Page 89 - How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper, 8th Edition 8th Edition

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and curves rendered on the screen through mathematical calculations. Color or gray-level tints can

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be included. Draw applications are best used for linear drawings. Draw programs include Adobe Illustrator and
Macromedia FreeHand. These programs are not designed for amateurs or beginners. Although Illustrator and
FreeHand are similar in functions, FreeHand has better typographic features. Illustrator is popular because it works
well with other Adobe applications. An easy-to-use, inexpensive draw program for the Macintosh is SmartSketch.
ChemDraw is a draw program for creating chemical structures. While other draw programs can be substituted,
ChemDraw has basic defaults for typefaces, bond length and thickness, line thickness, and other parameters for
chemical structure creation.

Paint programs use electronic brushes, erasers, and pencils in a painter-like manner to create new illustrations or to
clean up or retouch existing photographs and drawings. Paint programs are pixel-based. Pixels are the tiny rectangular
or square blocks that compose a graphics-based computer screen. When you "paint" on a computer screen, you are
actually turning each pixel on or off, permitting it to display black, white, or an assigned color. Adobe's PhotoShop is
the best-known paint program; it works with Illustrator for importing and exporting images between the two
programs. PhotoShop is a high-end program aimed at the knowledgeable and experienced user. For the less-
sophisticated user, Adobe has a much less expensive and easier-to-use program, Photo Deluxe, which has many of the
PhotoShop functions. Either of these programs can be used to retouch photographs or drawings that are washed out,
too light or dark, or poorly color balanced. Paintshop Pro for Windows is a similar application.

Formats for Electronic Graphics

Graphics used in computer applications come in several different file formats. The most commonly used graphics
formats for Windows are PIC, TIFF (Tag Image File Format), EPS (Encapsulated PostScript), and WMF; those for
Macintosh include PICT, TIFF, and EPS. Fortunately, most graphics programs will allow you to save your file in your
choice of a number of different formats. Journals usually accept TIFF or PICT files from PhotoShop or other paint
programs, and EPS files from FreeHand or Illustrator. Before you create graphics electronically, check with the
publication you plan to submit to for their format preferences.

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Computer-Generated Graphs

One of the most serviceable aids to scientific writing and publishing is the use of electronic applications for creating
graphs. Excel, a spreadsheet program, contains some formats for charts and graphs. Data entered into cells in the
program's column-and-row format can be converted to a chart or graph by using another feature of the program.
Spreadsheet programs offer a limited number of styles. Many people use spreadsheet programs such as Excel, Lotus,
or others to record ongoing data as they are developed. The data in a spreadsheet program can also be exported to a
charting program for a wider variety of formats.

DeltaGraph Professional is a software program specifically designed for charts and graphs. Many formats are
available, although it is wisest to stick with simple two-dimensional designs. Data placed in Excel or other spreadsheet
applications can be imported into DeltaGraph. Formats include standard pie, bar, and line graphs but also include
paired XY scatter chart and line formats as well as polar graphs. Slide show programs also have a facility for
producing graphs, although these are oriented to business use and are generally inappropriate for scientific use.

Choosing the Right Graph Type

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