Paper Figure Planner

---
name: paper-figure-planner
description: "Use when designing or auditing manuscript figures: one main claim per figure, coherent panels, legend-results agreement."
---

# Figure Planner

## Overview

Use this skill when the bottleneck is no longer sentence writing but figure logic. The goal is to make each figure carry a defensible scientific job, keep the panel set coherent, and ensure that the legend and Results text tell the same story.

This skill is narrower than `manuscript-optimizer`. Use `manuscript-optimizer` when the whole paper structure is unstable. Use `figure-planner` when the central issue is what each figure should prove and how each panel should function.

## When To Use

Use this skill when:
- a figure feels overloaded, fragmented, or hard to summarize
- the paper has too many Results subsections driven by panel count
- it is unclear what belongs in the main figure versus the supplement
- legends, panel letters, and Results text may have drifted apart
- you need to redesign figure titles or panel grouping around claims rather than around plotting convenience

Do not use this skill for:
- low-level visual styling only
- final proofreading without figure changes
- manuscript-wide claim restructuring that exceeds the figures themselves

## Core Rule

Each main figure should earn its place by carrying one dominant claim.

If a figure cannot be summarized by one clean sentence, either:
- split it,
- demote part of it to the supplement,
- or rewrite the figure around a clearer claim.

## Panel Roles

Assign each panel one primary role before writing the legend or Results paragraph:

- claim-supporting evidence
- methodological bridge or definition
- validation under a new regime
- ranking or benchmark comparison
- translational or practical consequence
- case illustration
- failure mode or limitation

Do not let one panel pretend to do three jobs at once.

## Planning Order

1. Write the single-sentence claim of the figure.
2. List the minimum panels needed to support that claim.
3. Assign each panel one role.
4. Decide which panel is the anchor panel:
   - the panel the Results paragraph should revolve around
5. Move secondary detail to:
   - another figure
   - the supplement
   - the legend
6. Rewrite the figure title and legend to match the actual claim.
7. Check that the Results subsection matches the same panel logic.

## Main Figure Versus Supplement

Keep in the main figure:
- the panels required to establish the core claim
- the key comparison readers must see immediately
- the panel that defines a new metric, decomposition, or evaluation regime when that definition is part of the argument

Move to the supplement:
- robustness variants
- denser method-by-method comparisons
- extended cases
- secondary ablations
- additional examples that support but do not define the main claim

## Legend Rules

Legends should do more than decode axes.

Each legend should:
- define the role of each panel
- preserve the key quantitative anchors omitted from the compressed main text
- stay consistent with panel letters, metrics, datasets, and baselines
- avoid interpretation that is stronger than the plotted evidence

## Visual Hygiene Pass

After the figure logic is stable, run one visual-hygiene pass:

- keep figure-internal fonts consistent and close to the manuscript's reading scale
- prefer vector graphics for plots, diagrams, and schematic panels when possible
- use a restrained palette; keep the same category in the same color family
- avoid accidental salience from one panel or module being much darker or brighter unless that emphasis is deliberate
- trim dead margins and unnecessary whitespace around panels
- reduce text load inside the figure; let shapes, alignment, and grouping do more of the explanatory work
- keep arrow direction and symbol conventions consistent when the figure is showing flow or process
- borrow proven table or panel arrangements as layout references when useful, but do not inherit conference-template clutter by default

## Common Failure Modes

- one figure trying to carry multiple unrelated claims
- panel order following plotting chronology instead of argument logic
- methodological bridge panels described as generic motivation
- Results text claiming something the legend or panel does not support
- supplementary figures cited too vaguely when one panel is doing the real work
- keeping weak auxiliary metrics at headline level instead of demoting them
- inconsistent figure typography, whitespace, or color logic making the scientific comparison harder to read

## Nature-Style Enhancements

### Matplotlib Figure Standards

For figures targeting Nature or similar high-impact journals, apply the following `rcParams`:

```python
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.rcParams['font.family'] = 'sans-serif'
plt.rcParams['font.sans-serif'] = ['Arial']
plt.rcParams['svg.fonttype'] = 'none'          # editable text in SVG/PDF
plt.rcParams['font.size'] = 16                 # 24 for large bar panels
plt.rcParams['axes.spines.right'] = False
plt.rcParams['axes.spines.top'] = False
plt.rcParams['axes.linewidth'] = 2.5           # 3 for big bars, 2 for compact
plt.rcParams['legend.frameon'] = False
```

Use `text.usetex = True` only when LaTeX is installed and math-rich labels are required.

### When to Use

- Figures for **papers, slides, or reports** targeting Nature, NeurIPS, ICLR, or similar venues.
- Requests involving **grouped bars, trend lines, heatmaps, radar plots, multi-panel grids**, or **PDF/SVG/high-DPI** output.
- Any mention of "Nature style", "publication figure", "paper figure", or "high-quality scientific plot".

## Output Standard

When using this skill, produce:
- the figure's one-sentence claim
- the proposed panel list with roles
- what stays in the main figure versus what moves to supplement
- the legend logic
- the visual-hygiene notes that still need attention
- the matching Results subsection title or topic sentence