Guidelines for Figure and Table Preparation

Below are some detailed guidelines on our requirements for publication, but above all KEEP IT SIMPLE. We require

an acceptable structure as listed under Organization of the Manuscript in Guidelines for Authors
papers in Microsoft Word format
single line spacing (but 1.5 or 2 is acceptable)
use a clear 12 point Font
avoid underlining except where hyperlinks are required and supply URLs
use clear resolution graphics and tables

Contents:

Introduction
Creative Commons Attribution License
Titles and Legends
General Considerations
- Recommended Software
Figure Preparation
- File Size
- Quality
- Format
- Colour Mode
- Layered TIFFs
- Multi-page Tiffs
- Background Colour
- Lines, Rules, and Strokes
- White Space
- Text within Figures
  - Fonts
  - Panel labels
Figure Dimensions
- Alignment
- Width
- Quick Reference: Dimensions
Figure Types
- Line Art
- Grayscale
- Halftones
- Combinations
- Stereograms
- Quick Reference: Figure Types
Uploading Figures to the Social Sciences Directory Manuscript Submission System
Multimedia Files
Image Manipulation
How To
- PowerPoint on Windows and OS X
- Excel and Word, on Windows and OS X
- Embed Fonts in EPS Files
- Convert Text to Outlines
- Convert Other File Types to TIFF
- Reduce TIFF File Size with LZW Compression
- Locate the Resolution Information in a TIFF File
- Add Borders Using ImageMagick
- Export High Resolution Images from Matlab
- Export High Resolution Images from PyMol
- Enable the Use of Arial in R
- Convert SigmaPlot Files to High Resolution TIFFs
- Export from Stata
- Exporting a High Resolution TIFF Using GeneSpring
Table Guidelines
- Borders, Lines, and Rules
- Returns
- Shading
- Footnotes
- Vertically Merged Cells
- Multi-part Tables
- LaTeX Tables
Getting Help

1. Introduction

As part of the process of making scholarly literature openly accessible on the Web, Social Sciences Directory uses a streamlined production process that takes authors' submitted figures straight to the formatting stage. Most importantly, Social Sciences Directory does not redraw figures accepted for publication in articles. As Social Sciences Directory has very limited resources to make amendments to graphics, figures and tables, their preparation is the author's responsibility. Open Journal Source software supports a wide range of formats, but for guidance do not submit anything that you can see yourself is distorted when sent as an attachment or opened as a PDF.

The information below may provide some guidance on formatting.

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, e-mail info [at] socialsciencesdirectory.com.

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.

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 Social Sciences Directory 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.

Recommended Graphics Software

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

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
PowerPoint
CorelDraw
GIMP (freely distributed at www.gimp.org)
Inkscape (freely distributed at www.inkscape.org)

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
Social Sciences Directory does not recommend using Microsoft Word to adjust image size. Microsoft Word automatically down-samples figures and embeds them in the document at 72 ppi, 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 ppi. Please see the Word FAQ at the end of these guidelines.

Note: Microsoft Excel
Social Sciences Directory does not recommend Excel to make or adjust figures, except for charts, graphs, or histograms generated from cell data. It lacks the capability to manipulate figures that dedicated graphics applications (such as GIMP, Photoshop, or Illustrator) have. Other than creating charts, graphs, or histograms, Excel should be only be used to make tables. See Table Guidelines for more information on formatting tables. Please see the Excel FAQ at the end of these guidelines. Please see the Excel FAQ at the end of these guidelines.

Note: Microsoft Paint
Microsoft Paint is incapable of creating files at higher than 96ppi resolution, so Social Sciences Directory strongly recommends that you never use it in creating your figures. If you must, follow the guidelines below under Export from Stata.

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 ppi line graph and placed in it a 300 ppi 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. Some figure types should be submitted in TIFF only (see Figure Types below). 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 either Grayscale or RGB (millions of colors), rather than Indexed Color, CMYK or any other color space. Grayscale or RGB files should be saved with a bit depth of 8 bits per channel, not 16. 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.

Multi-Page TIFFS

TIFF files with multiple pages are not an accepted format for figures.

Background Colour

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.

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.

White Space

Each figure should be closely cropped to minimize the amount of white space surrounding it. Social Sciences Directory 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.

