figure

Figure Skill

Publication-quality figures via the hybrid pipeline: let Gemini (Nano Banana) render photorealistic / textured / 3D components, let TikZ own all symbols, arrows, labels, equations, and layout. You get the visual richness of AI rendering AND the precision of code.

When to use which backend

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  What are you drawing?                          │ Backend       │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┤
│  Data plot (lines, bars, heatmaps from data)    │ pgfplots      │
│  Quantum circuit (Hadamard, CNOT, measure)      │ quantikz      │
│  Feynman diagram                                │ feynman       │
│  Molecule / Lewis structure                     │ chemfig       │
│  Electronic circuit (op-amp, RLC)               │ circuitikz    │
│  Atomic energy levels + transitions             │ energy_levels │
│  Phase-space trajectory                         │ phase_space   │
│  Pulse sequence (NMR / qubit timing)            │ pulse_sequence│
│  Optical bench cartoon (2D, flat)               │ optical_setup │
│  Concept schematic with textured 3D objects     │ HYBRID        │
│    (Paul trap, cavity, apparatus, animal etc.)  │               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

For HYBRID, pick raster components sparingly: only for textured / 3D / glossy objects where TikZ would take 50+ lines of patches. Everything else → TikZ.

The hybrid pipeline

1. decide which elements are raster (3D/textured/glossy) vs vector (everything else)
2. for each raster element:
     python skills/figure/scripts/hybrid_gen.py \
       --name <outName>  --prompt "<object spec>"  --style "<style suffix>" \
       --out assets/<outName>.png
   → generates isolated-object PNG on white bg, then rembg → transparent PNG
3. write figure_X.tex starting from skills/figure/templates/<best>.tex
     - \includegraphics{assets/<outName>.png} for raster slots
     - TikZ \draw \node for all labels, arrows, equations
4. compile:    pdflatex figure_X.tex
   preview:    pdftoppm -r 200 figure_X.pdf preview -png
5. Read preview-1.png (vision) → find issues → edit .tex → recompile (≤3 iters)
6. final output: figures/figure_X.{tex,pdf}