Technical requirements for submission of digital files for illustrations (English) Back to the Guidelines for authors (English) Zur deutschen Version der Autorenrichtlinien / To the German version of the guidelines for authors

The submission of illustrations (line drawings as well als half-tones, black and white as well as colour) for manuscripts intended to be published in NEVA in form of electronical (digitalized) files saves a lot of money during the pre-printing process. Our offer of“one free colour plate per member per year”can only be provided for illustrations delivered in digitalized form. However, such illustration files must fulfill several minimum requirements to allow for print and to prevent too much manual finishing work on our side. Also, only high-quality illustrations and files can and will be accepted.

If the quality and technical requirements are met (and if the financial situation of the Apollo allows this), authors have a chance for one free colour plate per year. (The second plate has usually to be payed by the author, see the prices in the German version of the “FAQs” here.) However, this will be decided for every individual case separately by the editorial board, depending on the quality of the submission and on the results of the refereeing process (and on the actual financial possibilities of the Apollo); there is no automatism to claim this support.

Short notes for authors intending to submit digitalized illustrations

Illustration files may be submitted on 3½-inches floppy disks (MS-DOS/Windows formatted), CD-ROMs (ISO 9660 or Joilet), or by email attachment in equivalent format. Illustration files must be stored separately from the text; never embed illustrations into the text!
All illustration files may only be in such formats which can be opened by Adobe Photoshop^® version 5.5 (such as .PSD, .JPG, .TIF, .BMP). Never submit illustrations in MS PowerPoint^® format!

All plates are to be mounted in such a way that the printing size of 18 cm width and 26 cm height can be used in an optimal way; do not try to pack too much information on one plate, but, in contrast, do as well not spoil the space by illustrating vast areas of empty background or simply duplicate information. Cut away all empty backgrounds aside of the object before mounting plates. Generally, do not modify too intensively the colour of the objects or the contrast or the sharpness etc. (this may result in problems during print!); always deliver highest quality without too many steps of digital modification.

Everyone who has taken the pictures by a good digital camera or has a high-quality scanner, and is able to work successfully and in a sufficiently professional way with Adobe’s software Photoshop, can mount b&w and color plates at the following requirements: Important: Every size and resolution data is provided here with reference to the final printing size only, and not to the size of the original or the negative or colour transparency etc.! Size (i.e., final printing size!) in two columns: width exactly 180 mm, maximal height 260 mm in one column: width exactly 87.5 mm, maximal height 260 mm         (best always less than 260 mm in height, so that the legend can be printed below the plate) Adjustment: All pictures, maps, drawings, graphics must be shown in upright position (portrait format) only so that no turning of the printed page is necessary to see the illustration in upright position. Resolution: For all halftones (b&w as well as colour):    minimum resolution must be 305 dpi, in reference to final printing size For all line drawings (b&w as well as colour):    minimum resolution must be 610 dpi (better more!), in reference to final printing size Important: You must always deliver scans or digital photographs in highest quality! Use high-resolution optics with best focusing and high-resolution scanning techniques only, and store the results in high-quality files only, and, please, never try to “boost” low-resolution files by just numerically increasing the number of the dots-per-inch — “calculating up” a picture (e.g., from 72 dpi to 610 dpi at the same size) does not result in any increase of the information, it just duplicates pixels and results in low-resolution, unfocused pictures! File format: Best format for plates is Photoshop’s .psd format, with all separate details of the picture (such as lettering, lines, symbols, arrows, scales, different single photographs etc.) in a separate level each. For single pictures (single photographs), also .tif or high-quality versions of .jpg are possible file formats.  (This only for photographs without lettering! If you add numbers or letters in a picture, always refer to .psd format and use different levels for every detail! Never flatten the image and its additions to one single level!) Never use .jpg format for line drawings! Mounting  of plates: — Every single picture must be on a separate level; — every lettering, symbols etc. must be on a separate levels each; — lines between pictures must be white, in separate levels and should be approximately 10 pixels in width (in case of 305 dpi halftones). We cannot take any guarantee for colour quality, sharpness and other high-quality print results. However, NEVA printing standards are high, and illustrations submitted in too poor quality will not be accepted. Important: Low-quality scans, wrong colour temperature and other obstacles of the illustrations (whether files or paper illustrations to be scanned) submitted to us cannot be repaired by us! If you deliver low quality, the print will also be in low quality (according to the standard rule for computer users: “garbage in — garbage out”)! We do not have the experience, the technical equipment and the time for doing professional photo finishing!