GS 721K: Oral Communication Skills: Publishing Images

All academic and private publishers maintain recommendations for the specific way each wants their authors to create and submit images. Consult with your publisher first.  

If you don’t yet have a publisher or are collecting images for future publication, these publisher websites are good examples.

Just need Copyright information? Head to the Copyright and Fair Use page.

Scanning images for publication or presentation is different than scanning for personal use.

We recommend the scanning primer of Princeton University Press: Guidelines for Preparting and Submitting Illustrations.

This document includes:

• About Color, Gray scale and line art (page 3)
• Basic Digital Requirements (page 4)
• About Raster Art & Resolution (page 5)
• TIF, JPG & other Raster Files (page 6)
• Digital Photo Requirements  (page 7)
• Scanning Requirements  (page 8)
• Scanning from Books  (page 8)

• Scan a raw, high-quality image and adjust it in a separate process, always retaining your raw image as a TIF (non-compressed file)
• Set your scanning level high enough:  300 dpi is standard for presentation or publishing scanning.  Some publishers ask for 600 dpi.
• Rasterized vs Vector - basically images with computer pixelation vs a smooth grain.  Vector images are created using math equations of points, lines, and shapes, resulting in art that is clean, camera ready, and scaleable without quality loss. Personal cameras are not rasterized and therefore give a cleaner image than scans.
• >Depending upon your use, modify or clean your image with a professional tool such as Adobe Photoshop.