1. Physics 114: Supplemental
Lines or marker points?
Title of no Title?
Font size/ line size upon shrinkage?
Curves on same plot? Or separate plots? Multiple y axes.
John Federici
NJIT Physics Department

2. Lines or Marker points?
When should you plot data a lines and when should you use Markers for the points?
Generally, one should use MARKERS for individually measured data points and LINES for either ‘continuous’ data or theoretical fits to data.
Lets give some examples….

3. 10 measured data points Which is better?
Plotting points CLEARLY indicates at WHAT SPECIFIC TIMES you measured your position. You did NOT make a measurement at 3.5 seconds, hence there is no data point there.

4. 10 measured data points Which is better?
Plotting data points WITHOUT a line connecting is better UNLESS you need the line (a) to act as a ‘guide’ to the eye eg. you want the reader to CLEARLY see a trend or (b) adding a line helps the reader differentiate one set of data from another.

5. 10 measured data points Here, using Markers and LINES would be OK.
helps the reader differentiate one set of data from another.

6. LOTS Of data points
If there are LOTS of data points, use a solid line (or dashed line) but NO Markers
Data points SO close together, that measurement is essentially continuous in time. Marker point symbols OVERLAP if we plot marks.

7. Title or no title? TO TITLE or NOT TO TITLE, That is the question…
Use your judgement, but my personal bias is that if you USE a caption, there is no need for a title. If there is not a caption, the Title should add MORE information than what is already present in the figure

8. How big should you make the FONT? How thick the lines?

9. JOURNAL QUALITY
Journals typically specify what they DEFINE to be journal quality
For example, for Applied Physics Letters
The maximum published width for a one-column figure is 3.37 inches (8.5 cm). The maximum width for a two-column figure is 6.69 inches (17 cm).
Ensure that lettering and lines are dark enough and thick enough to reproduce clearly, especially if reduction is necessary. Remember that fine lines tend to disappear upon reduction.
Color online only (RGB) is a free service; Color in Print (CMYK) will require fees.
Line art: 600dpi

10. JOURNAL QUALITY SIMPLE method:
Copy and Paste your figure into WORD and REDUCE to the correct size (say 3.5 inches).
Make sure that you shrink BOTH vertical and horizontal equally so that text does not look SQUISHED.
Make the caption the MINIMUM font allowed.
Compare fonts in figure/ width of lines to that KNOWN size font.

11. JOURNAL QUALITY SIMPLE method:
Copy and Paste your figure into WORD and REDUCE to the correct size (say 3.5 inches).

12. JOURNAL QUALITY
Make sure that you shrink BOTH vertical and horizontal equally so that text does not look SQUISHED.

13. JOURNAL QUALITY Make the caption the MINIMUM font allowed.
Compare fonts in figure/ width of lines to that KNOWN size font.

14. Creating Multiple Plots
From HW#5, which of the following presentations of the data enables you to more easily interpret the TREND and MEANING of the data.
(a)
(b)
Plotting the data as separate plots enables the reader to interpret the trend properly… As the number of rolls increases, the STD and MEAN approach the values of the PARENT distribution

15. Creating Multiple Plots
Matlab has a feature called SUBPLOT which enables you to put MULTIPLE plots in the same plot window
x = linspace(0,10);
y1 = sin(x);
y2 = sin(5*x);
figure
subplot(2,1,1);
plot(x,y1)
subplot(2,1,2);
plot(x,y2)
N by M array of plots
Plot #1
Plot #2
You can also separately control the labels, axes, fonts, title etc. for each subplot

16. Create plot with Multiple y axes
>> x=0:.01:2*pi;
>> y1=sin(x);
>> yyaxis left % y axis on left
>> plot(x,y1)
>> y2=3*(cos(x));
>> yyaxis right % y axis on right
>> plot(x,y2)

17. Creating Multiple Plot Windows
>> x=0:.01:2*pi;
>> h1=figure; % Create new plot window with handle ‘h1’
>> plot(x,sin(x))
>> h2=figure; % Create new plot window with handle ‘h2’
>> plot(x,cos(x))
>> figure(h1); % make figure h1 the active figure
>> ylabel('sin(x)'); % put a y label on active figure
>> figure(h2); % make figure h1 the active figure
>> ylabel('cos(x)'); % put a y label on active figure