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Guidelines for Figure and Table Preparation

Contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. Creative Commons Attribution License
  3. Titles and Legends
  4. General Considerations
  5. Figure Preparation
  6. Figure Dimensions
  7. Figure Types
  8. Uploading Figures to the PLoS Manuscript Submission System
  9. Multimedia Files
  10. Image Manipulation
  11. How To
  12. Table Guidelines
  13. Getting Help

1. Introduction

As part of the process of making scientific and medical literature openly accessible on the Web, PLoS uses a streamlined production process that takes authors' submitted figures straight to the formatting stage. Most importantly, PLoS does not redraw figures accepted for publication in articles. Therefore, figure preparation is the author's responsibility.

Please read the following guidelines carefully and thoroughly. Failure to comply with these guidelines may result in lower-quality figures and prolonged publishing time of your article.

2. Creative Commons Attribution License

All figures and photographic images will be published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CCAL), which allows them to be freely used, distributed, and built upon as long as proper attribution is given. Please do not submit any figures or photos that have been previously copyrighted unless you have express written permission from the copyright holder to publish under the CCAL license.

For license inquiries, email license [at] plos.org.

3. Titles and Legends

Titles and legends (captions) for main figures (i.e., not Supporting Figures) should be included in the main article file, not as part of the figure files themselves. Figure legends do not need to be uploaded to the online system. Do not include author names or the article title within the figure files. Instead, list the following information for each figure at the end of the article file, after the references, but before any tables:

  • Figure number (in sequence, using Arabic numerals: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, etc.)
  • Short title using a maximum of 15 words. The figure title should be bold type, using sentence case ending with a period (.). For example: Figure 1. Adaptation and its potential costs.
  • A detailed legend of 300 words maximum can follow the figure title. Each panel should be described in the legend (see Panel Labels, below).

For more detailed information on Legends, see Author Guidelines: Figure Legends

Supporting Figures. If Supporting Information figures are going to be published with your paper, please include the captions in the article file for PLoS Biology or Medicine, and in the Caption field of the online submission system for PLoS ONE, Neglected Tropical Diseases, Genetics, Computational Biology, or Pathogens.

Note: If at any point you have to change the numbering order of your figures, you must make sure that all figure captions correctly correspond with the figures.

4. General Considerations

There are two broad categories of figures in PLoS articles: (1) those publishing directly with the article and (2) Supporting Information figures.

Supporting Figures are not published directly in the article; rather, a hyperlink to the figure is provided in the online version of the published article. Figures published as Supporting Information can be in any file format or dimension, as long as they are no larger than 10 MB.

Provide a separate file for every figure in your manuscript, including Supporting Information figures. Figures should not be embedded in the main manuscript file. For example, if your manuscript has 10 figures, you would upload 10 individual files. Authors who prepared their articles using LaTeX should consult the relevant part of these guidelines.

Note: PLoS converts EPS figures to TIFF before publishing so that they can be viewed in our online and PDF formats.

Recommended Graphics Software

Several graphics software packages are available to help you create high-quality graphics:

Note: Microsoft PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a presentation program, used to display information, normally in the form of a slide show. While it is not designed to create artwork for publication, there are simple workarounds that will allow you to submit your PowerPoint figures. Please see the PowerPoint FAQ at the end of these guidelines.

Note: Microsoft Word
PLoS does not recommend using Microsoft Word to adjust image size. Microsoft Word automatically down-samples figures and embeds them in the document at 72 dpi, so the images may be at a lower resolution and quality than is acceptable. We require that figures be created at a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. Please see the Word FAQ at the end of these guidelines.

Note: Microsoft Excel
PLoS does not recommend Excel to make or adjust figures. It does not have the optimal formatting to display graphics and images properly. This program should be used for tables only. See Table Guidelines for more information on formatting tables. Please see the Excel FAQ at the end of these guidelines.

Note: LaTeX
PLoS does not accept vector EPS figures generated using LaTeX. We only accept LaTeX generated figures in TIFF format. Export your LaTeX files as PDFs, and then open them in GIMP and save as TIFF. In general, Figures must be generated in a standalone graphics application such as those listed above, or PyMol, MatLab, SAS, etc.

5. Figure Preparation

File Size

Individual figure files should not exceed 10 MB. If you are having trouble reducing the size of your files, refer to the section below titled Reduce TIFF File Size with LZW Compression.

Figure Quality

A figure that looks good on screen may not be at optimal resolution. Test your figures by sizing them to their intended dimensions (see Quick Reference: Dimensions) and then printing them on your personal printer. The online version should look relatively similar to the personal-printer copy: it should not look fuzzy, jagged, pixilated, or grainy at the intended print size.

Note: The quality of your figures will be only as good as the lowest-resolution element placed in them. In other words, if you created a 72 dpi line graph and placed in it a 300 dpi TIFF, it will be upsampled, resulting in it looking blurred, jagged, or pixelated.

