AMS Author Upload

Important information about figures

Figures should not be submitted in color unless the author plans to honor color publishing costs. If your manuscript is accepted for publication after 1 January 2007 with color figures, note that color publishing costs, in addition of the regular page costs of $135 per printed page, will be charged according to the following:

• $490 for first color figure piece (file)
  
• $390 for second color piece
  
• $150 for each color piece thereafter.
  

There are two reasons why figure files are needed: 1) to be included in the PDF file for peer review, and 2) to be used for final production and publication.

Peer-review figures can be small, stand-alone, lower-resolution files that are concatenated to the native manuscript during PDF rendering, or included at the end of the native-format manuscript file creating and all-in-one file to be rendered to PDF. The peer-review figures can be any format acceptable to the upload program and must have single-spaced captions located immediately below each figure. To the extent possible, multiple-panel figure pieces should be combined into a single page. Note that the upload system will not add captions automatically to the peer-review versions; the author must add them ahead of time.

High-resolution, print-quality files, in TIFF or EPS format, are used for production after the manuscript has successfully completed peer review. They may contain captions or not, and are the only formats acceptable for final production. Color files should be CMYK to avoid color shifts in the printing process. All fonts and symbols should be embedded to avoid translation errors. These print-quality files can be uploaded at the same time as the original manuscript submission (do NOT check the “include this file…” box), or they can be added to the existing package later or upon acceptance to avoid having to upload new figures if the number or content changes during the review process. File names for the production figures should contain the author's name, e.g., smithJPOf1.eps.

To save money, especially for color, a multiple-panel figure should be laid out by the author and combined into a single file. If this is not done and press must mount individual figure panels together when processing your paper, a figure mounting fee will be assessed for each figure needing mounting.

When preparing figures (hard copy and electronic) for submission to AMS journals, authors should keep in mind the impact that reduction of illustrations to journal size has on detail, particularly thin lines and small symbols and lettering. It is recommended that authors test the intended size by reducing illustrations to journal size, that is, column, three-quarter page, or full-page width, and examining if details of the figure are legible/suitable at the journal size. Avoid using previously scanned illustrations if possible.

Panel letters should be close to the upper-left corner or within the illustration so that the figure detail is not needlessly reduced to include the label. As an alternative to panel letters on illustrations, descriptive wording such as upper (lower), left (right), top, middle, or bottom may be used in text and figure captions although letters are preferred. For line drawings our press uses a 1200-dpi scan; scan rate should be at least 600 dpi. For color illustrations CMYK is the standard. The following checklist may be used to ensure the quality of your figures:

• The size of submitted figures should closely approximate the intended published size.
• Uppercase lettering and numbers for coordinate labeling and graphic symbols used within illustrations and legends should be at least 1.5 mm after size reduction and other internal labeling, such as for isopleth labeling, should be at least 1 mm.
• Line thickness should be at least 1/2 point, or 0.1 mm after reduction to journal size.
• Stipple dot size and density should be large enough to allow adequate resolution when scanned (note that small dots/light shading may disappear and large dots/heavy shading may appear solid). A screen or mesh size of 120 is suitable at 100% size; 60 if reduced 50%. Note that 70% and 90% fill values may both appear as black.
• Grayscale resolution intervals should not be less than 20%. Including clear and solid, this allows six grades of resolution; less than 20% may not be distinguishable.
• Nonessential information, internal grid and external border rules, and redundant headers that appear in the figure caption should be omitted from the graphic illustration.
• Figure citations in text must be in numerical sequence (although preliminary citations to later figures may be made parenthetically).
• Captions should match illustrations.
• Cost for printing color illustrations should be included in the purchase order. Note that color scanning costs are per piece, so that combining multiple panels for one figure onto a single page as one piece reduces the cost; each numbered figure is scanned as a separate piece.

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