/matplotlib-figures

name: matplotlib-figures
description: Publication-quality data plots via matplotlib with venue-specific styles. Use for generating your own figures (timelines, comparison charts, data summaries, heatmaps) that you add to the LaTeX report. Your brain prompt supplies the venue-specific style directory as {{VENUE_SPECIFIC_DIR}} — use that value wherever this skill writes `<VENUE_SPECIFIC_DIR>`.

Matplotlib Figures Skill

All generated figures MUST be publication-quality: load a venue-matched style, save as vector PDF, use colorblind-safe palettes.

3-step workflow

Step 1 — Set up the figure style (once per project)

When you have determined the target venue, copy BOTH the matching matplotlib style template AND the domain style guide to your project (half-upgrading only the mplstyle recreates the figstyle/guide palette divergence). Your brain prompt supplies the venue-specific directory as `{{VENUE_SPECIFIC_DIR}}`:

cp {{VENUE_SPECIFIC_DIR}}figstyles/<style>.mplstyle report/figstyle.mplstyle
cp <luxas_root>/skills/figure/style_guides/<domain>.md report/figures/style_guide.md

**Style map:**

| Venue | Style file | Notes | |---|---|---| | Physics (PRL, PRX, APS journals) | `physics-aps.mplstyle` | CM fonts, LaTeX, 600 DPI | | CS conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR) | `cs-conferences.mplstyle` | sans-serif, 300 DPI | | Nature / Science / Cell / PNAS | `nature-science.mplstyle` | Arial, compact, 300 DPI | | Chemistry (JACS, ACS journals) | `chemistry-acs.mplstyle` | Arial, 300 DPI |

Step 2 — Use the style in all plotting code

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.style.use('report/figstyle.mplstyle')

Step 3 — Save as PDF (vector), not PNG

fig.savefig('report/figures/fig_name.pdf')

Rules

• **Never** use the default matplotlib style — always load `figstyle.mplstyle`.
• **Format**: PDF (vector) for line plots and diagrams; PNG only for raster data (heatmaps, images).
• **Width**: single-column for most figures; override `figsize` for double-column only when the figure genuinely needs it.
• **Colors**: the palette comes from the style file's `axes.prop_cycle`, pre-aligned to `skills/figure/style_guides/<domain>.md` — don't override it. Red/green adjacent series: differentiate by marker/linestyle too.
• **Tables**: render tabular data with LaTeX `\begin{tabular}`, NOT as matplotlib table images.
• **Fallback**: if `text.usetex` fails (LaTeX not installed), set `text.usetex=False` in the style file.