Figure Format

Figures for publication must only be submitted in high-resolution TIFF or EPS format. We greatly prefer that you submit your figures as TIFFs. Some figure types should be submitted in TIFF only (see Figure Types below). EPS files will be converted to TIFF prior to publishing. Additionally, if you have not made any annotations to your image, and you have a high-quality TIFF, there is no need to submit it embedded in an EPS, as there will be no increase in quality as a result. See How To: Convert Other File Types to TIFF below for more information on converting figure files to TIFF.

Color Mode

Figures containing color should be saved in RGB (millions of colors) rather than CMYK or any other color space. Bitmap (monochrome) images are not acceptable.

Layered TIFFs

TIFF files with multiple layers are not an accepted format for figures. Please make sure you provide us with a flattened version of your file. To flatten a layered TIFF file, open your figure in Photoshop. From the menu bar select Layer/Flatten Image and save the file. See also Combination Figures, below.

layered1

layered2

Figure example that has layers.

Figure example that has the layers flattened. Only the Background layer remains.

Background Color

Create your figures using a white background. If you create figures using a transparent background, the figures may not display well in the online format.

Figure example showing a figure created with a transparent background. Transparent backgrounds do not work well in the online format.

Figure example showing a figure created with a white background. White backgrounds display well in any format.

Lines, Rules, and Strokes

Lines should be at least 0.5 point and no more than 1.5 point in order to reproduce well in a PDF file or web format.

Figure example showing lines that are too thick and lines that are too light in color. Light color do not display well when published.

Figure example showing the correct line widths and darker colored accent lines.

White Space

Each figure should be closely cropped to minimize the amount of white space surrounding it. PLoS recommends a 2 point white space border around each figure. Cropping figures improves accuracy when the figure is placed among other elements during production of the final published article.

Figure example that has too much white space.

Figure example that has the correct amount of white space.

Text within Figures

Fonts

Figure text must be in Arial font, between 8 and 12 point. Make sure that the visual information is readable at the size you select.

Figure text that requires a font family other than Arial (math symbols, etc.) must have the font information embedded in the figure file, or be converted to outlines. See Embed Fonts in EPS Files and Convert Text to Outlines below for more information.

Panel labels

Multi-panel figures (those with parts A, B, C, and D) should be submitted as a single file that contains all parts of the figure. Label the figure itself with capital letters, Arial bold font, 12 points. Do not use punctuation (no periods or brackets). Left-justify the Panel Label in relation to the Panel it references. Figure panel labels should contain only letters and not numbers. If you have a need to number sub-panels in a numerical sequence (i.e. A1, A2, A3), please label them as follows: Ai, Aii, Aiii. Figure panel labels should be in black type only (in Arial Bold 12 point) unless they are on top of a photograph, in which case white type is ok. Colored type; white type on a black background object such as a square or oval; black type on a white or colored background object such as a square or oval and borders around Figure panel labels are not allowed. Any TIFFs with layers must be flattened (see Combination Figures below.)

Figure example that has the incorrect label format.

Figure example that has the correct label format.

Figure example showing the use of the incorrect font family.

Figure example correctly using the Arial font family.

6. Figure Dimensions

Figures for publication will be sized to fit 1, 1.5, or 2 columns of the final printable PDF of the article. Dimensions will also depend on the article type. Please follow the sizing recommendations below for your original submission to create high-quality, appropriately sized figures. See Figure Types below for descriptions and recommendations for line drawings, grayscale drawings, halftones, and combination figures. See below for sizing information.

Figure Alignment

Figures will be left-aligned on the page or column, so please design them accordingly.

Figure Width

Widths depend on article type layout and are listed in the tables below, but must be within the minimum of 8.45cm wide and the maximum of 17.5cm wide. Figures can have a maximum height of 23.5 cm. If your figures have labels that are in 8 point type or if your figures are very detailed, it is recommended that your figure be created so that it will span two columns. Images will be published in a horizontal orientation, and cannot be rotated 90 degrees to have a vertical orientation. Please size your figure widths to one of the column sizes listed below. Dimensions listed include a 2-pixel white border around your artwork.

Article Type

Quick Reference - Figure Dimensions for Research Articles and Other 2-Column Article Types
  Centimeters
Width for 1-Column Figures 8.45cm
Width for 1.5-Column Figures 12.5cm
Width for 2-Column Figures 17.5cm
Height Maximum for All Figures 23.5cm
Quick Reference - Figure Dimensions for 3-Column Article Types
  Centimeters
Width for 1-Column Figures 5.45cm
Width for 2-Column Figures 11.45cm
Width for 3-Column Figures 17.5cm
Height Maximum for All Figures 23.5cm

7. Figure Types

Line Art

Line art has sharp, clean lines and geometrical shapes against a white background. Line art is typically used for tables, charts, graphs, and gene sequences. You can use a program like Illustrator to create high-quality line art. A minimum resolution of 300 dpi will maintain the crisp edges of the lines and shapes.

