figure-review

v0 — ported verbatim from weak-gravitational-lensing/.claude/skills/figure-review.md. Project-specific colour/marker conventions (RdBu_r, GNN/Swin colours) are marked [WGL]; replace with your project's palette before running on a different paper.

Figure Review Skill

When to invoke

Use after adding or modifying any figure in the paper, or before submission. This skill ensures all figures meet journal print-quality standards as seen by a human reader, not just in a zoomed-in vector view.

Core principle

Never review figures from the raw PDF or vector source. Always render the compiled main.pdf at 150 DPI (full page) and review from those rasterised images. This simulates what a reader sees at 100% zoom on a standard monitor. AI can read tiny text in vectors that humans cannot — this DPI check corrects for that bias.

Review protocol

Step 1: Compile and render

# Compile (2 passes for cross-refs)
pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex && pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode main.tex

# Render every page at 150 DPI
python -c "
import pymupdf as fitz
doc = fitz.open('main.pdf')
for i in range(len(doc)):
    mat = fitz.Matrix(150/72, 150/72)
    pix = doc[i].get_pixmap(matrix=mat)
    pix.save(f'review_p{i+1:02d}.png')
"

Step 2: Per-figure checklist

For each figure page, read the 150-DPI PNG and check:

#	Item	Pass criterion
1	Axis labels	Readable without zooming; minimum ~8pt at print size
2	Tick labels	Minimum ~7pt at print size
3	Legend text	Minimum ~7pt; legend box doesn't obscure data
4	Title / panel labels	(a)(b)(c) labels bold and ≥9pt
5	Annotation text	Any in-figure text ≥6.5pt at print size
6	Line thickness	Data lines ≥1.0pt; axis lines ≥0.7pt; no "hairline" lines
7	Marker size	Scatter points distinguishable (no sub-pixel markers)
8	Colour contrast	All colours distinguishable in greyscale (for B&W printing)
9	Colour bar	Present if using colour mapping; label + tick labels readable
10	Aspect ratio	Square data shown square; no unintended stretching
11	White space	No large empty regions within the figure boundary
12	Caption	Fully self-contained; all symbols defined; correct cross-refs
13	Float placement	Figure appears near its first text reference, not pages away
14	Consistency	Font family, colour palette, line styles match across all figures
15	Single vs double column	figure for ≤3.4" wide; figure* for >3.4" wide

Step 3: Cross-figure consistency

After reviewing individual figures, check across all figures:

• Font family: all serif (Times/CM) or all sans — no mixing
• Colour palette: accent colours reused consistently
• Axis label style: consistent format throughout
• Line width / marker size: similar data density → similar visual weight
• Colormap: same physical quantity → same colormap

Step 4: Float placement scan

# Scan for sparse pages (potential float displacement)
for i in range(len(doc)):
    pix = doc[i].get_pixmap(matrix=fitz.Matrix(1,1))
    img = np.frombuffer(pix.samples, dtype=np.uint8).reshape(pix.height, pix.width, -1)
    ink = np.any(img < 240, axis=2).mean()
    if ink < 0.10:
        print(f'  p{i+1}: coverage={ink:.2f} -- check for displaced float')

Step 5: Report

Output a markdown table:

| Fig # | Page | Status | Issues |
|-------|------|--------|--------|
| 1     | 4    | PASS   | --     |
| 2     | 5    | WARN   | cell text 5.5pt, borderline |
| ...   |      |        |        |

Font size reference (at print)

For a two-column article on letter paper (text width ~3.4" per column, ~7" for figure*):

Element	Minimum pt	Recommended pt
Axis labels	8	10
Tick labels	7	8.5
Legend	7	8
Panel labels (a)(b)(c)	9	10
In-figure annotations	6.5	8
Colorbar label	8	9

Float parameters (recommended for article class)

\renewcommand{\topfraction}{0.95}
\renewcommand{\bottomfraction}{0.95}
\renewcommand{\textfraction}{0.05}
\renewcommand{\floatpagefraction}{0.80}
\renewcommand{\dbltopfraction}{0.95}
\setlength{\textfloatsep}{8pt plus 2pt minus 2pt}
\setlength{\floatsep}{8pt plus 2pt minus 2pt}
\setlength{\dbltextfloatsep}{8pt plus 2pt minus 2pt}

Use [!htb] instead of [htbp] to prevent float-page displacement.

Style guide for this project [WGL — replace per project]

• S/N maps: RdBu_r colormap, vmin=-3.5, vmax=4.5, with shared colorbar labelled "$S/N$"
• GT markers: black + for main, green × for sub-halo
• Model accent colours: GNN = #1f6f9a (blue), Swin = #7e3a8e (purple), Per-peak = #c0561f (orange)
• Serif font: Times New Roman / DejaVu Serif, mathtext.fontset = 'cm'
• Figure generation: project-specific Python scripts, each producing .pdf + .png