule set.

Verify every proposed or existing figure against:

• Vector format (PDF, EPS, SVG) for export.
• Font size at least 8pt post-scaling.
• Small canvas (not large canvas with small fonts).
• Colour-blind-safe palette; no colour-only encoding.
• Self-contained caption whose first sentence states the core

finding.

• Honest axis ranges.
• No 3D effects, no chartjunk.

Flag every violation with severity.

Step 7: Integrity gate

Run the checks in the Integrity gate section below.

Step 8: Output

Emit the full design in the Output format below.

Integrity gate

Bullets tagged [inspection] are checked by the LLM from its own

output. Bullets tagged [user-verify] require the user to confirm

because the check depends on either the drawn figure or knowledge

the skill does not have (paper context, prior Introduction).

Before returning the design:

1. [inspection] Paradigm matches figure type (motivated example

is not a pipeline; overview is not a bar chart).

1. [inspection] Layout sketch is concrete enough that the user

could draw from it.

1. [inspection] Labels are real entity names, not placeholders.
2. [inspection] Tool suggestion matches the figure's complexity

(not Matplotlib for a multi-icon motivated example, not

PowerPoint for a 20-method bar chart).

1. [inspection] when image provided, [user-verify] text-only

Universal rule audit has been run; no CRITICAL violation is

left unaddressed. Vision-only rules (raster-vs-vector, font

size, colour palette) are only checkable when the user supplies

an image.

1. [user-verify] For motivated examples, the example is the

same running example referenced by the Introduction (no new

example introduced in Figure 1). The skill does not see the

Introduction; the user confirms.

1. [inspection] For experimental results, the chart type

matches the data type (time-series uses line, multi-method

comparison uses grouped bar, trade-off uses scatter).

If any [inspection] check fails, mark the design as "needs user

attention". For [user-verify] items, surface them to the user as

items they must confirm before submission.

Output format

1. Figure type

• Type: <motivated-example or solution-overview or experimental-results>
• Reason: <one sentence>

2. Paradigm recommendation

• Paradigm: <name>
• Why this paradigm: <rationale>
• Alternatives considered and rejected: <list>

3. Layout sketch

• Canvas: <size>
• Panels: <list with positions and contents>
• Arrows and connections: <list>
• Colour assignment: <mapping>

4. Labelling and annotations

• Element names: <list>
• Critical highlights: <list>
• Font sizes: <target>
• Colour palette: <name>

5. Tool suggestion

• Primary: <tool>
• Alternative: <tool>
• Reason: <rationale>

6. Universal rule audit

• [ ] Vector format: <pass or fail>
• [ ] Font size: <pass or fail>
• [ ] Colour-blind safe: <pass or fail>
• [ ] Self-contained caption: <pass or fail>
• [ ] Honest axis range (if applicable): <pass or fail>
• [ ] No chartjunk: <pass or fail>

7. Integrity gate result

• Gate 1-7: <pass or fail>

8. Severity summary

• <n> CRITICAL, <m> MAJOR, <k> MINOR
• Top three actions first: ...