Grayscale

Grayscale figures contain varying tones of black and white. They contain no color, so grayscale is synonymous with "black and white." The gray scale is divided into 256 sections with black at 0 and white at 255. Software for preparation of grayscale art includes Photoshop.

Halftones

The best example of a halftone is a photograph, but halftones include any image that uses continuous shading or blending of colors or grays, such as gels, stains, microarrays, brain scans, and molecular structures. To prepare and manipulate halftone images, use Photoshop or a comparable photo-editing program.

Combination Figures

Combination figures contain two or more types of images, for example, a halftone figure containing text. You should embed the images, group the objects, or flatten the layers, and flatten transparencies before saving as TIFF at a minimum of 300 dpi.

Stereograms

Stereograms are figures with two almost identical pictures placed side by side which, when viewed through special glasses or a stereoscope, produce a three-dimensional image.

If you plan on submitting a stereogram as one of your figures, make sure this is clearly mentioned in the caption for the figure within the manuscript. Stereograms must be sized so that the centers of each of these images are 63 mm apart. Make sure that the stereogram figure is at the size you would like them to display. They will be checked prior to publishing, but this step will ensure your stereogram will be viewed properly.

Quick Reference Table for Common Figure Types

Line Art

Grayscale

Halftones

Combination Figures

Required File Types

TIFF or EPS

TIFF or EPS

TIFF

TIFF

Required Resolution

300 dpi

300 dpi

300 dpi

300 dpi

Example Software for Preparation

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Photoshop; GIMP

Adobe Photoshop; GIMP

Adobe Photoshop; GIMP

8. Uploading Figures to the PLoS Manuscript Submission System

Upload Order

Note: When a figure is uploaded to the PLoS manuscript submission system, a PDF file is created that contains the image but does not represent the final appearance of your figures in your published article. In addition, a "merged PDF" containing the article file and all of the figures is created automatically, which should be used by authors as a quick way to review their figures for egregious errors.

9. Multimedia Files

PLoS encourages authors to submit multimedia files that are crucial to the conclusions of the paper. We expect reasonable video quality and prefer 128 kbit/s AAC audio and 480p H.264 video in MPEG-4 (mp4) container. However, we accept video file formats: mov, avi, mpg, mpeg, mp4, mkv, flv and wmv. Preferred size limit of movies is 10Mb. If making the dimensions smaller or recompressing the movie compromises the image quality or usefulness of the movie, we can accept the movie as is These files are published as Supporting Information.

Video Players

Videos must open and play in either QuickTime Player v. 7.6.2 or Windows Media Player v. 11. Preferably both, but as long as they play in one of these common players, the movie is acceptable. VLC (VideoLAN Client) is a cross-platform universal video player. VLC will play back most formats and codecs without the need to download additional software modules. VLC is free and GPL licensed. VLC offers many other features including streaming.

Codecs

A codec (which stands for compression-decompression) is a software module that contains algorithms used by encoding or playback software to encode or decode video and/or audio information.

Popular proprietary codecs include Windows Media Video and Quicktime. Open source video codec alternatives include x264 or the XviD codec. XviD is a high quality codec and is the most widely supported open source option available. It is relatively simple for most people to watch as many players have native support for XviD. A great resource containing guides for encoding is http://www.videohelp.com/

Standards

Videos compression standards, such as the MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG4 standards set by the Motion Picture Experts Group, are a set of rules that video codecs and formats must be designed to adhere to. The MPEG4 standard contains several parts including Advanced Simple Profile (MPEG4 Part 2) that contains elements implemented in codecs such as XviD, 3ivX, DivX, and H.264 (MPEG4 Part 10).

10. Image Manipulation

Image files should not be manipulated or adjusted in any way that could lead to misinterpretation of the information present in the original image. Inappropriate manipulation includes but is not limited to:

Digital images in manuscripts nearing acceptance for publication may be scrutinized for any indication of improper manipulation. If evidence is found of inappropriate manipulation we reserve the right to ask for original data and, if that is not satisfactory, we may decide not to accept the manuscript.

We are grateful to staff at the Journal of Cell Biology (Rockefeller University Press) for their help in establishing these guidelines and procedures (http://www.jcb.org/misc/ifora.shtml#image_aquisition)

11. How To

Convert PowerPoint Files to High-Resolution TIFFs

Caution: Do not use File > Save as > TIFF. This will result in a low-resolution, poor-quality figure.

Windows 98, XP, Vista and PowerPoint 2003 or 2007:

Step I: Convert PowerPoint File to PDF

First, you need to edit your registry as detailed here : http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;827745 This is approved by Microsoft, so it’s completely safe to do.

Then, there are two possible ways to create PDFs from PowerPoint files: use the Adobe PDF menu in some versions of PowerPoint, or create a PDF via the Print command.

  1. Open your file in PowerPoint. From the Adobe PDF menu, select Change Conversion Settings. The PDFMaker Settings dialog displays.
  2. From the Conversion settings dropdown menu, select Press Quality. Uncheck View Adobe PDF result. Click OK.
  3. From the Adobe PDF menu, select Convert to Adobe PDF. You will be asked to save the PDF file to a location of your choosing.
  4. Click OK.

