LaTeX Paper Layout Reflow

A Codex skill for reflowing LaTeX academic papers so figures and tables integrate naturally with the text instead of piling up on one page.

It is designed for the very common situation where a two-column paper technically compiles, but the middle pages feel like a float dump: stacked figures, wide tables pushing content away, and weak text–visual rhythm.

Why this exists

Most layout fixes stop at “shrink the figure” or “compress whitespace.” This skill is opinionated in a different way:

• prefer reflowing floats over blindly shrinking them
• prefer single-column placement for local supporting visuals
• keep only a few true double-column anchors
• place figures/tables closer to their first meaningful reference
• improve the page rhythm so papers feel more publication-like

Before / after

Same paper, same technical content, same overall page budget — only the layout strategy changed.

More examples

What this skill does well

• Reflow figure, figure*, table, and table* environments
• Reduce figure/table pile-up on the same page
• Decide when a wide float should become single-column
• Tighten tables without crushing readability
• Adjust float placement, caption spacing, and scaling more deliberately
• Preserve labels, numbering, cross-references, and venue style constraints

What it does not try to do

• Rewrite the scientific content
• Redraw plots or redesign figure artwork
• Change the conference/journal template
• Optimize for “max compression” at the cost of readability

Repository layout

.
├── README.md
├── README.zh-CN.md
├── LICENSE
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── docs/
│   ├── PUBLISHING_TO_SKILLS_SH.md
│   ├── request-indexing-issue-template.md
│   └── images/
└── skills/
    └── latex-paper-layout-reflow/
        ├── SKILL.md
        ├── agents/openai.yaml
        ├── assets/
        ├── references/
        └── scripts/

Install

Option 1 — Manual install for Codex

Copy this directory into either of these locations:

• repository-level: .agents/skills/latex-paper-layout-reflow/
• user-level: ~/.agents/skills/latex-paper-layout-reflow/

Option 2 — Install via the skills CLI

If this repository is public:

npx skills add <owner>/<repo> --skill latex-paper-layout-reflow

Usage

Explicit invocation

$latex-paper-layout-reflow
Please optimize this LaTeX paper layout so figures and tables integrate naturally with the text instead of piling up on one page.

Natural-language invocation

Please reflow this LaTeX paper layout. Avoid float pile-up, prefer a text–figure–text rhythm, and keep only truly necessary wide floats.

Chinese example

请帮我优化这篇 LaTeX 论文的图表排版。不要只缩图或压空白，要主动重排 figure/table，让版面更像图文并茂的投稿论文，避免图表堆页。

What is included in the skill

File	Purpose
skills/latex-paper-layout-reflow/SKILL.md	Core behavior and layout heuristics
agents/openai.yaml	Optional UI metadata
assets/user_prompt_template.md	Ready-to-paste prompts
assets/review_checklist.md	Quick acceptance checklist
assets/AGENTS-snippet.md	Minimal repo-level guidance for recurring use
references/common_latex_patterns.md	Reusable float/table patterns
scripts/float_audit.py	Audits float environments and first references
scripts/compile_paper.sh	Simple compile wrapper

Publishing on skills.sh

This repository is structured to work both as:

1. a normal Codex skill repo that people can install directly from GitHub, and
2. a repo you can submit for indexing in the skills.sh ecosystem.

See:

• docs/PUBLISHING_TO_SKILLS_SH.md
• docs/request-indexing-issue-template.md

Notes

• The included screenshots are from a real paper-layout reflow example and are meant to show the type of improvement this skill targets.
• float_audit.py scans literal figure / table environments. If a paper wraps floats in custom macros, Codex should still inspect those manually.

License

MIT.