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. Any TIFFs with layers must be flattened (see Combination Figures below.)

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 3.27in/8.3cm wide and the maximum of 6.83in/17.35cm wide. Figures can have a maximum height of 9.19in/23.35 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.

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 ppi will maintain the crisp edges of the lines and shapes.

Format: TIFF or EPS
Minimum Resolution: 300 ppi

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.

Format: TIFF or EPS
Minimum Resolution: 300 ppi

Halftones

The best example of a halftone is a photograph, but halftones include any image that uses continuous shading or blending of colours or grays. To prepare and manipulate halftone images, use Photoshop or a comparable photo-editing program.

Format: TIFF
Minimum Resolution: 300 ppi

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 ppi.

Format: TIFF
Minimum Resolution: 300 ppi

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 centres 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 ppi	300 ppi	300 ppi	300 ppi
Example Software for Preparation	Adobe Illustrator	Adobe Photoshop; GIMP	Adobe Photoshop; GIMP	Adobe Photoshop; GIMP

8. Uploading Figures to the Social Sciences Directory Manuscript Submission System

Upload Order

Upload the article file first. Ensure that it contains the figure legends, but not the figures themselves.
Figures should be numbered in the order they are first mentioned in the text, and uploaded in the same order. For example, Figure 1 should be uploaded as the first figure file, Figure 2 the second, etc.
Figures should be uploaded in the desired orientation.
Multimedia files (.avi or .swf files) must be uploaded as a Supporting Information file type and not a figure. See Multimedia Files below for more information.

Note: When a figure is uploaded to the Social Sciences Directory 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

Social Sciences Directory 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:

The introduction, enhancement, movement, or removal of specific feature(s) within an image;
Unmarked grouping of images that should otherwise have been presented separately (for example, from different parts of the same gel, or from different gels, fields, or exposures);
Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance that obscure, eliminate, or misrepresent any information.

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.

11. How To

Convert PowerPoint Files to High-Resolution TIFFs

Caution: Do not add artwork to your PowerPoint slides by copying from another application and then pasting into PowerPoint. Your figures will be downsampled to screen resolution. Instead use Insert > Picture > From File.

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. In step 8, the value you need to enter is 300.

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.

Open your file in PowerPoint. From the Adobe PDF menu, select Change Conversion Settings. The PDFMaker Settings dialog displays.
From the Conversion settings dropdown menu, select Press Quality. Uncheck View Adobe PDF result. Click OK.
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.
Click OK.

– OR -

Open your file in PowerPoint.
Select Print from the File dropdown menu.
Select the Adobe PDF (or similar driver) in the Printer Name window.
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.
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

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.
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.
Click OK. The page that you specify in the previous step is now shown in Acrobat.
From the File menu, select save and enter the file name (e.g., Figure 1) for the extracted page and then click OK.
Repeat this process until a separate file is created for each figure/slide.

Step III: Convert Individual PDF Files to TIFFs

In Photoshop:

File→Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Make sure you're importing it at 300ppi, RGB.
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.
Layer→Flatten Image
Image→Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. If the Width is over 17.35cm, type 17.35 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 17.35, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.3cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.35. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
File→Save As. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

In GIMP:

File→Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Open pages as Images at 300ppi. Click Import.
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.
Image→Scale Image. Set the units of measurement, in the pull down menu next to Height, to millimeters. If the Width is over 173.5mm, type 173.5 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 83.0mm, and the height cannot be more than 233.5mm. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
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:

File→Open the PDF
If necessary, go Document→Rotate Pages to rotate the document to a horizontal orientation.
File→Save As. In the "Save as type" pull-down menu, select TIFF.
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 300ppi. 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

Go to PowerPoint Preferences. Under the Save tab, at the bottom, set Advanced Resolution Settings to 1600 DPI.
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 72ppi no matter what you set in Preferences.