– OR -

  1. Open your file in PowerPoint.
  2. Select Print from the File dropdown menu.
  3. Select the Adobe PDF (or similar driver) in the Printer Name window.
  4. Click Properties. Change the Default Settings pull-down to Press Quality. Uncheck the "View Adobe PDF results" box if you don't want Acrobat to launch.
  5. Click OK, then click OK. Pick where the PDF will be created, and click Save. Note: If your PowerPoint file contains figures on multiple slides, print each slide to a separate PDF (if you do this, skip ahead to Step III). Alternately, you can create one PDF file and then use Adobe Acrobat to separate the figures/slides into individual files, as detailed in Step II.

Step II: Convert Multi-Page PDF File to Individual Files

  1. Using Adobe Acrobat Standard, open the PDF file that you created in Step 1. From the Document menu, select Pages and then Extract. The Extract Page dialog box displays.
  2. Enter the page numbers in the To and From fields and then select the Delete Pages checkbox. Checking this box will delete the page that you entered in the To and From fields from the PDF file.
  3. Click OK. The page that you specify in the previous step is now shown in Acrobat.
  4. From the File menu, select save and enter the file name (e.g., Figure 1) for the extracted page and then click OK.
  5. Repeat this process until a separate file is created for each figure/slide.

Step III: Convert Individual PDF Files to TIFFs

In Photoshop:

  1. File->Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Make sure you're importing it at 300dpi, RGB.
  2. Use the Crop Tool (fifth from the top of the toolbar) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
  3. Layer->Flatten Image
  4. Image->Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. If the Width is over 17.5cm, type 17.5 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures). The Resolution will go up automatically as the Width decreases. If the resolution does not hit 300 when you make the Width 17.5, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.45cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.5. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
  5. File->Save As. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

In GIMP:

  1. File->Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Open pages as Images at 300dpi. Click Import.
  2. Use the Crop Tool (third row, second from the right, looks like a knife blade) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
  3. Image->Scale Image. Set the units of measurement, in the pull down menu next to Height, to millimeters. If the Width is over 175mm, type 175 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures) and hit Tab. The new Height of the figure will appear, scaled proportionately to the change in Width. The Width cannot be below 84.5mm, and the height cannot be more than 235mm. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
  4. File->Save As. Click the + sign next to “Select File Type (By Extension)”. From the menu that appears, select TIFF. Click Save. Set Compression set to LZW. If you're prompted about layers in the file, select Flatten Image.

In Acrobat Pro:

  1. File->Open the PDF
  2. If necessary, go Document->Rotate Pages to rotate the document to a horizontal orientation.
  3. File->Save As. In the "Save as type" pull-down menu, select TIFF.
  4. Click the Settings button on the right-hand side of the Save As dialog box. In the top third, under "File Settings", both Grayscale and Color should be set to LZW. In the bottom third, "Conversion," set Colorspace to Color:RGB, and Resolution to 300dpi. Click OK. Click Save.

Note: PDFs converted to TIFFs in this manner should still be opened in Photoshop or GIMP to crop excess white space, and make sure the figure falls within our maximums and minimums.

Macintosh OS X and PowerPoint 2004:

Step I: Convert PowerPoint File to PNG

  1. Go to PowerPoint Preferences. Under the Save tab, at the bottom, set Advanced Resolution Settings to 1600 DPI.
  2. File -> Save As. In the Format pull-down menu, select PNG. Save. PNG is the only format you can export in at a high resolution – all other formats save as 72dpi no matter what you set in Preferences.

Step II: Convert Individual PNG Files to TIFFs

In Photoshop:

  1. File->Open the PNG.
  2. Use the Crop Tool (fifth from the top of the toolbar) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
  3. Layer->Flatten Image
  4. Image->Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. If the Width is over 17.5cm, type 17.5 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures). The Resolution will go up automatically as the Width decreases. If the resolution does not hit 300 when you make the Width 17.5, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.45cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.5. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
  5. File->Save As. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

In GIMP:

  1. File->Open the PNG. You will need to do this one page at a time.
  2. Use the Crop Tool (third row, second from the right, looks like a knife blade) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
  3. Image->Scale Image. Set the units of measurement, in the pull down menu next to Height, to millimeters. If the Width is over 175mm, type 175 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures) and hit Tab. The new Height of the figure will appear, scaled proportionately to the change in Width. The Width cannot be below 84.5mm, and the height cannot be more than 235mm. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
  4. File->Save As. Click the + sign next to “Select File Type (By Extension)”. From the menu that appears, select TIFF. Click Save. Set Compression set to LZW. If you're prompted about layers in the file, select Flatten Image.

