Academic Plotting for ML Papers

Generate publication-quality figures for ML/AI conference papers. Two distinct workflows:

1. Diagram figures (architecture, system design, workflows, pipelines) — AI image generation via Gemini
2. Data figures (line charts, bar charts, scatter plots, heatmaps, ablations) — matplotlib/seaborn

When to Use Which Workflow

Figure Type	Tool	Why
Architecture / system diagram	Gemini (Workflow 1)	Complex spatial layouts with boxes, arrows, labels
Workflow / pipeline / lifecycle	Gemini (Workflow 1)	Multi-step processes with connections
Bar chart, line plot, scatter	matplotlib (Workflow 2)	Precise numerical data, reproducible
Heatmap, confusion matrix	matplotlib/seaborn (Workflow 2)	Structured grid data
Ablation table as chart	matplotlib (Workflow 2)	Grouped bars or line comparisons
Pie / donut chart	matplotlib (Workflow 2)	Proportional data (use sparingly in ML papers)
Training curves	matplotlib (Workflow 2)	Loss/accuracy over steps/epochs

Rule of thumb: If the figure has numerical axes, use matplotlib. If the figure has boxes and arrows, use Gemini.

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Step 0: Context Analysis & Extraction

The user will typically provide one of these inputs — not a ready-made specification:

Input Type	Example	What to Extract
Full paper / section draft	"Here's our method section..."	System components, their relationships, data flow
Description paragraph	"Our system has three layers that..."	Key entities, hierarchy, connections
Raw results / data table	"MMLU: 85.2, HumanEval: 72.1..."	Metrics, methods, comparison structure
CSV / JSON data	Experiment log files	Variables, trends, grouping dimensions
Vague request	"Make a figure for the overview"	Read surrounding paper context to infer content

Extraction Workflow

For diagrams (research context → architecture figure):

1. Read the provided context — paper section, abstract, or description paragraph
2. Identify visual entities — What are the main components/modules/stages?
   • Look for: nouns that represent system parts, named modules, layers, stages
   • Count them: if >8 top-level entities, consider grouping into sections
3. Identify relationships — How do components connect?
   • Look for: verbs describing data flow ("sends to", "queries", "feeds into")
   • Classify: data flow (solid arrow), control flow (gray), error path (dashed red)
4. Determine layout pattern:
   • Sequential pipeline → left-to-right flow
   • Layered architecture → horizontal bands stacked vertically
   • Hub-and-spoke → central node with radiating connections
   • Hierarchical → top-down tree
5. Assign colors — One accent color per logical group/layer
6. Write every label exactly — Extract exact terminology from the paper text

For data charts (results → figure):

1. Read the provided data — table, paragraph with numbers, CSV, or JSON
2. Identify dimensions:
   • What is being compared? (methods, models, configurations) → categorical axis
   • What is the metric? (accuracy, loss, latency, F1) → value axis
   • Is there a time/step dimension? → line plot
   • Are there multiple metrics? → multi-panel or grouped bars
3. Choose chart type automatically using this priority:
   • Has a step/time axis → line plot
   • Comparing N methods on M benchmarks → grouped bar chart
   • Single ranking → horizontal bar (leaderboard)
   • Correlation between two continuous variables → scatter plot
   • Square matrix of values → heatmap
   • Proportional breakdown → stacked bar (avoid pie charts)
4. Determine figure sizing — Single column vs full width based on data density
5. Highlight "our method" — Identify which entry is the paper's contribution and give it a distinct color

Auto-Detection Examples

Context → Diagram: "Our system has a Planner, Executor, and Verifier. Planner sends plans to Executor, Executor returns results to Verifier, Verifier feeds back to Planner on failure." → 3 entities, cycle layout, dashed feedback arrow → Workflow 1 (Gemini)

Data → Chart: "GPT-4: MMLU 86.4, HumanEval 67.0. Ours: 88.1, 71.2. Llama-3: 79.3, 62.1." → 3 methods × 2 benchmarks → Workflow 2 (grouped bar), highlight "Ours" in coral

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Workflow 1: Architecture & System Diagrams (AI Image Generation)

Use Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview to generate diagrams. Choose a visual style first — this is the single biggest factor in whether the figure looks professional or generic.

