MATLAB Plot Skill

Overview

Use this skill to fix messy MATLAB figures and turn rough plots into publication-quality output. The workflow is: read the plotting code and destination document, refactor the figure, export a vector PDF plus a PNG preview, read the rendered PNG yourself, critique it, and iterate until the result is clearly professional.

The non-negotiable idea: do not stop after writing plotting code. Code that looks correct is not the same as a figure that looks correct — you must generate, export, look, and iterate.

When To Use It

• MATLAB .m files that create or export figures.
• Figures that look cramped, blurry, inconsistent, or amateurish.
• Multi-panel paper figures where spacing, legends, titles, and page fit matter.
• Overleaf or LaTeX workflows that need vector PDF output.
• Requests like publication-quality, journal-ready, clean up this figure, make this plot readable, or anything that effectively means "this MATLAB figure looks messy."

Non-Negotiable Review Loop

Do not stop after writing plotting code.