Macintosh OS X and PowerPoint 2008:

Step I: Convert PowerPoint File to PNG or PDF

  1. Go to PowerPoint Preferences. Under the Save tab, at the bottom, set Advanced Resolution Settings to 1600 DPI.
  2. File -> Save As. In the Format pull-down menu, select either PNG or PDF. Save. Your PNG will be oversize at 72dpi, but will resize properly to 300dpi in Photoshop or GIMP. Your PDF will be the exact size of your PowerPoint slide at 300dpi. All other formats save as 72dpi no matter what you set in Preferences.

Step II: Convert Individual Files to TIFFs

In Photoshop:

  1. File->Open the PNG or PDF.
  2. Use the Crop Tool (fifth from the top of the toolbar) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
  3. Layer->Flatten Image
  4. If you opened a PNG, go Image->Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. If the Width is over 17.5cm, type 17.5 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures). The Resolution will go up automatically as the Width decreases. If the resolution does not hit 300 when you make the Width 17.5, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.45cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.5. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
  5. If you opened a PDF, go Image->Image Size and check to make sure the PDF is within our dimension limits. Resize it down to fit within these limits if need be.
  6. File->Save As. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

In GIMP:

  1. File->Open the PNG or PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time.
  2. Use the Crop Tool (third row, second from the right, looks like a knife blade) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
  3. If you opened a PNG, go Image->Scale Image. Set the units of measurement, in the pull down menu next to Height, to millimeters. If the Width is over 175mm, type 175 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures) and hit Tab. The new Height of the figure will appear, scaled proportionately to the change in Width. The Width cannot be below 84.5mm, and the height cannot be more than 235mm. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
  4. If you opened a PDF, go Image->Scale Image and check to make sure the PDF is within our dimension limits. Resize it down to fit within these limits if need be.
  5. File->Save As. Click the + sign next to “Select File Type (By Extension)”. From the menu that appears, select TIFF. Click Save. Set Compression set to LZW. If you're prompted about layers in the file, select Flatten Image.

OpenOffice (any operating system):

The above procedures work equally well in OpenOffice as they do in Microsoft Office.

Convert Excel or Word Files to High-Resolution TIFFs

Windows 98, XP, Vista and Excel/Word 2003 or 2007:

Step I: Convert Excel/Word File to PDF

There are two possible ways to create PDFs from Excel/Word files: use the Adobe PDF menu in some versions of Excel/Word, or create a PDF via the Print command.

  1. Open your file in Excel/Word. From the Adobe PDF menu, select Change Conversion Settings. The PDFMaker Settings dialog displays.
  2. From the Conversion settings dropdown menu, select Press Quality. Uncheck View Adobe PDF result. Click OK.
  3. From the Adobe PDF menu, select Convert to Adobe PDF. You will be asked to save the PDF file to a location of your choosing.
  4. Click OK.

– OR -

  1. Open your file in Excel/Word.
  2. Select Print from the File dropdown menu.
  3. Select the Adobe PDF (or similar driver) in the Printer Name window.
  4. Click Properties. Change the Default Settings pull-down to Press Quality. Uncheck the "View Adobe PDF results" box if you don't want Acrobat to launch.
  5. Click OK, then click OK. Pick where the PDF will be created, and click Save.

Step II: Convert Individual PDF Files to TIFFs

In Photoshop:

  1. File->Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Make sure you're importing it at 300dpi, RGB.
  2. Use the Crop Tool (fifth from the top of the toolbar) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
  3. Layer->Flatten Image
  4. Image->Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. If the Width is over 17.5cm, type 17.5 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures). The Resolution will go up automatically as the Width decreases. If the resolution does not hit 300 when you make the Width 17.5, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.45cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.5. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
  5. File->Save As. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

In GIMP:

  1. File->Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Open pages as Images at 300dpi. Click Import.
  2. Use the Crop Tool (third row, second from the right, looks like a knife blade) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
  3. Image->Scale Image. Set the units of measurement, in the pull down menu next to Height, to millimeters. If the Width is over 175mm, type 175 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures) and hit Tab. The new Height of the figure will appear, scaled proportionately to the change in Width. The Width cannot be below 84.5mm, and the height cannot be more than 235mm. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
  4. File->Save As. Click the + sign next to “Select File Type (By Extension)”. From the menu that appears, select TIFF. Click Save. Set Compression set to LZW. If you're prompted about layers in the file, select Flatten Image.

In Acrobat Pro:

  1. File->Open the PDF
  2. If necessary, go Document->Rotate Pages to rotate the document to a horizontal orientation.
  3. File->Save As. In the "Save as type" pull-down menu, select TIFF.
  4. Click the Settings button on the right-hand side of the Save As dialog box. In the top third, under "File Settings", both Grayscale and Color should be set to LZW. In the bottom third, "Conversion," set Colorspace to Color:RGB, and Resolution to 300dpi. Click OK. Click Save.

Note: PDFs converted to TIFFs in this manner should still be opened in Photoshop or GIMP to crop excess white space, and make sure the figure falls within our maximums and minimums.

