About Academic Figure Color Expert
Academic Figure Color Expert is a skill for creating reusable palette decisions for academic figures. It helps researchers choose colors for a figure's context, map semantic roles, and produce accessibility notes and a handoff for prompt skills.
Key features
- 01Choose classic or pastel style first
- 02Select a primary and alternate palette
- 03Provide hex codes and semantic role mapping
- 04Account for color vision and print needs
- 05Prepare a handoff for prompt skills
Use cases
- 01Choose a consistent palette for a paper figure
- 02Select a color strategy based on module count
- 03Pass color-role guidance into a figure-prompt workflow
Install
Copy the command and run it in a terminal.
npx skills add https:/After installing, type/academic-figure-color-expertin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.
Bundled filesreferences/missing-info-policy.mdreferences/palettes.md
Details
From the project READMEAcademic Figure Color Expert
Produce a reusable Palette Decision. Hex tables, venue maps, and scene→style→palette recipes live in one place:
→ Read references/palettes.md (presets + Style family + Scene → palette decision + recipes).
Always decide style family (classic vs pastel) before naming a classic preset.
Principles
- Color carries information, not decoration.
- ≤ 3 chromatic colors + neutrals per figure.
- Colorblind-safe by default; dual-encode categories.
- ≥ 4 modules → monochrome (Nature Blue) beats polychrome busyness.
Input Contract
- Prefer: venue, domain, figure type, module count, reference image, accessibility / print constraints
- Minimum: any one of venue / figure type / domain
- Missing info: follow
references/missing-info-policy.md; still emit a conservative Palette Decision
Output Contract — Palette Decision
Always include:
- recommended palette + one alternate
- primary / secondary / tertiary (+ neutrals) hex
- semantic color binding (Data/Input, Backbone, Loss, Output, Frozen roles mapped to consistent hex)
- reason (venue / domain / module count)
- accessibility note
- handoff block ready for prompt skills
Steps
Step 1: Collect constraints
Done when you have recorded (or marked missing): venue, domain, figure type, module count, colorblind/print needs, user color preference, reference image cues.
Step 2: Decide style family + palette
- Classic vs pastel —
references/palettes.mdStyle family first - If pastel → hand off scheme P1/P2/P3 to
academic-figure-prompt-pastel(hex from that skill) - If classic → apply Scene → palette decision (hard constraints → figure type → venue → domain → vibe)
- Name primary + alternate; state branch (
user/scene/default)
Done when: family + primary + alternate are explicit, with the decision checklist fields from references/palettes.md.
Step 3: Emit hex + handoff
Load the chosen preset from references/palettes.md. Apply the Semantic Color Binding Contract to map structural domain roles (Data, Backbone, Loss, Output, Frozen) to consistent hex values across all paper panels. Output the Palette Decision format.
Done when: every role hex is filled, semantic binding stated, accessibility stated, and the handoff block is copy-ready for academic-figure-prompt.
Sparse-input cases
| case | action |
|---|---|
| no venue | infer from domain / reference; else Okabe-Ito (or Nature Blue if ≥ 4 modules) |
| accessibility unspecified | assume colorblind-safe required |
| only vibe words (“高级/科技/柔和”) | map to 1–2 presets with concrete hex |
| only reference image | extract hues; academicize if needed (white fill, border color, ≤ 3 chromatics) |
| figure type unknown | default framework advice; note module-detail vs comparison alternates |
Stop
Stop when the user has a Palette Decision for the current figure, or when zero constraints and zero artifacts exist (then ask for venue / figure type / domain).