Step II: Convert Individual PNG Files to TIFFs

In Photoshop:

File→Open the PNG.
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.
Layer→Flatten Image
Image→Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. If the Width is over 17.35cm, type 17.35 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 17.35, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.3cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.35. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
File→Save As. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

In GIMP:

File→Open the PNG. You will need to do this one page at a time.
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.
Image→Scale Image. Set the units of measurement, in the pull down menu next to Height, to millimeters. If the Width is over 173.5mm, type 173.5 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 83.0mm, and the height cannot be more than 233.5mm. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
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

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

Step II: Convert Individual Files to TIFFs

In Photoshop:

File→Open the PNG or PDF.
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.
Layer→Flatten Image
If you opened a PNG, go Image→Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. If the Width is over 17.35cm, type 17.35 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 17.35, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.3cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.35. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
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.
File→Save As. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

In GIMP:

File→Open the PNG or PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time.
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.
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 173.5mm, type 173.5 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 83.0mm, and the height cannot be more than 233.5mm. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
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.
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.

Open your file in Excel/Word. From the Adobe PDF menu, select Change Conversion Settings. The PDFMaker Settings dialog displays.
From the Conversion settings dropdown menu, select Press Quality. Uncheck View Adobe PDF result. Click OK.
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.
Click OK.

– OR -

Open your file in Excel/Word.
Select Print from the File dropdown menu.
Select the Adobe PDF (or similar driver) in the Printer Name window.
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.
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:

File→Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Make sure you're importing it at 300ppi, RGB.
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.
Layer→Flatten Image
Image→Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox. If the Width is over 17.35cm, type 17.35 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 17.35, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.3cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.35. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
File→Save As. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

In GIMP:

File→Open the PDF. You will need to do this one page at a time. Open pages as Images at 300ppi. Click Import.
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.
Image→Scale Image. Set the units of measurement, in the pull down menu next to Height, to millimeters. If the Width is over 173.5mm, type 173.5 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 83.0mm, and the height cannot be more than 233.5mm. If the Height and Width are within these prescribed limits, no adjustment to your figure size needs to be made.
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:

File→Open the PDF
If necessary, go Document→Rotate Pages to rotate the document to a horizontal orientation.
File→Save As. In the "Save as type" pull-down menu, select TIFF.
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 300ppi. 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

File → Print.
Click on the PDF button in the lower left corner of the dialog box. Select Save As PDF.

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 300ppi, 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 17.35cm, type 17.35 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 17.35, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.3cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.35. 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 300ppi. 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 173.5mm, type 173.5 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 83.0mm, and the height cannot be more than 233.5mm. 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 300ppi. 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 Social Sciences Directory production department to have the original font used to create the figure text. This is to ensure that your figures published as you intended.

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

Social Sciences Directory has a strict 10 MB figure file limit. To reduce the size of your figure, open your TIFF files in Photoshop or GIMP.

In Photoshop:

1. File→Save As.
2. Save as TIFF, Image Compression set to LZW, Pixel Order set to Interleaved, Byte Order set to IBM PC.

In GIMP:

1. File→Save As.
2. Click the + sign next to Select File Type (By Extension).
3. From the menu that appears, select TIFF. Click Save.
4. Set Compression to LZW.

If you're prompted about layers in the file, select Flatten Image.

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 ppi, first convert the number of rows and columns in the image. 4.86 inches by 9.19 inches (a 1.5-column figure at maximum height) at 300ppi corresponds to 1458 pixels by 2757 pixels. Modify your image to be 1458 by 2757. (Resize it, crop it, compute it differently, etc.) Then save your 1458 by 2757 image to a TIFF file, specifying 300 as the resolution:

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

function writeFig300ppi(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 ppi PNG file for a 4.92 inch by 9.25 inch image:

Ray-traced:

ray 1458,2757
png hires_ray.pdb, ppi=300

OpenGL:

draw 1458,2757
png hires_ogl.pdb, ppi=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 Social Sciences Directory settings to a graph

To create a graph that is Social Sciences Directory 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 83.5mm (or 173.5mm if double column width) and the Height to 233.5mm. 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 a Social Sciences Directory-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 300ppi, 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 17.35cm, type 17.35 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 17.35, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.3cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.35. 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 300ppi. 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 173.5mm, type 173.5 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 83.0mm, and the height cannot be more than 233.5mm. 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 300ppi. 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 Social Sciences Directory-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 ppi: 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 17.35cm, type 17.35 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 17.35, type 300 in Resolution and as long as Width doesn't go below 8.3cm, everything is fine. Also, the height cannot be more than 23.35. 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 173.5mm, type 173.5 in the Width box (17.35cm 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 83.0mm, and the height cannot be more than 233.5mm. 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.