Macintosh OS X and Excel/Word 2004:

Step I: Convert Excel/Word File to PDF

  1. File -> Print.
  2. Click on the PDF button in the lower left corner of the dialog box. Select Save As PDF.

    3. Step II: Convert Individual PDF Files to TIFFs

    In Photoshop:

    1. File->Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Make sure you're importing it at 300dpi, RGB.
    2. Use the Crop Tool (fifth from the top of the toolbar) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
    3. Layer->Flatten Image
    4. Image->Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. If the Width is over 17.5cm, type 17.5 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures). The Resolution will go up automatically as the Width decreases. If the resolution does not hit 300 when you make the Width 17.5, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.45cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.5. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
    5. File->Save As. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

    In GIMP:

    1. File->Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Open pages as Images at 300dpi. Click Import.
    2. Use the Crop Tool (third row, second from the right, looks like a knife blade) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
    3. Image->Scale Image. Set the units of measurement, in the pull down menu next to Height, to millimeters. If the Width is over 175mm, type 175 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures) and hit Tab. The new Height of the figure will appear, scaled proportionately to the change in Width. The Width cannot be below 84.5mm, and the height cannot be more than 235mm. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
    4. File->Save As. Click the + sign next to “Select File Type (By Extension)”. From the menu that appears, select TIFF. Click Save. Set Compression set to LZW. If you're prompted about layers in the file, select Flatten Image.

    In Acrobat Pro:

    1. File->Open the PDF
    2. If necessary, go Document->Rotate Pages to rotate the document to a horizontal orientation.
    3. File->Save As. In the "Save as type" pull-down menu, select TIFF.
    4. Click the Settings button on the right-hand side of the Save As dialog box. In the top third, under "File Settings", both Grayscale and Color should be set to LZW. In the bottom third, "Conversion," set Colorspace to Color:RGB, and Resolution to 300dpi. Click OK. Click Save.

    Note: PDFs converted to TIFFs in this manner should still be opened in Photoshop or GIMP to crop excess white space, and make sure the figure falls within our maximums and minimums.

    OpenOffice (any operating system):

    The above procedures work equally well in OpenOffice as they do in Microsoft Office.

    Embed Fonts in EPS Files

    Always embed fonts or create outlines when creating EPS files. If your figures require special symbols or Greek characters the text may not reproduce properly unless you embed your fonts or create outlines of the text. See the Convert Text to Outlines below for more information.

    To embed fonts using Adobe Illustrator, open the EPS file. From the File Menu, select Save As. In the Save As dialog box, make sure that the Embed Fonts option is selected and click OK.

    Convert Text to Outlines

    When you convert text to outlines, the text is converted to a series of lines and fills. The reference to the font that was used to create the text is no longer present. This process makes it unnecessary for the PLoS production department to have the original font used to create the figure text. This is to ensure that your figures published as you intended.

    Example of text that has not been converted to outlines.

    Example of text that has been converted to outlines. Notice that every character is outlined.

    You can use Adobe Illustrator to convert text to outlines by selecting the text you want to convert. Then from the Type menu, select Create Outlines (Shift + Control + O on PC, and Shift + Command + O on Mac).

    If you do not convert text to outlines, when your figure is opened during the production process any text in a non-standard font will automatically be substituted for default font. This can cause the text in the figure to render incorrectly.

    Caution: You will not be able to change your text after it has been converted to outlines so make sure it is correct before converting.

    Convert Other File Types to TIFF

    Convert PDF to TIFF using Photoshop

    1. Open the PDF file in Photoshop and select the page of the PDF that contains the figures to save as TIFF.
    2. From the File menu, select Save As to open the Save As dialog box.
    3. In the Save As dialog box, select TIFF from the Format dropdown list.
    4. When the TIFF Options dialog box displays, make sure to check the LZW compression checkbox.
    5. Click OK.

    Convert EPS, JPG, GIF, or Other File Types to TIFF using Photoshop

    1. Open the figure file in Photoshop.
    2. From the File menu, select Save As to open the Save As dialog box.
    3. In the Save As dialog box, select TIFF from the Format drop down list.
    4. When the TIFF Options dialog box displays, make sure to check the LZW compression checkbox.
    5. Click OK.

    Note: Do not use the "optimize for web" wizard for any figures. Some programs may down sample your images to low resolution.

    Convert PDF to TIFF using Adobe Illustrator

    1. Open the PDF file in Adobe Illustrator, select the PDF page to export and click OK.
    2. From the File menu, select Export to display the Export dialog box.
    3. From the Export dialog box, select TIFF from the Save as Type drop down list and click OK.
    4. When the TIFF Options dialog displays, select LZW compression.
    5. Click OK to complete the process.

    Convert EPS to TIFF using Illustrator

    1. Open the EPS file in Adobe Illustrator.
    2. From the File menu, select Export to display the Export dialog box.
    3. From the Export dialog box, select TIFF from the Save as Type drop down list and click OK.
    4. When the TIFF Options dialog displays, select LZW compression.
    5. Click OK to complete the process.

