Use Photoshop to modify images to meet your submission requirements

Excerpt from: http://www.dxy.cn/bbs/thread/8602152#8602152

Use Photoshop to modify images to meet your submission requirements

Software version is Photoshop CS V8.0.1 (Chinese version), submission requirements See Neurosci Lett (http://authors.elsevier.com/ArtworkInstructions.html?dc=AI1). Specific submissions require different magazines.
In modern scientific papers, pictures occupy an important position, which can be said to be one of the key to the acceptance of papers. The picture in the article can be divided into three categories: 1 photos, more from the digital camera or ccd;2) from the sampling software, such as PowerLab action potential map, blood pressure diagram, etc. 3) from statistical mapping software, such as the Histogram of Excel. The former is more color photographs, the color contains important information, the latter are more than a line chart, color is generally only for different groups of differences, so in order to contribute to the economy, the general idea of color discard, change the shape characteristics to distinguish between groups, the effect may be better. The submission requirements for color photo and line charts are different and will be discussed below.
Before the specific deployment of the three main principles of operation: 1 The original image to be retained, the modified image must be saved instead of overwriting the original image; 2) minimize the number of saves, so as to avoid loss of image quality, can be modified more than one by one after the completion of the disk; 3) All operations must not distort the image, Any modifications that affect the authenticity of the image are not allowed.

A requirement to consider the submission
1 picture format generally requires the picture to be in TIFF format, coexisting as a standalone file. JPG format can be converted to TIFF format by file/Save As (/Pre-Main menu item,/After drop-down menu or Extended menu item, below).
2 Color requirements General requirements for CMYK color. RGB color can be converted to CMYK color by image/mode. RGB colors are used in digital devices, and CMYK is a common standard for the printing industry, and there are differences. But now most magazines do not require the author to make this change.
3 picture size This is important, note that this refers to the physical size of the picture (in cmxcm, not pixels), which is used to print the layout. Generally only the width, such as Neurosci Lett specified half (single column) for the 8.3 cm, full amplitude (double column) is 17.6 cm. The image/image size can be modified in the pop-up window, note that the unit is in centimeters, and tick scale.
4 picture resolution is very important, and the pixel size is directly related, easy and the physical size described above confusion. Each publication has specific requirements, and foreign magazines are strictly required. such as Neurosci Lett rule: Line chart at least 1000dpi, color photo reach 300dpi, both of the mixed picture reached 500dpi. The image/image size can be modified in the pop-up window. Units select pixels per inch. In fact, the pixel/inch translates to PPI, and dpi (dots/inch) for two concepts, the former for digital files, the latter for the printing industry. Here the PPI instead of DPI, is recognized in the submission, so there is no need to pester the concept.
5 file naming is generally required to be named as Fig 1 in the order in which they appear in the text. Fig 2. Wait a minute.

Two puzzles can not be directly in the original image to make the above changes, generally will be a number of pictures or pictures of the part on a canvas to be distributed, need to go through the material collection-flattening-labeling steps, so called the puzzle here. This step is made after the original picture has been obtained, and then the first part is modified after completion.
1 Material collection left-hand hover on the shortcut tool Panel Select the Marquee tool (the lower right corner of the button has an extended triangle), select the desired area, image/crop, and then save the picture. Note The box is selected in three ways, in the line below the menu bar (tool definition Bar), Style: drop-down box: normal; fixed aspect ratio; fixed size. To avoid different magnification in a jigsaw puzzle, a fixed size is generally chosen. If you need to display different magnification, make a different bar corresponding to each.
2 flattening open a picture, image/canvas size, pop-up window to modify the length-width value to roll out the canvas. can refer to the original image, the length and width of the magnification and slightly larger as a split white, do not need to be accurate, redundant blank parts can be finally cut off. Lay down the sections: rectangular marquee, moving parts of the box, the Quick Tools panel switches to the Move tool, move the selected parts to the location, open the other images that need to be flattened together, and drag them directly onto the canvas with the Move tool. Each part is in the form of a layer, so to move, you must select the appropriate layer, or an error will be reported. Layer selection on the right-hand side layer/channel/path panel. After the sections are dragged to the appropriate location, layer/flatten layers (Please check the confirmation carefully before doing this step, undo if you are not satisfied with the flattening), and cut out the extra white edges.
3 The contents of the callout mainly include bar bar, arrows and other prominent symbols, numbering, etc.
1) bar using Photoshop as bar, you need to collect the ruler photo with the same magnification as the original photo. This can be achieved by taking the standard scale of vernier calipers under different magnification objectives, and note that the thickness of the vernier caliper should be consistent with the thickness of the sample and can be solved by adding shims. At the same time open the sample photo and ruler photo, in a larger scale down, with the rectangle marquee tool carefully Select a ruler, move this box to the sample photo, right-click the fill black, the bar layer moved to the appropriate position after the merge layer. Note that the zoom in bar must be proportional to the picture at the same time, otherwise it will lose its meaning. Time bar is usually given by sampling software and is not discussed here.
2) Arrows drawing arrows in Photoshop may be a bit more cumbersome than some other professional image analysis software. Select the Custom Shape tool on the left-hand shortcut panel (some appear as a line tool, the lower right corner of the button can be changed in the extension triangle), the shape in the tool definition bar under the menu bar: The drop-down box allows you to select three different shapes of arrows, and when selected, drag in the picture window to draw arrows. But the shape of these three arrows is not the usual shape. The most commonly used triangle, swallow tail, flat foot arrows can be drawn with another method: Click the Line tool, point to the right of the drop-down triangle appears arrow parameter menu, check the arrow position (not tick line), width, length, concave degree of 500%, 500%, 0 can be painted triangular; 500%, 1000%, 25 can draw the swallow tail, 500%, 1000%, 0 can draw the boxer. The arrows are drawn in a separate layer, can be moved to the appropriate location, to delete the method can also be deleted layer, arrange the appropriate after flattening the layer. Arrows are used to highlight the needs of the reader's attention, but also other ways, such as framed, which can be easily done with Photoshop, here will not repeat.
3) Number Use the Text tool on the shortcut key panel on the left-hand side to easily add text and letters, and point to expand the triangle to select horizontal text or Vertical row. It is recommended to choose Arial in English font, which is clearer than times New Roman. Text information, such as numbers and coordinate values, can be done after modifying the size and resolution of the image, to avoid text becoming unclear, or to prevent the text from being elongated or chunky by sometimes being monotonous long or wide. The added text is also individually layered, with the final attention to flattening the layer.

