Quick Guide
- Chapters:
- Modes of Display
Presentation versus publication: viewing time, color, multiple display modes
- Image Composition
Digital images, layout, titles and captions, integrity
- Optimizing Text-Only Illustrations
Readability, fonts, type size
- Optimizing Line Art.
Graphs and curves, schematic drawings, flow diagrams, charts, labels
- Equations
- Tables
- Continuous-Tone Images
Photographs, micrographs, macrographs
- Projection of Images
Information content, color versus black-and-white, projection conditions, making the presentation, 3-D projection, projection from laptop computer
- Images for direct viewing
Poster presentations, handouts, publication, CD-ROM publication, display formats
- Recommended Reading
- Appendix A. (PDF Version) Sample Illustrations
- Appendix B. IS&T Specifications for Manuscripts and Illustrations
- Sample for preparing a paper for IS&T Proceedings
- Journal of Electronic Imaging Information for Contributors
- Journal of Imaging Science & Technology Guide for Authors
Acknowledgments |
Optimizing Text-Only illustrations
Text-only Visuals. Figures 2 through 6 are examples of text slides prepared by a word-processing program. Of these five figures, only Figure 3 would be entirely suitable for projection.
Readability: Ease of comprehension. The symbols, and fonts used in the illustration all contribute to the ease with which the viewer or reader comprehends its message. One of the most certain ways of losing the attention of an audience is to project images that include type too small to read easily.
| 1. |
Use large type. First line in 30-point Times Bold is fine, but 18-point type would NOT be large enough! |
| 2. |
Use enough space between lines. The line-to-line space is 40 points, with an additional 4 pts between items. |
| 3. |
At 30-pt size there may be 10 words per line. |
| 4. |
Caps & lower case are much better than ALL CAPS! |
| 5. |
Every word in every visual should be readable from the back of the room. |
| 6. |
This is the 9th line of an effective visual. |
|
For an illustration to be used in an oral presentation, all characters must be scaled so that the entire audience can read them. That requirement imposes a strict limit on the amount of information to be included in a single frame. As an example, Figure 2 shows a 9-line message of maximum length for projection under typical circumstances. The full-page version is shown in Appendix A in 30-point Times Bold.
|
|
Figure 2. Master for an overhead visual (reduced 0.41X), printed (except for the second line) in 30-point Times Bold, an excellent choice for effective presentation. The nine lines of text are the recommended maximum. The Full page version, Figure A2 in Appendix A may be used for testing readability
|
Note: Appendix A contains full-page versions of Figures 2 through 8. We encourage you to use those images for judging readability versus viewing distance. For a more complete evaluation, copy these pages 1:1 onto transparency material, project in an overhead projector, and view the images at measured distances. A corresponding 35-mm slide copied from the same page and projected to the same size will have similar readability.
Fonts. For both oral presentation and publication it is most effective to use such easily read fonts as Palatino Bold, Times Bold, Helvetica Bold,and Univers Bold. See Figure 3 for examples of these fonts. Note also the horizontal format, the use of upper- and lower-case letters, the ample line-to-line spacing and the dot that identifies the lower left corner. Figure 4 compares Palatino Bold with some fonts that should be avoided. Full-page versions, Figures A3 and A4, are included in Appendix A for evaluation as visuals.
Size of Type. For slides and overhead transparencies, the most important consideration, as discussed above, is readability. A good test is to view the illustration at letter-paper size at a distance of 8 feet (2.4 meters). If you cannot read every word and label comfortably at this distance, switch to larger type.
| If a figure for publication is submitted as hardcopy, we recommend that the original figure be at least 1.5 times the desired final size, with characters sized to appear as 8-point or 9-point type on the printed page. Figures to be embedded digitally within text files are best prepared at final size. |
|
Figure 3. Preferred fonts for presentation. The same fonts are recommended for illustrations to be published. See also full-page version, Figure A3, in Appendix A.