    Reduce TIFF File Size with LZW Compression

    PLoS has a strict 10 MB figure file limit. To reduce the size of your figure, open your TIFF files in Photoshop. From the File menu, select Save As to open the Save As dialog box. In the Save As dialog box, select TIFF from the Format dropdown list. When the TIFF Options dialog box displays, make sure to check the LZW compression checkbox. Click OK.

    Locate the Resolution Information in a TIFF File

    You can locate the resolution of a figure file using Adobe Photoshop, Windows Explorer, or GIMP.

    Photoshop

    To find the resolution of a figure using Photoshop, first open the file. Then from the Image menu, select Image Size. The Image Size dialog box will open displaying the figure dimensions, document size and resolution. You can decrease the size of a file, but you should not increase the resolution and/or dimensions of a file to meet the journals requirements. Increasing the file sizes manually may result in poor quality figures.

    Windows Explorer

    To check the resolution of a figure file using Windows Explorer, locate and select the file. Right-click and select Properties. In the Properties dialog box, select the Summary Tab. If you do not see the properties of the figures, click Advanced. This will display all of the properties associated with the selected figure. Look at the Horizontal Resolution and Vertical Resolution to determine the figure resolution.

    GIMP

    To find the resolution of a figure using GIMP, first open the file. Then from the Image menu, select Scale Image. The Scale Image dialog box will open displaying the figure dimensions and resolution. You can decrease the size of a file, but you should not increase the resolution and/or dimensions of a file to meet the journals requirements. Increasing the file sizes manually may result in poor quality figures.

    Add Borders Using ImageMagick

    To add a 2-pixel white border around your Figures using ImageMagick command line tools:

    "mogrify -mattecolor white -frame 2x2 FILE.tif"

    To do it to a group of images:

    "mogrify -mattecolor white -frame 2x2 *.tif"

    Export High Resolution Images from Matlab

    Knowing the target size of your image in inches and dpi, first convert the number of rows and columns in the image. 4.92 inches by 9.25 inches (a 1.5-column figure at maximum height) at 300dpi corresponds to 1476 pixels by 2775 pixels. Modify your image to be 1476 by 2775. (Resize it, crop it, compute it differently, etc.) Then save your 1476 by 2775 image to a TIFF file, specifying 300 as the resolution:

    imwrite(my_image, 'figure_10_a.tif', 'Resolution', 300);

    function writeFig300dpi(figNo, fileName)
    %make the backgroung white
    set(figNo,’color’,'w’);
    f=getframe(figNo);
    colormap(f.colormap);
    imwrite(f.cdata, fileName, ‘Resolution’, 300);

    Export High Resolution Images from PyMol

    To get a 300 dpi PNG file for a 4.92 inch by 9.25 inch image:

    Ray-traced:

    ray 1476,2775
    png hires_ray.pdb, dpi=300

    OpenGL:

    draw 1476,2775
    png hires_ogl.pdb, dpi=300

    Enable the use of Arial in R

    First, convert the Arial .ttf files to afm:

    ttf2afm /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/arial.ttf > ~/arial.afm
    ttf2afm /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/ariali.ttf > ~/ariali.afm
    ttf2afm /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/arialbd.ttf > ~/arialbd.afm
    ttf2afm /usr/share/fonts/msttcorefonts/arialbi.ttf > ~/arialbi.afm

    and then do the following in R:

    postscript(file="try.ps", horizontal=F,
    onefile=F,
    width=4, height=4,
    family=c("/home/stephen/arial.afm",
    "/home/stephen/arialbd.afm",
    "/home/stephen/ariali.afm",
    "/home/stephen/arialbi.afm"),
    pointsize=12)
    hist(rnorm(100))
    dev.off()

    Convert SigmaPlot Files to High Resolution TIFFs

    Step I: Applying PLoS settings to a graph

    To create a graph that is PLoS compatible, perform the following steps:

    1. First create your graph, and save it in SigmaPlot format.
    2. From the Tools menu select Options. In the dialogue box that appears, click on the Page tab. Set the Units to Millimeters (mm) and make sure the Graph objects resize with graph option is not ticked. Click OK.
    3. From the File menu select Page Setup. In the dialogue box that appears, click on the Margins tab. Set all the margins to 0.0mm, then click Apply.
    4. Now click on the Page Size tab. Set the Width to 84.5mm (or 175.0mm if double column width) and the Height to 235.0mm. Click OK.
    5. Set the font size of all text to 8 pt, and the width of all lines to 0.2mm (consult the SigmaPlot Help files for more details if necessary).
    6. Resize your graph to fit within and make full use of the page width available.

    Step II: Saving an image in PDF format

    This is the prefered output format when using SigmaPlot. To make sure your image is saved in an PLoS compatible format, perform the following steps:

    1. From the File menu in SigmaPlot, select Print. In the Print dialogue box that appears, select Adobe PDF as the printer. Click on Properties.
    2. Change the Default Settings pull-down to Press Quality. Uncheck the View Adobe PDF results box if you don't want Acrobat to launch.
    3. Click OK, then click OK. Pick where the PDF will be created, and click Save.