Visual Styles

Pick one style per paper (all figures should be consistent):

Style A: "Sketch / 简笔画" (Hand-Drawn)

Warm, approachable, memorable. Ideal for overview figures and system introductions. Looks like a whiteboard sketch refined by a designer.

VISUAL STYLE — HAND-DRAWN SKETCH:
- Slightly irregular, hand-drawn line quality — lines wobble gently, not perfectly straight
- Rounded, soft shapes with visible pen strokes (like drawn with a thick felt-tip marker)
- Warm off-white background (#FAFAF7), NOT pure white
- Fill colors are soft watercolor-like washes: muted blue (#D6E4F0), soft peach (#F5DEB3),
  light sage (#D4E6D4), pale lavender (#E6DFF0)
- Borders are dark charcoal (#2C2C2C) with 2-3px line weight, slightly uneven
- Arrows are hand-drawn with slight curves, ending in simple open arrowheads (not filled triangles)
- Text uses a rounded sans-serif font (like Comic Neue or Architects Daughter feel)
- Small doodle-style icons inside boxes: a tiny gear ⚙ for processing, a lightbulb 💡 for ideas,
  a magnifying glass 🔍 for search — rendered as simple line drawings, NOT emoji
- Overall feel: a carefully drawn whiteboard diagram, clean but with personality
- NO clip art, NO stock icons, NO photorealistic elements

Style B: "Modern Minimal" (Clean & Bold)

Confident, authoritative. Best for method figures where precision matters.

VISUAL STYLE — MODERN MINIMAL:
- Ultra-clean geometric shapes with crisp edges
- Bold color blocks as backgrounds for sections — NOT just accent bars, but full section fills
  using desaturated tones: slate blue (#E8EDF2), warm sand (#F5F0E8), cool mint (#E8F2EE)
- Component boxes have ROUNDED CORNERS (12px radius), NO visible border — they float on
  the section background using subtle shadow (1px, 4px blur, rgba(0,0,0,0.06))
- ONE accent color per section used sparingly on key elements: Deep blue (#2563EB),
  Emerald (#059669), Amber (#D97706), Rose (#E11D48)
- Arrows are thin (1.5px), dark gray (#6B7280), with small filled circle at source
  and clean arrowhead at target — NOT thick colored arrows
- Typography: Inter or system sans-serif, title 600 weight, body 400 weight
- Labels INSIDE boxes, not beside them
- Generous whitespace — at least 24px between elements
- NO decorative elements, NO icons — let the structure speak

Style C: "Illustrated Technical" (Icon-Rich)

Engaging, explanatory. Good for tutorial-style papers and figures that need to be self-explanatory.

VISUAL STYLE — ILLUSTRATED TECHNICAL:
- Each major component has a small MEANINGFUL ICON drawn in a consistent line-art style
  (single color, 2px stroke, ~24x24px): brain icon for reasoning, database cylinder for storage,
  arrow-loop for iteration, network nodes for communication
- Components sit inside soft rounded rectangles with a LEFT COLOR STRIP (4px wide)
- Background is pure white, but each logical group has a very faint colored region behind it
  (#F8FAFC for blue group, #FFF8F0 for orange group)
- Connections use CURVED bezier paths (not straight lines), colored by SOURCE component
- Key data flows are THICKER (3px) than secondary flows (1px, dashed)
- Small annotation badges on arrows: "×N" for repeated operations, "optional" in italics
- Title labels are ABOVE each section in small caps, letter-spaced
- Overall: like a well-designed API documentation diagram

Style D: "Accent Bar" (Classic Academic)

The default academic style. Safe for any venue, works well in grayscale.

