Week 234: Figure Refinement

Learning Objectives

• •Apply journal-specific style guidelines (APS, Nature, Science formats)
• •Design colorblind-accessible visualizations
• •Create vector graphics for scalability and print quality
• •Compose effective multi-panel figures
• •Write informative figure captions
• •Optimize figures for different publication contexts (print, web, presentations)
• •A central message (the "finding")
• •Supporting evidence (the data shown)
• •Context (labels, legends, captions)
• •Quality standards (clarity, accuracy)
• •Single column: 8.6 cm (3.4 in)
• •Double column: 17.8 cm (7.0 in)
• •Resolution: 600 DPI minimum
• •Format: EPS, PDF (vector preferred)
• •Font: 8-10 pt for labels
• •Single column: 89 mm
• •Double column: 183 mm
• •Resolution: 300 DPI (halftone), 1000 DPI (line art)
• •Format: EPS, PDF, TIFF
• •Font: 5-7 pt minimum
• •Single column: 55 mm
• •Double column: 115 mm
• •Full page: 178 mm
• •Resolution: 300+ DPI
• •Format: EPS, PDF preferred
• •**Use color meaningfully:** Color should encode information, not decoration
• •**Consider colorblind viewers:** 8% of males have color vision deficiency
• •**Print compatibility:** Colors must work in grayscale
• •**Consistency:** Same meaning for same color throughout paper
• •Red/green (most common deficiency)
• •Blue/purple
• •Green/brown
• •Light colors on white
• •Sans-serif fonts preferred (Helvetica, Arial)
• •Consistent font throughout all figures
• •Match document body font when possible
• •Minimum readable size: 6 pt at final publication size
• •Axis titles: Larger, bold acceptable
• •Tick labels: Standard size
• •Annotations: Smaller, but readable
• •Panel labels: (a), (b), (c) in bold
• •Use proper symbols (not text approximations)
• •Match manuscript equation formatting
• •LaTeX rendering preferred