Three about the original image acquisition any modification is done on the basis of the original image, if the original image quality is not good, it will be ineffective. The following is a brief introduction to the details that favor the original image quality. Because different sources of images, their attention points are not the same, so separate.
1) digital documents obtained from photography are mostly collected from the microscope, so focus and storm light must be considered. The very shallow depth of field in the microscope means that focus clarity cannot be relied on by the small aperture, but by fine-tuning the microscope. Note that the camera channel and the eyepiece observation channel should be consistent, that is, the most clear under the eyepiece is also photographed the clearest, so as to facilitate the photo. When taking pictures, the camera should choose the maximum aperture and wide angle. Do not use telescopic zoom, which makes the field of view smaller and the magnification difficult to calculate. Another major problem with focus is the jitter of the camera. Although the general camera is fixed on the microscope, but press the shutter when the hand vibration can not be ignored, then a simple way is to use the camera's self-timer function, press the shutter after the countdown after the official shooting. General vision, the use of automatic exposure of the camera can meet the requirements; Dark vision sometimes takes up to a few minutes of exposure time, which is not the general digital camera, only through the professional CCD system and software to help capture images. Some software can be used to modify less exposed photos, but excessive exposure often causes image details to be lost. When shooting under a microscope, the flash does not work and turns it off. Through the white balance, the general will not produce a serious bias color. In addition, due to the lens, the corner will inevitably have distortion, therefore, please ensure that the target in the center of the field of view, the best range of lens imaging, without having to fill the entire field of view, the current digital camera pixel value is high enough.
2) The original graphics obtained from the sampling software from the sampling software are generally stored in a file of a specific format, which is opened by the software or the supporting analysis software. Some sampling or analysis software can output graphics directly to Word or Photoshop, but some do not. The easiest way to do this is by capturing the screen or capturing the software. The graphics output obtained by the sampling software is only done with cutting and flattening work, and no further modifications should be made. Graphics in the sampling software can be changed by x; The zoom ratio of the y-axis changes shape, so a set of pictures should select a uniform standard and label x, Y-ruler. The granularity of the graph is correlated with the sampling frequency, and the higher the sampling frequency, the finer the picture. Unnecessary color information in the picture can be discarded in Photoshop, image/adjust/de-color.
3) Statistical mapping software from statistical mapping software, including origin, SigmaPlot and so on, the function is very powerful, but the general application of Excel can also be satisfied. These software drawings can generally be directly exported to Word and Photoshop (such as Excel, select the picture, right-click Copy, open Photoshop, new, automatically jump out of the matching canvas size, edit/paste can), so modify the picture should be more in the statistical software, the output should not be modified more. Try not to use color or grayscale to differentiate between groups, and use shape features more. Like an Excel histogram, select Fill/pattern with enough selections in it. The statistical mapping software is powerful, beyond the scope of this article, not much to say.

In short, Photoshop is a powerful graphics software, although some aspects may be less than professional image analysis software, but to modify the picture, to achieve the general requirements of the submission is more than enough. On the other hand, for scientists, the powerful function of Photoshop should not be studied too much to avoid being used for fraud. Finally, to remind a sentence, the picture changes the workload, need the computer system stable and powerful processor, and priority to increase the size of the system memory, the need for workers to be patient and meticulous, at the beginning of more than try to clear their own purpose requirements and operating proficiency, the one go competition.

These two days receive several PM, ask the question of the submission aspect. Then take out a bit of personal experience previously written to enjoy everyone. There are inevitably mistakes in the text, hope readers can not hesitate to point out.

Use Photoshop to modify images to meet your submission requirements