Export from Stata

Stata does everything at screen resolution (72ppi). So if you want to have a final figure that is 300ppi, and (for example) 10cm square, you would divide the target resolution (300) by the output resolution (72), and multiply the target dimensions by the quotient to get the dimensions you should export your figure at. Dividing 300 by 72 gives you a quotient of 4.16, so a 41.6cm (4.16 multiplied by 10) square image at 72ppi could be resized to 10cm square at 300ppi in an application such as Photoshop or GIMP (www.gimp.org) without any loss of image quality. Be sure to save your TIFF with LZW compression turned on. Or save as a vector EPS.

Exporting a High Resolution TIFF Using GeneSpring

PDF Manual Instructions began at page 84. To paraphrase, see Figure 4.2. Replace the 72 for "image resolution" with 300. Export As: This will export the current view as an Image, an HTML file or the values as a text, if appropriate. See Figure 4.18 Export as Image: This will pop-up a dialog to export the view as an image. This functionality allows the user to export a very high quality image. You can specify any size of the image, as well as the resolution of the image by specifying the required dots per inch (dpi) for the image. Images can be exported in various formats. Currently supported formats include png, jpg, jpeg, bmp or tiff. Finally, images of very large size and resolution can be printed in the tiff format. Very large images will be broken down into tiles and recombined after all the images pieces are written out. This ensures that memory is but built up in writing large images. If the pieces cannot be recombined, the individual pieces are written out and reported to the user. However, tiff files of any size can be recombined and written out with compression. The default dots per inch is set to 300 dpi and the default size if individual pieces for large images is set to 4 MB and tiff image without tiling enabled. These default parameters can be changed in the tools -!Options dialog under the Export as Image.

12. Table Guidelines

Tables submitted for publication should be included at the very end of the article file (.doc, .rtf, .tex). 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 (.doc), Excel (.xls), PDF, PPT, JPG, EPS, or TIFF.

Title and Footnotes

Each table needs a concise title of no more than one sentence, placed above the table with the table number (e.g., Table 1). The legend and footnotes should be placed below the table. Footnotes may 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.

In the published version, tables will be formatted in Social Sciences Directory style. This includes alternate row shading, content left-aligned in cells, title above the table and legend/footnotes below the table.

Tables must:

- Be cell-based (e.g., created in Word with Tables tool (preferred) or in Excel).
- Be editable (i.e., not a 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. Note: some wide tables may be printed sideways in the PDF.

Tables must not:

- Use returns or tabs within a cell.
- Have color or shading.
- Use lines, rules, or borders.
- Contain spaces within cells to align text.
- Have vertically merged cells; horizontally merged cells are fine.
- Have inserted text boxes or pictures.
- Have tables within tables.
- Include empty columns, rows, or cells to create spacing.
- Include hyperlinked text.

If your submitted table contains any of these elements, they will be returned for adjustments.

Problem: Using rules to specify layout.

Incorrectly formatted submission

Incorrectly formatted result

Correctly formatted submission - Notice the use of horizontally merged cells.

Correctly formatted result

Problem: Using returns to create rows.

Incorrectly formatted table

Incorrectly formatted result - Notice that the paragraph returns create new rows.

Correctly formatted table

Correctly formatted table results

Problem: Use of shading to convey grouping.

Incorrectly formatted table

Incorrectly formatted result - Notice that the submitted shading pattern is lost.

Problem: Footnotes included in table.

Incorrectly formatted table

Correctly formatted table

Problem: Vertically merged cells.

Incorrectly formatted table

Correctly formatted table

Problem: Multi-part table.

Incorrectly formatted table

Solution: Separate into two tables.

Problem: LaTeX Table - Use of "\\" within a cell.

Incorrectly formatted table

Incorrectly formatted result - Notice the Unit cells are on a separate row from the Head cells.

Correctly formatted table - Allows text within a cell to wrap.

Correctly formatted table

13. Getting Help

If you have questions about your figures after reading the guidelines, you can e-mail support [at] socialsciencesdirectory.com.

These guidelines are adapted from the PLoS ONE website (http://www.plosone.org), published under the Creative Commons Attribution License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

ISSN: 2049-6869

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