Tips for Making Better Figures and Illustrations

Zhigang Deng

Figure/Illustration Principles

• Clarity• Aesthetics• Quality• Efficiency

Clarity• Proper information-embedding

– Information overloading: NOT GOOD– Too little information: why bother to use a figure?– Fundamental Question: Is this figure necessary (can we just use table as

an alternative)? What kind of information do I really want to convey to readers?

• Visualization/Presentation of Information– Case by Case, non-trivial and need creativity!

• Sufficiently clear/readable– Every cure and word should be easily recognizable!– Selection of font sizes depends on the targeted size of figures/illustrations– Important tips: print it on the paper to see whether it is readable! Black-

and-white printer is preferred here!

Aesthetics

• Color– Consistency within a figure and between figures– Color balance (cold vs warm)– Tip: More colors are not necessary to be better.

black/white can make beautiful figures!• Layout– Symmetric vs Asymmetric– Maximally utilize space (often, space is a scarce resource!)

• Style– Simple is better.

Quality

• High-Resolution– Recommend at least 400 DPI (pixels per inch),

otherwise ACM/IEEE may reject it.• Vector Graphics– Always use Vector Graphics format (.pdf, .eps, etc.)

if possible– Always use professional drawing software!– YES: Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw, MS Visio, etc.)– NO: Word, PowerPoint, and many others.

Efficiency

• Is a figure/illustration the best way to represent this data/information or convey the idea? How about other alternatives?

• How many seconds/minutes readers need to spend to understand a figure/illustration?

• The space occupied by a figure/illustration is worthy? Should we make a figure larger or smaller?

How to learn to draw wonderful figures/illustrations

• Learn from examples– Check those published papers (typically on top

venues)– I personally recommend ACM SIGGRAPH Paper

Proceedings (most of figures are well made and high quality!)

• Think, Check, and Improve…..– Often, it is not a one time deal!