VISUAL STYLE — CLASSIC ACCENT BAR:
- Horizontal section bands stacked vertically, pale gray (#F7F7F5) fill
- Thick colored LEFT ACCENT BAR (8px) distinguishes each section
- Content boxes: white fill, thin #DDD border, 4px rounded corners
- Section palette: Blue #4A90D9, Teal #5BA58B, Amber #D4A252, Slate #7B8794
- Sans-serif typography (Helvetica/Arial), bold titles, regular body
- Colored arrows match their SOURCE section
- Clean, flat, zero decoration

Curated Color Palettes

"Ocean Dusk" (professional, calming — default recommendation): #264653 deep teal, #2A9D8F teal, #E9C46A gold, #F4A261 sandy orange, #E76F51 burnt coral

"Ink & Wash" (for 简笔画 style): #2C2C2C charcoal ink, #D6E4F0 washed blue, #F5DEB3 washed wheat, #D4E6D4 washed sage, #E6DFF0 washed lavender

"Nord" (for modern minimal): #2E3440 polar night, #5E81AC frost blue, #A3BE8C aurora green, #EBCB8B aurora yellow, #BF616A aurora red

"Okabe-Ito" (universal colorblind-safe, required for data charts): #E69F00 orange, #56B4E9 sky blue, #009E73 green, #F0E442 yellow, #0072B2 blue, #D55E00 vermillion, #CC79A7 pink

Checklist

• Extract from context: Read paper/description, identify entities and relationships
• Choose visual style (A/B/C/D) — match the paper's tone and venue
• Choose color palette — or use one consistent with existing paper figures
• Obtain Gemini API key (GEMINI_API_KEY env var)
• Write a detailed prompt: style block + layout + connections + constraints
• Generate script at figures/gen_fig_<name>.py, run for 3 attempts
• Review, select best, save as figures/fig_<name>.png

Prompt Structure (6 Sections)

Every Gemini prompt must include these sections in order:

1. FRAMING (5 lines): "Create a [STYLE_NAME]-style technical diagram for a
   [VENUE] paper. The diagram should feel [ADJECTIVES]..."

2. VISUAL STYLE (20-30 lines): Copy the full style block from above (A/B/C/D).
   This is the most important section — it determines the entire visual character.

3. COLOR PALETTE (10 lines): Exact hex codes for every color used.

4. LAYOUT (50-150 lines): Every component, box, section — exact text, spatial
   arrangement, and grouping. Be exhaustively specific.

5. CONNECTIONS (30-80 lines): Every arrow individually — source, target, style,
   label, routing direction.

6. CONSTRAINTS (10 lines): What NOT to include. Adapt per style — e.g., sketch
   style allows slight irregularity but still no clip art.

Generation Script Template

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Generate [FIGURE_NAME] diagram using Gemini image generation."""
import os, sys, time
from google import genai

API_KEY = os.environ.get("GEMINI_API_KEY")
if not API_KEY:
    print("ERROR: Set GEMINI_API_KEY environment variable.")
    print("  Get a key at: https://aistudio.google.com/apikey")
    sys.exit(1)

MODEL = "gemini-3-pro-image-preview"
OUTPUT_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
client = genai.Client(api_key=API_KEY)

PROMPT = """
[PASTE YOUR 6-SECTION PROMPT HERE]
"""

def generate_image(prompt_text, attempt_num):
    print(f"\n{'='*60}\nAttempt {attempt_num}\n{'='*60}")
    try:
        response = client.models.generate_content(
            model=MODEL,
            contents=prompt_text,
            config=genai.types.GenerateContentConfig(
                response_modalities=["IMAGE", "TEXT"],
            ),
        )
        output_path = os.path.join(OUTPUT_DIR, f"fig_NAME_attempt{attempt_num}.png")
        for part in response.candidates[0].content.parts:
            if part.inline_data:
                with open(output_path, "wb") as f:
                    f.write(part.inline_data.data)
                print(f"Saved: {output_path} ({os.path.getsize(output_path):,} bytes)")
                return output_path
            elif part.text:
                print(f"Text: {part.text[:300]}")
        print("WARNING: No image in response")
        return None
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"ERROR: {e}")
        return None

def main():
    results = []
    for i in range(1, 4):
        if i > 1:
            time.sleep(2)
        path = generate_image(PROMPT, i)
        if path:
            results.append(path)
    if not results:
        print("All attempts failed!")
        sys.exit(1)
    print(f"\nGenerated {len(results)} attempts. Review and pick the best.")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Key Rules

