Elsevier recommends that only TIFF, EPS or PDF formats are used for electonic artwork. MS Office files (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) are also accepted, provided they meet the conditions outlined below.

EPS

Note: Virtually all common artwork creation software, such as Canvas, ChemDraw, CorelDraw, SigmaPlot, Origin Lab, and others, are capable of saving files in EPS format. This 'option' can normally be found under the 'Save As...' or 'Export...' commands in the 'File' menu.

For vector graphics, EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) files are the preferred format as long as they are provided in accordance with the following conditions:

• when they contain bitmap images, the bitmaps should be of a good resolution
• when color is involved, it should be encoded as RGB
• they should always include an 8-bit preview/header at a resolution of 72dpi
• you should always include/embed fonts and only use the following fonts in your artwork: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol
• you should limit vertical space between parts of an illustration to only what is necessary for visual clarity
• no data should be present outside the actual illustration area
• line weights should range from 0.35 pt to 1.5 pt
• when you are using layers, you should make one layer before saving your image (Flatten Artwork)

TIFF

*Note: Virtually all common artwork creation software is capable of saving files in TIFF format. This 'option' can normally be found under 'the 'Save As...' or 'Export...' commands in the 'File' menu.

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is the recommended file format for bitmap, greyscale and color images. TIFF supports several good compression schemes, ensuring filesizes are kept to a minimum to aid easy file transfer.

When supplying TIFF files, please ensure that files are supplied at the correct resolution:

• line artwork = minimum of 1000dpi
• halftone artwork = minimum of 300dpi
• combination artwork (line/tone) = minimum of 500dpi

Acrobat PDF format

Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) is an increasingly common file format used for distribution of files intended primarily for printing.

In order to create PDF files at a suitable quality for print, authors should download and use the relevant version of the Adobe Acrobat Distiller 'Job Options' file by following the instructions given below:

• Macintosh users, 'ctrl-click'on the relevant link and save the file to: Macintosh HD\Applications\Adobe Acrobat *.*\Distiller\Settings\ - where *.* indicates the version number in use
• PC users, 'right-click' on the relevant link and save the file to: C:\Document and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\Adobe PDF\Settings\.

Job Options: version 4 settings , version 5 settings.  

In addition, the following criteria should also be met:

• Make sure that any artwork within the source document is at the appropriate, minimum, resolution: 300 dpi for halftones, 500 dpi for combinations (line art and halftone together) and 1000 dpi for line art. These resolutions will be retained in the PDF creation process if the above job options are used
• If possible, ensure that you only use the following fonts: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Symbol, Times

MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint figures)

Microsoft® Office is essentially a family of applications that can be used to produce a variety of document types, including written documents, spreadsheets, presentations and databases. Although we prefer artwork files in TIFF, EPS or PDF format, we are also aware that a number of authors already (for convenience) submit their artwork in MS Office formats. Therefore, we will continue to support these submission types, now and in the future.

When preparing your MS Office files, you must adhere to the following conditions:

• Make sure that any artwork placed into MS Office applications is at the appropriate minimum resolution: 300 dpi for halftones, 500 dpi for combinations (line art and halftone together) and 1000 dpi for line art
• Do not reduce or enlarge any images after placement in an MS Office application, as this can lead to loss of image quality
• If possible, ensure that you use only truetype fonts. These should preferably be in one, or a combination, of the following fonts: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Symbol, Times
• For more information on MS Office, visit the Office homepage at  http://www.microsoft.com/office