1. Tips for Making Better Figures and Illustrations Zhigang Deng

2. Figure/Illustration Principles Clarity Aesthetics Quality Efficiency

3. 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!

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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?

7. 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!