“Simple, informative, still beautiful.”
In a nutshell, this is what I want to talk about in this
post. I believe that “simple, informative, still beautiful” is the definition
of the high quality in figures. In the scientific paper, your figure needs to
speak out, so it must be informative. Your figure needs to be understood, so it
should not be too complex. Your figure will represent the quality of your
research, thus it needs to be beautiful. This is our standard to stick to. If
there is a room to be complex, or to be informative, or to esthetically refine,
we will go for it.
Be simple
Your data needs to speak by itself. Do not put data that
makes the readers think “so what?”. Your data diligently support your claim. If you don’t treat your data carefully, the figure
gets too complicated. Make high-quality photos or accurate measurements always
convey a lot of information.
Be informative
If your figure has a lot of white space, fill something
meaningful. This is the rule for our research group.
Be beautiful
Being beautiful is an opinionative idea, but you chase for
it. If you don’t know how to make a beautiful figure, start it with imitation
of figures that you like. My favorite software are
- Adobe
Illustrator (sometimes CorelDRAW)
- Photoshop
- Igor
Pro
- 3ds
Max
Consistency is also essential. You need to make sure all the
formatting, but these are the basic things that you need to always check
- Font
type and size (Use sans font like arial or Helvetica, not Serif font like
Times New Roman)
- Line
width in the spectra, plot size, (Usually
the thinner the clearer)
- Alignment
of the panel
Overall production flow
A good practice is to copy figures that you think are well
made. Recreating them will help you understand the structure and improve your
own skills. Be an apprentice of the author of your favorite paper.
