EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF
CARDIO-THORACIC SURGERY
INTERACTIVE CARDIOVASCULAR
AND THORACIC SURGERY
GUIDELINES FOR ART PREPARATION
Dear Author,
Please find on the following pages general rules of the European Journal of CardioThoracic Surgery and Interactive CardioVascular and Thoracic Surgery on how to
prepare good quality artwork. These instructions are aimed at helping authors
produce the very best quality artwork for their manuscripts and establish a more
uniform figure style for the Journals.
EJCTS and ICVTS do not redraw figures in accepted manuscripts. 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 lowerquality figures and delay the publication of your article.
For better understanding, a series of examples is attached to illustrate the quality
differences that can be achieved by abiding to our instructions.
1. TEXT WITHIN FIGURES
1.1.
Fonts
All text should be in a sans-serif typeface, preferably Arial, not smaller than 10-point.
Make sure that the visual information is readable at column width (8.4 cm). Special
instructions are available for text on line drawings (see 5.1.).
1.2.
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 individual parts with capital letters (A,
B, C, D) on the top left hand corner of each composite figure.
2. FIGURE ASSEMBLY
Figures with parts A, B can be assembled vertically or horizontally. We will be guided
by your suggested layout of parts within figures, but may rearrange parts if necessary.
Please note that if you arrange them vertically your figures can be printed larger in
your publication.
For the article type ‘Images in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery’, the parts should be
assembled horizontally.
3. WHITE SPACE
Each figure should be closely cropped to minimize the amount of white space
surrounding it. Cropping figures improves accuracy when the figure is arranged
among other elements during production of the final version of the article.
4. COLOURS
Editors may request for colour figures but reserve the right to convert these to black
and white at their discretion.
Full colour artwork should be provided in CMYK format; ensure that you are happy
with the conversion before submission of final artwork. The example below shows the
shift in colour between RGB and the equivalent colour shown in CMYK - subtle
details are often lost during the conversion.
5. FIGURE TYPES
5.1.
Line drawings or graphs
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.
File format:
Colour mode:
Minimum resolution:
Minimum width:
.tif; .eps; .pdf
bitmap, greyscale or CMYK
1000 pixels-per-inch (ppi)
16.8 cm
•
The font size of the x-/y-axes labels (usually numbers) and the legend should be
10-point. The font size of the text on figures should be 12-point (see first example
in 6.1).
•
The background of the figures must be white.
5.2.
Greyscale images
Greyscale figures contain varying tones of black and white. They contain no colour,
so greyscale is synonymous with ‘black and white’.
File format:
Colour mode:
Minimum resolution:
Minimum width:
•
.tif; .eps
greyscale
300 ppi
16.8 cm
For contrast and resolution see examples of colour photos.
5.3.
Colour photos or drawings
Colour photos or drawings include intraoperative, histology and pathology images.
File format:
Colour mode:
Minimum resolution:
Minimum width:
.tif; .eps
CMYK
300 ppi
16.8 cm
6. EXAMPLES
6.1.
Examples for coloured bar figures
GOOD QUALITY
100
1. x-/y-axes labels (e.g. 1,2,3…) and
legend (e.g. Row 1, Row 2…) set to Arial,
10-point
2. x-/y-axes legend (e.g. Number of
patients) at 12-point
3. White background
4. Adequate resolution i.e. 1000 ppi
5. Proportionate scale
Number of patients
90
80
70
60
Row 1
50
Row 2
Row 3
40
30
20
10
0
1
2
3
Number of repetitions
POOR QUALITY – COLOURS, BACKGROUND, FONT SIZE, RESOLUTION, SCALE
Text too small
Grey background
Unattractive bar colours
Zoomed in
Inadequate resolution
Disproportionate
scale
4
6.2.
Examples for coloured line figures
GOOD QUALITY
POOR QUALITY – COLOURS, BACKGROUND, FONT SIZE
6.3.
Examples for colour photos
GOOD QUALITY
1. Natural colours
2. Adequate resolution i.e. 300 ppi
3. Good contrast
POOR QUALITY – CHROMA, RESOLUTION, CONTRAST
Colour is too pinkish
Resolution is too low
Contrast is too high
6.4. Examples for greyscale photos
GOOD QUALITY
1. Adequate resolution i.e. 300 ppi
2. Good brightness
3. Good contrast
POOR QUALITY – BRIGHTNESS, RESOLUTION
Too dark
Too low resolution