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Electronic Art Submission: Detailed Instructions

Submission of Electronic Figures for Accepted Manuscripts: Detailed Instructions

Please note we CANNOT accept Canvas, PowerPoint, SuperPaint, Corel Draw, Harvard Graphics, PDFs, or Excel graphics because they are not compatible with our printer's output devices.

1. For final publication purposes, we can only accept your electronic art as an EPS or TIFF file. [NOTE: If you are working in Illustrator CS3, please back-save to Illustrator CS2 before sending the file. Art files saved in Illustrator CS3 format are currently not yet usable by our compositor.] (For reviewing purposes, other file types are okay, as outlined above under manuscript submission.)

2. AUTHORS MUST PROVIDE TWO GOOD CAMERA-READY COPY QUALITY PRINTS WITH THEIR ELECTRONIC FILE for cases when electronic versions of the art fail, and as an additional check for the quality of the electronic version for publication. Always include a printout of the art at the same size it is saved on the disk. Do not enlarge or reduce the printout. This is important in case we cannot read your file and to make sure that what is on the disk is EXACTLY the same as what is provided as reflective art (i.e., hard copy). We will also be using this printout to size the artwork. If the art is in color, please provide two high quality color prints so we can use your print as a guide for colors.

3. The artwork should be put on a CD-ROM. We do not accept Syquest disks. Please make sure that your files are properly labeled by first author's name/figure number (for example, Smith_Fig1, Smith_Fig5) and that the printout is properly labeled and corresponds to the file name. Let us know the program you created your artwork in as well.

4. Send only FINAL electronic art files. Do not send text, such as figure legends, on the same disk with the art files. DO NOT EMBED FIGURES WITHIN THE MANUSCRIPT TEXT FILES or embed legends with the figures. If there are color keys to the figures, these should be included in the body of the figure rather than in the legend, as it can be difficult to match legend and figure colors.

5. Use Helvetica (or similar) typeface in point sizes no smaller than 8 pt and no larger than 10 pt, except for the main callouts (e.g. A, B, C), which should be 12 pt. It is best to avoid heavy letters, which often close up when reduced.

6. We cannot make any art corrections to TIFF or EPS files. All figures should be proof-read carefully before they are sent to us, to be certain that electronic artwork matches the reflective (hard-copy) artwork exactly.

7. Math Objects Within Final Submissions. Before printing or submitting your Word file, please make sure to UPDATE any embedded MathType objects in the file; otherwise, italics and other font specs might be lost. Please doublecheck your Word manuscript visually to ensure the accuracy of fonts within the Word file.

Halftone or Grayscale Art
Art to be reproduced as halftones should be scanned or produced at 300 dpi in grayscale mode and saved as TIFF files. This is for halftone/grayscale art only (art that doesn't also have line art within it). If within the halftone artwork there also exists line art, please follow the dpi specifications for Combo Art instead. When in doubt with halftone art, always default to the Combo Art specifications to ensure that halftone digital art will be used.

Combo Art
Combo art, which means both halftone art and line art within the same piece of art, must be 800 dpi in grayscale mode and saved as TIFF files.

Color Art
Note that color artwork is processed in CMYK format for print and processed in RGB format for online. To avoid delays at the page proof stage, authors are expected to have reviewed their artwork in both color formats prior to final submission. Final submission of electronic color artwork must be in CMYK (for print purposes), although online views of color artwork will be in RGB. Be aware that some color shifts between the two color modes are unavoidable. If you choose to submit color artwork digitally (in addition to high-quality reflective artwork, which is always required despite any digital artwork submission), the resolution of your file must be a minimum of 300 dpi. Digital artwork must be created either in Photoshop or Illustrator and saved as either .eps or .tif format (see more detailed guidelines below for digital artwork submissions). Color art to be reproduced as halftones should be scanned or produced at 300 dpi in CMYK mode and saved as TIFF files. Always save your color scans into the CMYK color space. Colors of similar shades should be avoided because, depending on final art sizing to conform to journal style, similar shades may be difficult to differentiate. Also, avoid using very light colors, since these typically don't reproduce well. Never submit color electronic files in the RGB mode. When color files are converted from RGB into CMYK the color can change significantly and type can be lost. Please convert any RBG files to CMYK files prior to submitting such artwork to make sure the file is correct.

NOTE: Make sure the weight of all rules used in artwork is 1/2 point or heavier. Lighter-weight lines will not be picked up.

Why electronic art file submission has so many restrictions:

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press makes every effort to use the electronic files from the authors. We are well equipped and trained with many of the graphics software programs that are used in the scientific community. Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Freehand are the main "true" graphics programs that all publishers and printing industries support. The file formats from these programs are universal and can easily be read by high-end imagesetters. Canvas, Corel Draw, Powerpoint, Harvard Graphics, and SuperPaint are typical graphics programs that excel at creating visual presentations, slides, and overheads. They may print well to a laser printer and look great on the computer screen (from within their own application format), but they do not always export in file formats that can be printed through high-end imagesetters.

The printer uses the electronic files to output film off of their high-end imagesetters. Graphics created from Canvas, for example, can sometimes lose text or the screens may fill in as solids when outputting film from these high-end imagesetters. Canvas does not actually create screens, as Illustrator and Photoshop do. Canvas creates patterns to simulate screens and this can cause problems on press. Also, printers print in CMYK. Most authors submit their files in RGB. When we convert these files to printing industry standards, the colors often change completely. This is why it is very important for the artwork to be created as CMYK and for us to have a printout of your artwork. If we do not have at least a laser printout of your artwork, we will not know if type has been lost. A good quality print is preferable, because we will be able to make sure that the color and data have not changed. Also, in the event that we cannot use your file, we will be able to shoot film from this print.

We understand the frustration authors have when publishers say they cannot use their files when everything looks fine on the computer screen and prints well to the laser printer. Please understand that publishers want to use the files, but these files MUST comply with printing industry standards. The problem arises when we have to take these files and transfer them into a file format that a printer can use. Illustrator, Photoshop, and Freehand support the printing industry standards. We hope the other graphics programs will eventually support printing industry standards as well.