Important information about figures

Figures should not be submitted in color unless the author plans to honor color publishing costs. Note that color publishing costs, in addition of the regular page costs of $140 per printed page, will be charged at a rate of $90 per piece for fully paid papers.

Figure files are used in two different ways: 1) as part of the PDF file created for peer review, and 2) directly for final production and publication.

Peer review figures

Peer-review figures can be small, stand-alone, lower-resolution files that are rendered (by the AMS upload system) into a PDF with the native manuscript, or included at the end of the native-format manuscript file creating an all-in-one file (which is then rendered into a PDF by the AMS upload system). The peer-review figures can be any format acceptable to the upload program. (A list of acceptable file types for peer review figures is here: http://www.ametsoc.org/au_upload/filetypes.html.) Peer review figures must have singlespaced captions located immediately below each figure. To the extent possible, multiplepanel 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.

Production Figures

High-resolution, print-quality files are used for production after the manuscript has successfully completed peer review. A list of file formats acceptable for production is here: http://www.ametsoc.org/pubs/journals/acceptable_figure_formats.pdf. More information on digital art guidelines is here: http://www.ametsoc.org/pubs/journals/digital_art_guidelines.pdf. Figure files for production may contain captions or not. All fonts and symbols should be embedded to avoid translation errors. These print-quality files can be uploaded as auxiliary files 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 figure number in the file name, e.g. f1xyz.eps, f2abc.eps, etc..

Multipanel Figures

To save money, especially for color, a multipanel figure should be laid out by the author and combined into a single file. If this is not done and press must combine individual figure panels together when processing your paper, a fee will be assessed for each figure (for black and white figures) or for each file (for color figures). The fees for color figures can be considerable – $490 for the first figure file, $390 for the second figure file, $150 for every subsequent figure file.

Figure Sizing

When preparing figures 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, 19, 33, 39 picas (8, 14, 16.5 cm), and by examining if details of the figure are legible/suitable at the journal size. Avoid using previously scanned illustrations if possible.

Figure Labels

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.

Figure Preparation Checklist

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 for other internal labeling, such as isopleth labeling, at least 1 mm.
• Line thickness should be at least 1/2 point, or 0.1 mm after reduction to journal size.
• 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 processing costs are per piece, so that combining multiple panels for one figure into a single file as one piece reduces the cost.

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