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Index of Tips & Guidelines

• Introduction
• Styles
• Original copy or sketch
• Electronic files
• Size and scale
• Text and labels

MetaGlyfix has created technical illustrations for clients in the natural sciences and in the social sciences. Output can be camera-ready copy or an electronic format to meet any form of reproduction: high-resolution print, web publication, transparencies, slides, and more.

• MetaGlyfix can make a clean, precise illustration of almost any sketch, computer-generated original, or previously published drawing you provide.
• We can take your ideas and create a graphic interpretation or abstraction to illustrate them.
• We can incorporate alterations that you sketch — or that you describe — into any existing drawing.
• We can take an existing drawing whose dimensions or quality make it unsuitable for publication, and transform it to meet your publisher’s criteria.

Whatever the format of the finished technical illustration, you can expect:

1. all elements to be properly scaled
2. text and labels to be clean and legible at published size
3. the drawings to meet the book or journal publisher’s style specifications (when provided)

To that end, here are some tips on preparing and submitting your materials that will help achieve the results you need more efficiently, with fewer iterations and corrections. Not all apply to every situation, but keep in mind those that do.

Styles

Publisher’s style. Please provide MetaGlyfix with a copy of the publisher’s style guidelines and instructions, including limitations on fonts, font sizes, and line thicknesses.

Explain “style” by example. Provide an example from the journal or series in which your illustration will be published or an earlier finished illustration of your own.

Original copy or sketch

Clean and clear. The cleaner and clearer the original from which MetaGlyfix works, the better.

Enlarged copy. Larger size originals are better than small ones so that both the draftsman and the client can see details.

Two better than one. Sometimes two originals are better than one. In some cases, for example, you might submit:

• an original at roughly final dimensions, and another copy enlarged to clarify details, or
• a simplified version as well as the detailed version, or
• a copy of the detailed version with darker outlines

Electronic files

Yes, but … If you have an electronic version of your original, it is helpful — and sometimes a near necessity — for MetaGlyfix to have a copy. Graphics files may be sent by email or submitted on floppy disks, zip disks, etc. Because graphic software and formats are so varied, it is best to consult directly with MetaGlyfix before submitting a file. MetaGlyfix will help you determine the simplest method for saving and submitting a usable file, given your digital resources.

Microsoft PowerPoint files are never acceptable.

Size and scale

Individual elements. Some ways to specify absolute or relative sizes of the elements of your drawing:

• Use graph paper (don’t forget to specify the scale)
• Spell out sizes in marginal notes or on a separate page, whether absolute (e.g.,1.5 cm, 1.75 in) or relative (2x, 3x, etc.)

Spacing. Specify whether spacing of individual elements is significant or not — should elements be separated by absolute distances? relative distances? evenly or unevenly spaced?

Finished size. Horizontal boundries for illustrations appearing in journals, books, newsletters, and newspapers are usually confined to column width (or multiple columns). Vertical boundaries usually allow for top and tail (i.e., bottom) margins.

Exceptions can include landscape orientation of full page plates.

Please check with your publisher for specifications and exceptions and provide this information to MetaGlyfix before work begins.

For dissertations, transparencies, handouts, slides, and “working papers,” and the like, specify the exact or approximate finished size you would like.

Text and labels

Upper and lower case. Hand print your text and labels as you normally would for the most legibility, whether as all caps or mixed upper- and lower-case. However, be sure you have also specified the style of capitalization you want MetaGlyfix to follow.

Greek letters. To minimize errors in reading your handwriting, provide a brief key to the Greek lettering you use. Be sure to distinguish between upper and lower case. (Place the key in the margin or on a separate page.)

Placement of text. Be sure that it is clear whether text belongs on the drawing or in a caption, title, or heading, on the one hand, or, on the other hand, whether text is an explanatory note to the draftsman.

Identification. Your drawings might be identified as, for instance, 1a, 1b, 2, etc. Specify whether you want such identification labels included above or below the drawing or whether identification will be typeset by the journal or other publisher.

Text and electronic files. If you are providing an electronic file version of your copy, it may contain labels, titles, captions, and other text as you have them. However, you should also provide another, separate file containing only titles and captions, plus any other text that is difficult or lengthy. This separate file could be a plain text (ASCII) file, a word-processing document, a spreadsheet, or similarly usable text document. If you are submitting multiple illustrations, consolidate all titles and captions, in order, in one file.