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Color vs Black and White Art
It costs approximately $1250–1500 to print one figure in color;
additional figures cost more. This printing will be done at the
author's, not GSA's, expense. If color figures are used in an article,
the corresponding author must sign a Letter of Agreement to cover
the cost of the four-color printing process. Production cannot begin
on the article until this Letter of Agreement is signed and received
by GSA. Please do not submit color figures if you intend to print
them in black and white. Not only does color artwork reproduce poorly
in black and white, but production on your article may be delayed
while we wait for written confirmation from you that you do not
intend to publish the artwork in color.
Shading
Shading (grayscale) does not reproduce well in the printing process.
Grayscale often reproduces unevenly; the gray shading in your figure
may look blotchy or washed out. Black and white are the best colors
for artwork. Solid black and solid white should be your first choices
for bars in graphs.
Should you need to represent more than two categories, use varied
patterns (horizontal and vertical stripes, diagonal stripes, polka
dots) in place of grayscale. Be sure your patterns do not look too
similar; it is often best to choose a bold pattern that includes
a good amount of white between lines so readers can readily identify
in which direction the lines run. (A striped pattern is confusing
if the lines are so close together that it is impossible to tell
if it they run diagonally to the left or to the right.)
3-D Images
Showing a bar graph in 3-D may be useful if the entire image is
in color. However, in our black and white journals, a 3-D shadow
merely distorts the shape of the bar and detracts from the overall
image. It is best to use a flat, two-dimensional image for your
charts and graphs.
Figure Legends and Titles
Figure legends (captions) and titles should appear on a separate
sheet of paper, as this information is considered text (not artwork).
Include a separate page that contains each figure number and legend
in numerical order. Once you have moved the figure number and legend
to a separate page, please label each figure lightly in pencil on
the back. Include the figure number, the name of the first author,
and the manuscript number.
Printing Out Your Artwork
Print your artwork on a high-quality laser printer for crisp, professional-looking
images. The printer will scan your images directly from the hard
copies you provide, so be sure there are no smudges or stray splotches
of toner, and that your ink is not faded. Always do a quick check
of your figure once you print it out to be sure all special characters
(such as Greek letters or mathematical symbols) display correctly,
that all text is visible, and that nothing is misspelled.
Printing PowerPoint Files: Printer Driver
Problems
Sometimes PowerPoint files print poorly: a font that looks perfectly
normal on the screen might print out scrunched together, or white
text that was legible on a dark background on the screen might not
show up on the printout at all. Usually this is a printer driver
issue. If your default printer ends with "PS" or "5si", try switching
to a "PCL 6" or "PCL 5e" and reprinting your figures. Check the
new printouts; your problem will likely be resolved. But look carefully—a
new problem (such as a previously invisible line around a textbox)
might have developed.
Common Artwork Revisions
- If your figure has two or more panels, label each
panel with capital letters: A, B, C, etc.
Use a sans serif font (either Arial or Helvetica) for your panel
indicator letters, and set the letters in boldface. Do not underline
or italicize the letters, and do not surround them with parentheses
or follow them with a period.
- Check that all of the text and numbers in your
figure are the same font and size.
- Capitalize the first letter of all words of four
or more letters in both your x and y axes.
- Italicize all Ns or ns (representing
sample size), ps (representing statistical significance),
and rs (representing correlation coefficient).
- Put one space on each side of mathematical operators
(such as +, -, =, >, <, ±). For instance, write your data
as p < .01, or N = 54, or 5 ± 6.
- Put an en dash (–), not a hyphen (-), in
year and age ranges (for example, 65–70, not 65-70).
To find the en dash in Microsoft Word, go to Insert, Symbol, Special
Characters. The en dash is the second option.
- Spell out all acronyms or abbreviations in the
corresponding figure legend. If the same acronym or abbreviation
appears in more than one figure, you must spell it out separately
in each figure legend.
Sending Your Artwork to the GSA Office
Return your revised artwork to the GSA office along with your comments
and corrections to your copyedited manuscript. We will check your
revised art against the copyedited figures to ensure all changes
were made properly. If not all changes were made, or if we detect
further problems that might have been missed by the copyeditor,
we will contact you by e-mail or telephone. Because time is of the
essence, we will ask you to revise the artwork again and e-mail
us the corrected figures. We will print out the revised art on a
high quality laser printer here in the office.
If you have any doubts at all about how to
make the artwork revisions requested by the copyeditor, please call
the GSA office at (202) 842-1275 and ask to speak with Candise Heinlein.
It is quicker and less troublesome to answer your questions
before the artwork is revised than to contact you for a second round
of revisions at a later date.
Electronic Copy of Artwork
It is helpful if you send a disk with electronic copies of your
revised artwork along with the hard copies.
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