• Always 3 attempts — quality varies significantly between runs
• Style block is mandatory — without it, Gemini defaults to generic corporate look
• Never hardcode API keys — use os.environ.get("GEMINI_API_KEY")
• Save generation scripts — reproducibility is critical
• Specify every label exactly — Gemini may misspell or rearrange text

Full prompt examples per style: See references/diagram-generation.md

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Workflow 2: Data-Driven Charts (matplotlib/seaborn)

For any figure with numerical data, axes, or quantitative comparisons.

Checklist

• Extract from context: Parse results/data, identify methods, metrics, and comparison structure
• Auto-select chart type based on data dimensions (see decision guide below)
• Prepare data (CSV, dict, or inline arrays)
• Apply publication styling (fonts, colors, sizes)
• Highlight "our method" with a distinct color
• Export as both PDF (vector) and PNG (300 DPI)
• Verify LaTeX font compatibility
• Save script at figures/gen_fig_<name>.py

Chart Type Decision Guide

Data Pattern	Best Chart	Notes
Trend over time/steps	Line plot	Training curves, scaling laws
Comparing categories	Grouped bar chart	Model comparisons, ablations
Distribution	Violin / box plot	Score distributions across methods
Correlation	Scatter plot	Embedding analysis, metric correlation
Grid of values	Heatmap	Attention maps, confusion matrices
Part of whole	Stacked bar (not pie)	Prefer stacked bar over pie in ML papers
Many methods, one metric	Horizontal bar	Leaderboard-style comparisons

Publication Styling Template

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

# --- Publication defaults (polished, not generic) ---
plt.rcParams.update({
    "font.family": "serif", "font.serif": ["Times New Roman", "DejaVu Serif"],
    "font.size": 10, "axes.titlesize": 11, "axes.titleweight": "bold",
    "axes.labelsize": 10, "legend.fontsize": 8.5, "legend.frameon": False,
    "figure.dpi": 300, "savefig.dpi": 300, "savefig.bbox": "tight",
    "axes.spines.top": False, "axes.spines.right": False,
    "axes.grid": True, "grid.alpha": 0.15, "grid.linestyle": "-",
    "lines.linewidth": 1.8, "lines.markersize": 5,
})

# --- "Ocean Dusk" palette (professional, distinctive, colorblind-safe) ---
COLORS = ["#264653", "#2A9D8F", "#E9C46A", "#F4A261", "#E76F51",
          "#0072B2", "#56B4E9", "#8C8C8C"]
OUR_COLOR = "#E76F51"       # coral — warm, stands out
BASELINE_COLOR = "#B0BEC5"  # cool gray — recedes
FIG_SINGLE, FIG_FULL = (3.25, 2.5), (6.75, 2.8)

Common Chart Patterns

Line plot (training curves) — with markers and confidence bands:

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=FIG_SINGLE)
markers = ["o", "s", "^", "D", "v"]
for i, (method, (mean, std)) in enumerate(results.items()):
    color = OUR_COLOR if method == "Ours" else COLORS[i]
    ax.plot(steps, mean, label=method, color=color,
            marker=markers[i % 5], markevery=max(1, len(steps)//8),
            markersize=4, zorder=3)
    ax.fill_between(steps, mean - std, mean + std, color=color, alpha=0.12)
ax.set_xlabel("Training Steps")
ax.set_ylabel("Accuracy (%)")
ax.legend(loc="lower right")
fig.savefig("figures/fig_training.pdf")
fig.savefig("figures/fig_training.png", dpi=300)

Grouped bar chart (ablation) — with value labels:

