Sh_Sci_Fig — Scientific Figure Extractor
Precisely extract figures and sub-figures from academic PDF papers.
Script Directory
Scripts in scripts/ subdirectory. Replace ${SKILL_DIR} with this SKILL.md's directory path.
| Script | Purpose |
|---|---|
scripts/extract_figure.py |
Main CLI for figure extraction |
Preferences (EXTEND.md)
Use Bash to check EXTEND.md existence (priority order):
# Check project-level first
test -f .baoyu-skills/Sh_Sci_Fig/EXTEND.md && echo "project"
# Then user-level (cross-platform: $HOME works on macOS/Linux/WSL)
test -f "$HOME/.baoyu-skills/Sh_Sci_Fig/EXTEND.md" && echo "user"
EXTEND.md Supports: Default DPI | Default output format | Tesseract path
Usage
python ${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/extract_figure.py <input.pdf> [options]
Options
| Option | Short | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
<input> |
PDF file path | Required | |
--figure |
-f |
Figure number (1, 2, 3...) | Required (except --list/--all) |
--subfigure |
-s |
Sub-figure label (a, b, c...) | None (returns whole figure) |
--output |
-o |
Output directory | Current directory |
--dpi |
-d |
Output resolution | 600 |
--list |
-l |
List all available figure numbers | false |
--all |
Extract all figures | false | |
--format |
Output format | png |
Examples
# Extract Figure 2, sub-figure c
python ${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/extract_figure.py paper.pdf -f 2 -s c
# Extract entire Figure 3
python ${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/extract_figure.py paper.pdf -f 3
# List all available figures in a PDF
python ${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/extract_figure.py paper.pdf --list
# Extract all figures
python ${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/extract_figure.py paper.pdf --all
# Custom output directory and DPI
python ${SKILL_DIR}/scripts/extract_figure.py paper.pdf -f 2 -s c -o ./output/ -d 300
Output:
Extracted: figure_2c.png (1920x1080, 600 DPI)
Error Handling
| Scenario | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Figure number not found | Error + list all available figure numbers |
| OCR recognition failed | Return entire figure region |
| Sub-figure split failed | Return entire figure region |
| No sub-figure labels found | Return entire figure region |
Tech Stack
| Library | Role |
|---|---|
| pdfplumber | Text + coordinate extraction (locate "Figure X" labels) |
| PyMuPDF (fitz) | PDF → high-quality image rendering (600 DPI) |
| opencv-python | Boundary detection, contour analysis |
| Pillow | Final cropping, format conversion |
| pytesseract | OCR for sub-figure label recognition |
Extension Support
Custom configurations via EXTEND.md. See Preferences section for paths and supported options.
