latex-posters

Trigger phrases

Phrases that activate this skill when typed to Claude Code:

• create a research poster
• make a conference poster
• LaTeX poster template
• beamerposter layout
• academic poster design

What it does

latex-posters is a Claude Code skill from K-Dense AI’s scientific-agent-skills repo. It turns Claude into a LaTeX poster designer that produces research poster source files using beamerposter, tikzposter, or baposter — covering multi-column layout design, institutional color schemes, figure integration, and the visual communication principles specific to conference poster format.

A session produces a compilable LaTeX .tex file: poster structure with title, authors, affiliation, and abstract block; multi-column content sections; figure placeholders with caption formatting; and a reference list formatted for poster proportions.

When to use it

Reach for it when:

• You’re presenting at a conference and need a poster that compiles to print-ready dimensions (A0, A1, custom)
• You want a branded poster that uses your institution’s color palette in a maintainable LaTeX source
• You’re adapting a paper to poster format and need help restructuring the content for visual reading order

When not to reach for it:

• Slide presentations — use scientific-slides for PowerPoint or Beamer talk decks
• Infographic-style one-pagers that don’t follow academic poster conventions — use infographics

Install

Copy the SKILL.md from K-Dense AI’s latex-posters folder into .claude/skills/latex-posters/ in your project. Requires a LaTeX installation with beamerposter and tikzposter packages.

Trigger phrases: “create a research poster”, “make a conference poster”, “LaTeX poster template”, “beamerposter layout”.

What a session looks like

A typical session has three phases:

1. Poster specification. Specify the conference, poster dimensions, number of columns, and color scheme. Claude asks for the paper abstract or key findings to structure the content sections.
2. Layout and content drafting. Claude generates the LaTeX source with the chosen package, populates title/author blocks, distributes content across columns in visual reading order, and adds figure and table environments.
3. Review and compile. The .tex file is returned with compile instructions. Claude flags any potential package conflicts or font issues based on the target output dimensions.

Receipts

Where it works well:

• Standard A0 portrait posters for biology and medical conferences — the beamerposter defaults are well-calibrated for this format
• Adapting existing paper content to poster flow — Claude reorganizes the narrative from paper reading order to poster scanning order reliably

Where it backfires:

• Custom dimensions and unusual aspect ratios can require manual tuning of font sizes and column widths that Claude’s first draft doesn’t get right
• Institutions with strict branding requirements may need significant color and font overrides beyond the defaults

Pattern that works: generate the poster LaTeX source first, compile locally, then iterate on layout and proportions rather than trying to specify every detail upfront.

Source and attribution

The canonical SKILL.md lives in the latex-posters folder of K-Dense AI’s scientific-agent-skills repository.

License: MIT. Install, adapt, and redistribute with attribution preserved.

This page documents the skill from a practitioner’s perspective. For the formal spec and any updates, defer to the source repo.