    The PDF can then be processed in Photoshop, GIMP, or Acrobat Pro.

    In Photoshop:

    1. File->Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Make sure you're importing it at 300dpi, RGB.
    2. Use the Crop Tool (fifth from the top of the toolbar) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
    3. Layer->Flatten Image
    4. Image->Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. If the Width is over 17.5cm, type 17.5 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures). The Resolution will go up automatically as the Width decreases. If the resolution does not hit 300 when you make the Width 17.5, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.45cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.5. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
    5. File->Save As. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

    In GIMP:

    1. File->Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Open pages as Images at 300dpi. Click Import.
    2. Use the Crop Tool (third row, second from the right, looks like a knife blade) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
    3. Image->Scale Image. Set the units of measurement, in the pull down menu next to Height, to millimeters. If the Width is over 175mm, type 175 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures) and hit Tab. The new Height of the figure will appear, scaled proportionately to the change in Width. The Width cannot be below 84.5mm, and the height cannot be more than 235mm. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
      4. 4.File->Save As. Click the + sign next to Select File Type (By Extension). From the menu that appears, select TIFF. Click Save. Set Compression set to LZW. If you're prompted about layers in the file, select Flatten Image.

    In Acrobat Pro:

    1. File->Open the PDF
    2. If necessary, go Document->Rotate Pages to rotate the document to a horizontal orientation.
    3. File->Save As. In the Save as type pull-down menu, select TIFF.
    4. Click the Settings button on the right-hand side of the Save As dialog box. In the top third, under File Settings, both Grayscale and Color should be set to LZW. In the bottom third, Conversion, set Colorspace to Color:RGB, and Resolution to 300dpi. Click OK. Click Save.

    Step III: Saving an image in TIF format

    If PDF output from SigmaPlot proves unsatisfactory, then save in TIF format. To make sure your image is saved in a PLoS compatible format, perform the following steps:

    1. From the File menu select Export....
    2. In the Export File dialogue box that appears, set the Save as type: pull-down menu to TIFF RGB Compressed (.tif), then enter a logical file name (e.g. figure1.tif). Click Export.
    3. In the dialogue box which appears next, set the Final figure dpi: to 300 and the Color depth: to either Monochrome (for black and white images) or 24-bit (for color images). Click OK.
    4. The file produced by steps 1 to 3 will be large (approximately 33 cm wide) and low resolution (150 pixels/inch). It can be used as it is, but if you have access to a graphics package such as Adobe Photoshop or GIMP you can tidy up the format.

    In Photoshop:

    1. File->Open the TIFF.
    2. Use the Crop Tool (fifth from the top of the toolbar) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
    3. Image->Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. If the Width is over 17.5cm, type 17.5 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures). The Resolution will go up automatically as the Width decreases. If the resolution does not hit 300 when you make the Width 17.5, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.45cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.5. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
    4. File->Save As. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

    In GIMP:

    1. File->Open the Tiff.
    2. Use the Crop Tool (third row, second from the right, looks like a knife blade) to select an area close to the borders of your image. Hit Enter to apply the crop.
    3. Image->Scale Image. Set the units of measurement, in the pull down menu next to Height, to millimeters. If the Width is over 175mm, type 175 in the Width box (17.5cm is our maximum allowable width for figures) and hit Tab. The new Height of the figure will appear, scaled proportionately to the change in Width. The Width cannot be below 84.5mm, and the height cannot be more than 235mm. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
    4. File->Save As. Click the + sign next to Select File Type (By Extension). From the menu that appears, select TIFF. Click Save. Set Compression set to LZW. If you're prompted about layers in the file, select Flatten Image.

    12. Table Guidelines

    Tables submitted for publication should be included at the very end of the article DOC or RTF file (or LaTeX PDF). Supporting Information tables should be submitted as separate files in any of the following formats (although authors should aim to ensure that the file type is most appropriate to the information displayed): Word, Excel, PDF, PPT, JPG, EPS, or TIFF.

    Title and footnotes

    Each table needs a concise title of no more than one sentence. The legend and footnotes should be placed below the table. Footnotes can be used to explain abbreviations.

    Specifications

    Tables that do not conform to the following requirements may give unintended results when published. Problems may include the movement of data (rows or columns), loss of spacing, or disorganization of headings. Note: Multi-part tables with varying numbers of columns or multiple footnote sections should be divided and renumbered as separate tables.

    Tables must:

    • Be cell-based (e.g., created in Word with Tables tool or in Excel).
    • Be editable (i.e., not graphic object).
    • Have heading/subheading levels in separate columns.
    • Be no larger than one printed page (7 in x 9.5 in). Larger tables can be published as online supporting information.

    Tables must not:

    • Have returns, tabs, or merged cells or rows.
    • Have color, shading, lines, or rules.
    • Have inserted text boxes or pictures.
    • Have tables within tables.

    Examples

    13. Getting Help

    If you have questions about your figures after reading the guidelines, you can email figures [at] plos.org.

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