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=FIG_FULL)
x = np.arange(len(categories))
n = len(methods)
width = 0.7 / n
for i, (method, scores) in enumerate(methods.items()):
    color = OUR_COLOR if method == "Ours" else COLORS[i]
    offset = (i - n / 2 + 0.5) * width
    bars = ax.bar(x + offset, scores, width * 0.9, label=method, color=color,
                  edgecolor="white", linewidth=0.5)
    for bar, s in zip(bars, scores):
        ax.text(bar.get_x() + bar.get_width()/2, bar.get_height() + 0.3,
                f"{s:.1f}", ha="center", va="bottom", fontsize=7, color="#444")
ax.set_xticks(x)
ax.set_xticklabels(categories)
ax.set_ylabel("Score")
ax.legend(ncol=min(n, 4))
fig.savefig("figures/fig_ablation.pdf")

Heatmap — with diverging colormap and clean borders:

import seaborn as sns
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(4, 3.5))
sns.heatmap(matrix, annot=True, fmt=".2f", cmap="YlOrRd", ax=ax,
            cbar_kws={"shrink": 0.75, "aspect": 20},
            linewidths=1.5, linecolor="white",
            annot_kws={"size": 8, "weight": "medium"})
ax.set_xlabel("Predicted")
ax.set_ylabel("Actual")
fig.savefig("figures/fig_confusion.pdf")

Horizontal bar (leaderboard) — with "our method" highlight:

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=FIG_SINGLE)
y_pos = np.arange(len(models))
colors = [BASELINE_COLOR] * len(models)
colors[our_idx] = OUR_COLOR
bars = ax.barh(y_pos, scores, color=colors, height=0.55,
               edgecolor="white", linewidth=0.5)
ax.set_yticks(y_pos)
ax.set_yticklabels(models)
ax.set_xlabel("Accuracy (%)")
ax.invert_yaxis()
for bar, s in zip(bars, scores):
    ax.text(bar.get_width() + 0.3, bar.get_y() + bar.get_height()/2,
            f"{s:.1f}", va="center", fontsize=8, color="#444")
fig.savefig("figures/fig_leaderboard.pdf")

Full pattern library (scaling laws, violin plots, multi-panel, radar): See references/data-visualization.md

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Publication Style Quick Reference

Venue	Single Col	Full Width	Font
NeurIPS	5.5 in	5.5 in	Times
ICML	3.25 in	6.75 in	Times
ICLR	5.5 in	5.5 in	Times
ACL	3.3 in	6.8 in	Times
AAAI	3.3 in	7.0 in	Times

Always export PDF for vector quality. PNG only for AI-generated diagrams.

Venue-specific details, LaTeX integration, font matching, accessibility checklist: See references/style-guide.md

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Common Issues

Issue	Solution
Fonts look wrong in LaTeX	Export PDF, set text.usetex=True, or use font.family=serif
Figure too large for column	Check venue width limits, use figsize in inches
Colors indistinguishable in print	Use colorblind-safe palette + different line styles/markers
Gemini misspells labels	Spell out every label exactly in prompt, add "SPELL EXACTLY" constraint
Gemini ignores style	Add more negative constraints, be more specific about hex colors
Blurry figures in PDF	Export as PDF (vector), not PNG; or use 300+ DPI for PNG
Legend overlaps data	Use bbox_to_anchor, loc="upper left", or external legend
Too many tick labels	Use ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(5))

When to Use vs Alternatives

Need	This Skill	Alternative
Architecture diagrams	Gemini generation	TikZ (manual), draw.io (interactive), Mermaid (simple)
Data charts	matplotlib/seaborn	Plotly (interactive), R/ggplot2 (statistics-heavy)
Full paper writing	Use with ml-paper-writing	—
Poster figures	Larger fonts, wider	latex-posters skill
Presentation figures	Larger text, fewer details	PowerPoint/Keynote export

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Quick Reference: File Naming Convention

figures/
├── gen_fig_<name>.py      # Generation script (always save for reproducibility)
├── fig_<name>.pdf         # Final vector output (for LaTeX)
├── fig_<name>.png         # Raster output (300 DPI, for AI-generated or fallback)
└── fig_<name>_attempt*.png # Gemini attempts (keep for comparison)