|
|
|
Figure 4. Visual blunders to avoid include small type size, mixed fonts, delicate or complex fonts that are difficult to read, the use of all capital letters, closely spaced lines (for example, 24 on 24), too many lines, too many words, and too many hyphpens (reduced 0.50x). See also full-page version, Figure A4, Appendix A.
|
|
|
Figure 5. Alphabets in 12-point size with autospacing, grouped by font family. Note that width of 12-point type differs significantly among fonts, as does line-to-line autospacing. See Figure A5 in Appendix II for a more complete version of this comparison.
|
|
|
Figure 6. Point sizes from 8 through 48 in Times Bold and Helvetica Bold, both excellent fonts for use in visuals. The full version, Figure A6, appears in Appendix A.
|
Point size is relative within a given font and differs significantly among fonts. See Figure 5 for examples of relative point sizes for several families of fonts. Figure 6 shows a range of point sizes for Times Bold and Helvetica Bold.
Figures 5 and 6 are truncated here to fit horizontally within the text page format. Full versions are included in Appendix A.
Figure 3 contains 9 lines of 30-point type, which will be fully readable at 45 feet (11.5 meters) when projected onto a 10-foot (3-meter) screen or at 22.5 feet (5.8 meters) on a 5-foot (1.5-meter screen). Those readability figures pertain to viewers who have 20:20 vision. Note that many members of the audience may have vision poorer than 20:20. In general, an effective text visual will have at the very most 90 words, with up to 10 words per line. For a title, 36 points is not too large.
Rule of thumb: for type or printing not identified by point size, a good rule is to have all characters at least 1/4-in. in height.
Use of Templates.Visual effectiveness can often be enhanced by numbering the statements (as in Figures 2, 3 and 4), by adding arrows or bullets before key statements, by using two or three type sizes (usually in descending order, by indenting successive lines, or by adding decorative borders, color and/or shading. These options are readily available in template form in such programs as Microsoft's PowerPoint, Adobe's Persuasion, and Corel's Presentation. See, for example, Figures 7 and 8. The border dimensions may be adjusted for either overhead transparencies or 35 mm slides simply by specifying the format. In addition, with these programs one may lay out overhead transparencies or slides in sets, so that an entire series may be composed and then sent as a set to a printer for letter-paper-size transparencies, nominally 9 to 10 in (23 to 25 cm) wide, depending on border allowance, or to a 35-mm film printer.
A note of caution: Typical template programs incorporate up to five levels of type sizes for body text (See Figure 7). Avoid using the default values for the lower levels, as they are generally too small for presentation use. Use larger type sizes and limit the levels. For example, two slides with 3 levels each will be more effective than one slide with five levels.
|
|
Figure 7. Image prepared for overhead projection, using a typical illustration program, which includes templates for text and border pattern and provides automatic sizing to fit the intended application. The program's default values include type sizes that are much too small for practical use. This figure is reduced 0.34 X. See Figure A7 in Appendix A for full-scale version.
|
|
|
Figure 8. Image prepared for overhead projection (reduced 0.34 X) with a recommended progression of type sizes. Compare with Figure 7 for readability. See also full-scale version, Figure A8, in Appendix A.
|
|
|
Figure 9. (a) An effective illustration prepared for journal publication. With the space at the top portion cropped, a 3X version would serve well as an overhead transparency. Note that the curves are clearly labeled and bold enough to show at a distance [Ehrlich, J. Imaging Sci. Technol. 37: 73(1993)].
|
|
| Figure 9. Version(b) was prepared to demonstrate the loss of readability with light curves, symbols, and labels, as well as distracting grid lines. |
To report a website error, please contact webmaster@imaging.org
For all other questions e-mail: info@imaging.org
IS&T, 7003 Kilworth Lane, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-642-9090; Fax: 703-642-9094;
©
The Society for Imaging Science and Technology
|
