Each time I write an article, I have to struggle with the problem of the illustrations. I can often see pretty nice figures in articles, more especially in reviews, which makes me think that my method and tools for illustrations are probably outdated or even archaic. I used to illustrate with Appleworks when I had a Macintosh, which was fine for vector drawing. Yet, I dropped it when I had to switch to PC –I know that Appleworks exists for PC too, but I figured that there might be even better solutions. Right now, I draw my figures with Powerpoint, then I capture highly zoomed screenshots of my figures and copy them in Adobe Photoshop, in order to get figures with a high resolution. This is fairly time-consuming, though, since I sometimes have to combine numerous screenshots per figure (due to zooming) and to put together the pieces of the puzzle.
I would be very curious to know the way you handle illustration, which is not a negligible part of an article.
This is an interesting question. I hear a lot of researchers that are struggling with their figures for articles and presentations.
Some time ago I started a project to make a library of science and medical illustrations that function as building blocks for larger figures and schemes. The initial collection was for personal use, but recently I decided to open it for everyone. Now, everybody that uses the library can also make suggestions for new illustrations, so that it is kind of a semi-custom service.
The rational is that every user pays a small fee, so that I can keep the platform running. It is a joint effort between many users, everybody benefits :)
Here is the link if you are interested: http://www.somersault1824.com/science-illustrations/
Are you referring to data figures or primarily model figures (e.g. a schematic)? For data I have always used Adobe Illustrator. Typically I import TIFF files (e.g. from photoshop or ImageJ) into illustrator and arrange them as I see fit. I've found illustrator gives you more freedom in terms of where to place things, and gives a better impression of the size of the figure relative to the page. Also it easy to save your figures as high quality TIFF or PDF files from illustrator. If cost is an issue, there's an open-source alternative called Inkscape that does alot of the same stuff, albeit with a little more of a learning curve.
As far as schematic figures go, I still haven't found anything more intuitive than designing it in powerpoint, then importing it to either photoshop or illustrator. I'm interested to hear if anyone has better alternatives to this.
Dear Andrew,
I meant indeed schematic figures. Nowadays, there are so many informatic tools available in so many fields, some of them allowing for instance to create for instance very sophisticated 3D-based games or to draw comics. Thus, I figured that there might be tools for drawing that could be useful for the illustrations of scientific articles.
I have been using Omnigraffle which is really very user friendly for building simple line-art type illustrations.
Thank you Stewart. It's too bad that it's only for Mac, though. Yet, it may be a track to find intersting tools.
Regards,
Sébastien
I use Canvas; it allows fine movements on the screen, accepts a variety of file types and exports into high-resolution files with various extensions.
I prefer InDesign (part of the Adobe software package). It exports images as most popular file types.
It takes a little time to learn, but at least you know Adobe will be around for awhile...
I often use a tool that has been programmed to generate a certain class of charts, for example Dia (http://dia-installer.de/), Circos (http://circos.ca/), or I choose a graph style from an R gallery (http://rgraphgallery.blogspot.cz/2013/04/ploting-heatmap-in-map-using-maps.html) or a TikZ gallery for processing in LaTeX (http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/), copy/adapt the code and regenerate that graph for my own data. This allows me to get the style I like reproduced in every aspect. Subsequently, one can import the generated images into general bitmap or vector graphics editors (e.g. Gimp and Inkscape) for finishing. That can be used for precise positioning, compositing, resizing, unifying the font in a series of charts from different tools, etc.
This is an interesting question. I hear a lot of researchers that are struggling with their figures for articles and presentations.
Some time ago I started a project to make a library of science and medical illustrations that function as building blocks for larger figures and schemes. The initial collection was for personal use, but recently I decided to open it for everyone. Now, everybody that uses the library can also make suggestions for new illustrations, so that it is kind of a semi-custom service.
The rational is that every user pays a small fee, so that I can keep the platform running. It is a joint effort between many users, everybody benefits :)
Here is the link if you are interested: http://www.somersault1824.com/science-illustrations/
Adobe Illustrator is a powerful suite with several tools easy to use!
Although it is expensive you can get a free 30-d version! If you need some recommendations and tips just ask! :)
Many free tools are available on the web for image authoring, both to create new illustrations [http://gimp.org (paint), http://inkscape.org (vector art), even 3D animations (http://blender.org)]. For THIS use, these applications are just as fully-featured as you need-- no Adobe needed. Like any software, of course, there is a learning curve, but these sites give lots of help! Read the Instructions to Contributors thoroughly, and deliver the right files.
And remember, you have years of training and experience, but don't insist you have to know/do it all. As a medical illustrator for 35 years, I can assure you that *your hard-won data deserves reader-legibility, so put tools (or a pro's fee) into your next grant. I'll happily give you tips or answer any ResearchGate questions.
Thank you all for your comments and tips. I should have the opportunity to test these various tools very soon for upcoming manuscripts. As many of you spontaneously and kindly suggested, I will probably come back to you for further questions about these tools.
All the best,
Sébastien
I absolutely agree with Craig Luce, open source software as GIMP, inkskape and blender could be batch for automatized task as routine histology, time lapse...
Moreover, community will help you to solve technical problem within minutes or hours for free. And finally, as they are free and multi platform, you can share your file with student / collaborators more easily.
Picasa may be helpful in some cases to improve illustration and user friendly
I use Inkscape is a vector graphic editor sofware and GIMP for pictures.
Dear Sébastien, dear all,
what I have not found in the list of possible solutions up to now is the free software download for IRFAN VIEW (newest version 4.36), to be found at http://www.irfanview.de/ (English)
IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 , 2008, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.
At http://www.irfanview.net/main_what_is_engl.htm one can find "some " features of this program which I find really useful also for scientific application(s).
Best regards, Wolfgang
Once again, thank you all for your suggestions. Sorry to answer with so much delay, but I had not much times for RG these last weeks. I haven't tried all yet, as it requires some time to correctly handle a software, but I found interesting and helful optiions within the tools proposed. Obviously, the choice of a tool rather than another one really depends on the type of figure needed.
All the best,
Sébastien
Dear Dr. Sébastien Küry, For me personally, vector illustration is one of the most satisfying and exciting creative outputs.
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