Steps To Creating Digital Artwork

5 Steps to Creating Digital Artwork
(For more detailed instructions, please click here)
Introduction to Digital Artwork

Authors often choose to include digital artwork as part of a submission to a medical journal. This artwork
can take several forms: photographs, charts, graphs, diagrams, radiographs, etc. OR any scanned versions
of these types of artwork. These guidelines are designed to help you create artwork with a camera, scanner,
or any piece of imaging software so that it is at the quality required for print. A Production Editor may be
in contact with you should your figures fail after following these steps and submitting artwork.
To be of print-quality, artwork must be of high resolution, saved in the proper color mode and be of proper
size.
Table of Contents
Before beginning .................................................................................................................... 2
Five Steps for Creating Digital Artwork .................................................................................... 3
Step 1. Select Color Choice Before Scanning and Saving ............................................................. 3
Step 2. Set Resolution Before Scanning and Saving ................................................................... 3
Step 3. Set Target Size and Font Before Scanning, Photographing or Saving ..................................... 4
Step 4. Name Your Files ................................................................................................... 4
Step 5. Submit Your Artwork.............................................................................................. 4
Terminology ........................................................................................................................... 5
Before beginning
Before beginning to create new artwork or preparing existing artwork for print, determine which type of
artwork you have.
Image from a digital repository or other file archive.

There is no way to increase the resolution of the file. Resolution is set when digital artwork is
first created. If the quality is poor to begin with, there is no way to correct it. Inform the journal
office if your artwork is an archive file in your cover letter or comments.
Photo or other scanned image.

Follow the steps below to photograph or scan your art. The key is to set your resolutions and
file-type settings on your scanner or camera BEFORE creating/scanning the image.
Diagrams, drawings or graphs (line art) created with an art-based program.

When creating this type of artwork, use a non-Office suite program such as Photoshop or Adobe
Illustrator. Creating art in Office suite programs like CorelDRAW, MS Word, etc. results in
poor print quality and unusable JPG and GIF files.
Not sure if your program is an imaging program? If the program will not allow you to alter the resolution
of an image, it is probably not an imaging program.
• Do not use Excel to create artwork.
• GIF figures should never be submitted.
• If your diagrams, drawings or graphs (line art) are created in PowerPoint import the file into
Photoshop and save it as a TIFF or EPS file there. Be sure the resolution is set to 1200 dpi
before saving (please note Step 3 below).
• If you do not have access to Photoshop, contact the editorial office for an alternate solution.
This may include the printing and mailing of the line art.
Images downloaded from the Internet.

These images are generally not acceptable for print due to universally low resolutions, unless
they are noted as being high-resolution images specifically designated for print quality.
Five Steps for Creating Digital Artwork
Use the same 5 Steps whether you are scanning, photographing, or using software to create
the image.
Step 1. Select Color Choice Before Scanning

and Saving
COLOR vs. BLACK AND WHITE

Decide if the artwork will be in color or in black & white. Submitting in color indicates you want the
image printed in color.
Some journals charge authors for the cost of printing color images – check with each journal first.
Do not create a graphic in color if it is not to appear in color in the published product. The graphic should
be scanned as a grayscale image. (Also, files prepared in grayscale require much less computer space than
files prepared in color).
For black & white:
Scan/photograph images and save in grayscale format.
For color:
Scan/photograph images and save in CMYK mode (see Terminology.) Do not use RGB mode (see
Terminology.)
If submitted to Editorial Manager:
If your scanner will not scan as CMYK, disregard this step and indicate why in your cover letter. Your fig-
ures will receive a Fail message by the Editorial Manager Artwork Quality Checker Please disregard this
and submit the figure as is. This is the only acceptable image failure.
Step 2. Set Resolution Before Scanning

and Saving
RESOLUTION
The resolution is often referred to as dpi (dots per inch). This will determine the ultimate clarity of your
file. The higher the resolution, the better the print quality. (The resolution can commonly be adjusted by
referring to the Tools option in your given program). Once scanned/photographed and saved, the resolu-
tion of a file can never be increased again without distorting the proper print size of the image.
For diagrams, drawings and graphs (purely black and white figures with no shades of gray):
Use a resolution of at least 1200 dpi (dots per inch) when scanning.
OR
Print out on a photo-quality printer and set your resolution to a minimum of 1200 at 100% final size.
For photographs, radiographs and scanned images:
Set the resolution to at least 300 dpi.
Step 3. Set Target Size and Font Before
Scanning, Photographing or Saving
SIZE & FONT

