Figure Composer

This program is designed to automate the layout and labelling of simple figures, in order to save repeated trips to inkscape or powerpoint during figure creation and improvement.

Quick start

The create_figure.py script needs to be given two arguments:

./create_figure.py <config_path> <figure_out_path>

the first of these arguments, <config_path>, is the path to a configuration describing the structure of the figure. The second argument, <figure_out_path> is the path to the created figure.

Figure Structure

The layout of the figure is given as nested series of Rows and Columns as described in the given configuration file, laid out in a .yaml format. Images within a Row are scaled to equalise the height while keeping the aspect ratio fixed.

Example layouts

Simple layout

A simple layout of two figures side-by-side is given below:

- Row:
    - tests/test_im/square-im-1.png
    - tests/test_im/rect-im-1.png

- Options:
    - format_str: "{index+1}."
    - pos: "0.05, 0.05"
    - size: 20

Also present is a global Options block, containing information common to all the sub-figures.

• format_str: string used to create the label in the sub-figure. index is substituted into the figure label, this counts onwards from 0 across the figures.
• pos: A tuple of two floats in (x, y) coordinates for the label, relative to subfigure. Values must be in the range 0 < x, y, 1.
• size: Font size of the labels.

Overriding options

Options may be over-ridden on a image by image basis:

- Row:
    - tests/test_im/square-im-1.png: {text: "A!"}
    - tests/test_im/align.png: {size: 50, pos: "0.50, 0.50"}

- Options:
    - format_str: "{index+1}."
    - pos: "0.05, 0.05"
    - size: 20

The additional arguments are given as a dictionary, note the : following the path to the figure.

Nested figures

Row or Col may be nested in the same way as other images.

- Row:
    - tests/test_im/square-im-1.png: {text: "A!"}
    - Col:
        - tests/test_im/align.png: {size: 50, pos: "0.50, 0.50"}
        - Row:
            - tests/test_im/square-im-3.png
            - tests/test_im/square-im-4.png
- Options:
    - format_str: "{index+1}."
    - pos: "0.05, 0.05"
    - size: 20