Graphics in papers:

examples, hints & tips

M. R. F. Kidner
 Why graphics?

• The most effective way to transfer

information to the reader.

• Therefore the graphic must have a clear

purpose and fulfill it.
 Bad Figures

• Common Mistakes:
• Poor quality

• Too small

• Assuming colour reproduction

• Too crowded

• Simply ugly!
 Good Figures

• Why are they good:

• Still legible after multiple photocopies

• Beautiful

• Convey information

• Autonomous from the main text

 Easy steps to good
figures
• Distill the idea you wish to convey
• Take the time to learn a graphics package
fully

• Be consistent
• Pay attention to line thickness & colour
• Pay attention to font family & size
 Consistency
• Make figures that are reproducible via
scripts: eg Matlab scripts, Unix shell scripts,
Apple Scripts

• Save graphics in multiple formats: The

original file format, eps, pdf and a bitmap,
(jpg / tiff)

• Keep copies of all data and figure creating

programs in a folder with your paper.
 Files

• I have folders organised like

• paper_title_or_author_year
• references directory - (pdf copies of referenced papers)

• figures directory - (orginal and pdfs of figures)

• code directory - (code used to create figures or results)

• paper files (the main document files)

 Long term approach
• Each paper you write will be part of your
thesis so:
• Take time to get figures correct and consistent with your
other work so that they all look correct in your thesis

• Save yourself time by automating the things that make

your figures consistent : i.e. write your own additions to
the matlab plot functions (see the later example)

• Learn a graphics package and stick with it. Every time

you change you’ll find stuff will look different. Take the
time up front to make the correct choice
 File Format &
Reproducibility
• Choose formats that are open i.e. eps / pdf /
jpg / tiff. It makes accessing the files easier
and most journals only accept these formats

• Papers get photo-copied: so make sure the

detail in your figure won’t disappear when
this happens
 Bitmaps vs vectors

• In general avoid bitmaps like the plague!

• They are only to be used for photographs
or plots involving large blocks of colour or
shading

• They do not reproduce text or lines well.

 Fonts
• Use fonts that are consistent with the font required for the

paper, i.e Helvetica or Times is a fairly safe choice, Za!

Fino is not.

• Make them large 14pt+, so that when reproduced they are

the same size as the text (10pt)

• Using TeX you can always match your figure font to the text
font.
 Original Figure
The default matlab output is not good
Title not needed
01+22)()6.+76.8,-4(,)6.345)(
#
!" .
01+2.3
8,-.3
"
!"
Too brief
Units !#
!"
Avoid colour
+,-./.01+2.345)(

!&

Too thin
!"

!%
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!$
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!!"
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!!#
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!!
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"

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Too small !"
!
 Corrected Figure
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ka
 Required Changes
loglog(props.a*omega/props.c, abs(Sa),'k-', props.a*omega/
props.c, abs(Ss),'k--' )

set(gca, 'FontSize', 20)

set(gca, 'FontName', 'Palatino')

set(get(gca, 'Children'), 'Linewidth', 2)

set(get(gca, 'XLabel'), 'String', '\fontname{Palation}{\it ka}' )

set(get(gca, 'XLabel'), 'FontSize', 20 )

set(get(gca, 'YLabel'), 'FontSize', 20 )

set(get(gca, 'YLabel'), 'String', '\fontname{palatino}Energy, J'

)
 Printing in MatLab
• Do not copy and paste from the figure
window -
• Horrible stuff will happen such as y-axis text remaining
horizontal

• Do print to file using

• print [-deps or -dtiff ] filename

• Do save as a .fig file using

• saveas(gcf, ’filename’ , ’fig’)
 Original Figure
As supplied by a grad student to a co-author on a paper

Thanks C Birzier
 Final Figure
What the co-author actually had in mind...
140
a)
120
[m/s]

100

80
axial velocity,

60

40

20

0
-1.0 -0.5 0 0.5 1.0

normalised radial distance, [-]

14
b) 12
0
0
10
0
80
60
40
20

0
-1
.0

-0
.5

1.0
0

0.5
0
Thanks P Kalt
0
.5

-0.5
-1.0
1
.0
 Figures in Excel
• On a Mac, copy the chart and create a new
pdf file by creating a new file from clipboard
in preview.

• On Windows, print to file to generate a pdf.

Make sure you use the printer drivers not the “save as”
option.

• Export your data to a decent graphics

package!
 Diagrams

As supplied by the student As fixed by the post-doc

 Surface Plots
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Default MatLab Fixed MatLab