# PosterHarness: Turning Scientific Poster Generation into an Auditable Instruction-Following Benchmark

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.03006 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.03006/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 25 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 Jul 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Judging LLM-as-a-Judge with MT-Bench and Chatbot Arena](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05685/) (2023)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [Prompt-to-Prompt Image Editing with Cross Attention Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01626/) (2022)
- [AutoGen: Enabling Next-Gen LLM Applications via Multi-Agent Conversation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08155/) (2023)
- [MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00352/) (2023)
- [SciBERT: A Pretrained Language Model for Scientific Text](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.10676/) (2019)
- [CAMEL: Communicative Agents for "Mind" Exploration of Large Language Model Society](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17760/) (2023)
- [PubLayNet: largest dataset ever for document layout analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.07836/) (2019)
- [TextDiffuser: Diffusion Models as Text Painters](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10855/) (2023)
- [AnyText: Multilingual Visual Text Generation And Editing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.03054/) (2023)
- [TextDiffuser-2: Unleashing the Power of Language Models for Text Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16465/) (2023)
- [GlyphControl: Glyph Conditional Control for Visual Text Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18259/) (2023)
- [Paper2Poster: Towards Multimodal Poster Automation from Scientific Papers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21497/) (2025)
- [DreamPoster: A Unified Framework for Image-Conditioned Generative Poster Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04218/) (2025)
- [BizGenEval: A Systematic Benchmark for Commercial Visual Content Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.25732/) (2026)
- [EfficientPosterGen: Semantic-aware Efficient Poster Generation via Token Compression and Accurate Violation Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.00155/) (2026)
- [Type-R: Automatically Retouching Typos for Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.18159/) (2024)
- [Preliminary Explorations with GPT-4o(mni) Native Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.05501/) (2025)
- [PosterReward: Unlocking Accurate Evaluation for High-Quality Graphic Design Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.29855/) (2026)
- [PosterIQ: A Design Perspective Benchmark for Poster Understanding and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.24078/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [ResearchStudio-Reel: Automate the Last Mile of Research from Paper to Poster, Video, and Blog](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.04438/) (2026)
- [PosterMELD: Multi-Agent Paper-to-Poster Generation for Controllable Design Diversity with Editable Print-Ready Outputs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.02218/) (2026)
- [From Transient Prompts to Persistent Control: Scientific Poster Generation via Recursive Semantic-Geometric Contracts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.17326/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Text-rich image models can now design poster-scale layouts, but we lack ways to measure whether they honor scientific communication contracts: legible labels, prescribed aspect ratios, and -- above all -- abstaining from fabricated scientific figures. We present POSTERHARNESS, an auditable harness reframing poster generation as measurable instruction-following tasks, with a pilot benchmark and failure taxonomy. POSTERHARNESS uses a placeholder-first contract to separate two jobs models otherwise conflate. The model performs visual-summary design: typography, reading path, color, and background -- but never draws data-bearing figures. Every figure region must be an empty labeled placeholder; a deterministic compositor inserts real source-paper figures at detected coordinates. This makes properties measurable: placeholder count and ID accuracy, blankness, aspect-ratio compliance, abstention from synthesized graphics, public-text hygiene, and source-figure provenance -- with failures logged as explicit rejections, not hidden in plausible-looking output. We instantiate the harness on 12 papers (6 HEP, 6 AI/ML-adjacent) and report three findings. (i) A counterfactual probe shows the placeholder contract drives VLM-counted synthesized figures from 34 to 0 across three papers. (ii) A failure taxonomy identifies blocking contracts: placeholder geometry, placeholder QA, template critic, and public text. (iii) Comparison with Paper2Poster shows a trade-off: PosterHarness yields higher-resolution artifacts, lower white-canvas fraction, and stronger VLM visual preference; the deterministic baseline retains slightly more PosterQuiz-style information and runs faster. We report this as regime characterization, not a superiority claim. All artifacts, prompts, manifests, and audit scripts are released as a reusable evaluation component.