1 inch = 6 picas. 20 picas = 8.4 cm
Figures or images should be sized to fit the width of 1, 1.5, or 2 columns with no extra white or black space
surrounding them (they should be scanned at around the same size you would like them to be published).
Column widths vary by publication. Measure the width of the columns in the journal to which you wish to
submit.
Crop out or black out any patient identifiers.
If the figure or image contains text, make sure it’s embedded in the file, and use the Helvetica font
(between 8-12pt.).
Please consult the documentation of your graphics program for assistance with embedding.
Step 4. Name Your Files

SAVING & NAMING FILES
Save each piece of artwork separately in TIFF or EPS format.
PowerPoint is also acceptable.
Name figure files using this format: Last Name_Figure1.tif and Last Name Figure2.eps, etc.
“Last Name” is the corresponding author’s last name and the order indicates their order in the manuscript
(and ultimately the figure legend).
Step 5. Submit Your Artwork

SUBMISSION
Submit figures to the journal according to their preferred method of delivery: online submission, e-mail, disk,
etc. as listed in their Instructions for Authors/Author Guidelines.
Compressing figures into one ZIP file speeds submission uploading process.
All electronic art that cannot be successfully uploaded must be submitted on a CD-ROM or an Iomega Zip
disk, accompanied by high-resolution laser prints of each image (if available).
Extremely large files may “time out” as you try to upload them to an online manuscript submission tracking
system.
Terminology
Black and White (Grayscale) / Color Artwork – an image with variations of tone including photographs,
radiographs and scanned images, these images should be scanned with a resolution of at least 300 dpi.
Example:
CMYK – the preferred color mode for all submitted figures, an acronym for cyan, magenta, yellow, and
black: the standard ink colors used in full-color printing.
Digital Artwork – (as addressed here) any images created on a computer or via a digital camera; it may
originate from digital photos, scanned photos, and scanned slides.
Digital File Repository – stock images from an institution; existing digital images for use in accompanying
manuscripts.
DPI – dots per inch, is a measure of printing resolution, in particular, the number of individual dots of ink a
printer or toner can produce within a linear one-inch space.
Grayscale – any black and white image that is not line-art, or in tech talk, a strip of standard gray tones
ranging from white to black.
Line Art – purely black and white figures with no shades of gray, these images should be scanned with a
resolution of at least 1200 dpi.
Example:
Office Suite Program – PC programs such as CorelDRAW, MS Word, etc.. - creating art in Office suite
programs will result in poor print quality and unusable JPG and GIF files.
Pica - (1) a printer’s unit of measurement used primarily in typesetting - one pica equals approximately 1/6
inch; (2) measurement equaling 12 points.
Resolution - on printed media, it is the number of dots per inch; on a video monitor, it is the number of pix-
els per unit of measurement - in general, the higher the dpi, the sharper the image.
RGB – a color mode, RGB files are acceptable but are not preferred, an acronym for red, green, and blue:
the color model used for computer monitors and video output systems.
Traditional Artwork – any ‘hard-copy’ drawings, photographs, laser prints, slides or transparencies.
Zip File – one file that contains one or more files that have been compressed or stored, creating a zip file
with the files of your manuscript is an easy way to upload numerous files to an Editorial Manager site, an
FTP site, or to simply Email multiple files.
Visit www.LWWonline.com and click “For Authors” to learn more about creating
digital art and the manuscript submission process.
These guides are intended for sole use by LWW and its customers and
may be distributed at LWW’s sole discretion.

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5 Steps to Creating Digital Artwork

(For more detailed instructions, please click here)

Introduction to Digital Artwork

Image from a digital repository or other file archive.

Photo or other scanned image.

Diagrams, drawings or graphs (line art) created with an art-based program.

Images downloaded from the Internet.

Step 1. Select Color Choice Before Scanning

COLOR vs. BLACK AND WHITE

Step 2. Set Resolution Before Scanning

SIZE & FONT

Step 4. Name Your Files

Step 5. Submit Your Artwork

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