Computer Presentation of Data in Science: a do-it-yourself guide, based on the Apple Macintosh, for authors and illustrators in the Sciences

183 Pages·1989·7.13 MB·English

by  Doig Simmonds

COMPUTER PRESENTATION
OF DATA IN SCIENCE
COMPUTER PRESENTATION
OF DATA IN SCIENCE
a do-it-yourself guide, based on the Apple Macintosh, for authors
and illustrators in the Sciences
by
DOIG SIMMONDS
and
LINDA REYNOLDS
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
S1mllonds, Doig.
Computer presentation of data in science : a DIY guide, based on
the Apple Macintosh, for authors and illustrators in the life
sciences 1 by Doig Simmonds and Linda Reynolds.
p. em.
Bibliography: p.
Ir.cludes index.
ISBN 978-90-481-5818-8 ISBN 978-94-015-7844-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-7844-8
1. Scientific illustration--Data processing--Handbooks. manuals,
etc. 2. Technical writing--Data processing--Handbooks. manuals,
etc. 3. Macintosh (Computerl--Handbooks. manuals, etc.
I. Reynolds. Linda. II. Title.
Q222.S55 1988
502.2' 1--dc 19 88-25191
CIP
ISBN 978-90-481-5818-8
All Rights Reserved
© 1989 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1989
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
v
Computer Presentation of Data
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements XI
How this book was created. XII
Foreword XIII
1 Introduction 1
Who is this book for? 1
'Publish or perish' 2
Old and new methods 4
Guidelines 4
The Apple Macintosh environment 5
2 Choosing your system and software 7
Finding out what's available 7
The computer 8
What is your computer for? 8
Software availability 9
Resident memory 10
Output requirements 10
User-friendliness 10
Instruction manuals 11
Ruggedness 11
Look before you leap 11
An ideal disc-drive configuration 12
Output devices 12
Impact printers 12
Ink-jet printers 13
Laser printers 13
Laser typesetters 13
What to look for in computer software 13
What programs will you need? 13
General points 14
System control 15
Compatibility 15
Memory requirements 15
Write programs 15
Draw programs 16
VI Computer Presentation of Data
Paint programs 16
Graph programs 17
Page make-up programs 17
Training 18
3 Working methods 21
The systems folder 21
Loss of data 21
Saving your work 21
Organisation 22
Floppy discs 23
Hard discs 23
Folders 23
Hardcopy 24
4 Preparing manuscripts and camera-ready copy 25
New ways of thinking 25
Planning your document 25
Early stages in word processing 26
Word processing for final output 26
Word processing as a prelude to page make-up 27
Layout 27
Importing tabs 27
Body type 27
Printout 27
Illustrations and tables 28
Page make-up 28
Getting the best from laser printers 28
Printer preparation 28
Quality lettering 28
Laser typefaces 29
Typefaces for dot-matrix printers 29
5 Principles of typography and layout 31
Why is design important? 31
What is good design? 31
Function and purpose 32
What kind of document is it? 33
A novel 33
An instruction manual 33
A reference book 34
Areport 34
Who is your document for? 34
How will your document be used? 34
Legibility and readability 35
Legibility 35
Readability 35
Page size 35
Binding methods 36
Loose-leaf methods 36
Computer Presentation of Data VII
Permanent methods 37
Margins 37
Back-edge margin 38
Top and bottom margins 39
Fore-edge margin 39
The anatomy of type 39
Typefaces 40
Proportional versus monospaced letterforms 40
Type styles 41
Bold type 41
Italics 41
Condensedtype 42
Extended type 42
Underlines 42
Capital letters versus lowercase letters 42
Type and its background 43
Reversed type 43
Tinted backgrounds 43
Sizes of type 43
Mixing typefaces and sizes 45
Inter-letter and inter-word spacing 46
Line length: the 'measure' 47
What is the optimum line length? 47
Line length for distance reading 48
Justified versus unjustified setting 48
Inter-line spacing 49
Linefeed 49
How much space? 50
Subscripts and superscripts 51
Displayed headings 52
Rules 52
The grid - designing pages with their contents in columns 52
Planning your grid 52
Single-column grids 53
Symmetrical two-column grids 53
Asymmetrical two-column grids 53
Three-column grids 55
More complex grids 55
Using more than one grid 56
Paper 56
Summary of major design decisions 56
Exceptions 58
or
6 Using type and space to show the structure
text 59
Spatial and typographic 'cueing' 59
Spatial cueing 59
Typographic cueing 60
Paragraphs 60
VIII Computer Presentation of Data
Listed points 61
Parallel text or 'pull quotes' 64
Emphasis in text 65
Paragraphs and sentences 65
Individual words 65
Headings 66
Numbering of headings 66
Spatial cueing 66
Typographic cueing 68
Displayed headings 69
Tables 70
Structure 70
Spatial cueing 71
Typographic cueing 73
Titles and captions 73
Page make-up 73
Designing a set of tables 74
Illustrations 74
The bibliography 74
Notes 75
The contents list 76
Theindex 77
Headers, footers and page numbers 79
Preliminary pages 80
Thecover 81
Page make-up 81
What next? 83
7 Artwork creation and drawing tips 85
New ways of thinking 85
How computers draw images 86
Bit-mapping 86
Vector-mapping (object-oriented drawing) 87
Outline-mapping 88
Repeatable image store 89
8 Posters, slides and OHP transparencies 95
Designing for posters 95
Introduction 95
Planning 95
Pre-configured designs 98
Size of originals 98
Text sizes and faces 99
Designing for slides 99
Introduction 99
Legibility 100
How much information per slide? 101
Graphics 102
Photography from the screen 104
Testing your slides 104
Computer Presentation of Data IX
Designing for the overhead projector 104
Introduction 104
Advantages and disadvantages of OHP 104
Text for OHP 105
Graphics for OHP 105
Colour and OHP 106
9 Designing with colour 107
Introduction 107
Creating coloured images 107
Primary methods 107
Secondary methods 108
Definitions 108
Colour on paper 108
Colour on VDU screens 111
Colour generation 111
Legibility 112
Background colour 113
Colour on slides 113
Colour for emphasis 114
Colour coding 115
Colour discrimination 115
Number of colours 116
Uses of colour coding 116
Colour in text and tables 117
Text 117
Tables 118
Colour in diagrams, charts and graphs 118
Bar charts 118
Graphs 119
Glossary 1 121
Terms used in graphic design and printing
Glossary 2 133
Terms used in computing
Appendix 1: Copyfltting 141
How many words are there in the text? 141
Method 1: Calculation by character count 141
Method 2: Calculation by word count 144
How many lines will the text occupy when it is typeset? 145
How many lines will fit into a given column height? 147
Appendix 2: Signatures and imposition 149
Appendix 3: Publishing and the law 153
Copyright 153
Legal deposit in the British Library 155
Deposit law 155
What is 'publication'? 155
X Computer Presentation of Data
Exempt publications 156
Copyright registration 156
International Standard Book Numbers 157
Data Protection Act 157
Appendix 4: Working comfort 159
The work surface 159
Seating 159
Positive versus negative screens 160
Screen filters 160
Lighting 161
Spectacles 161
Further reading 163
British Standards 163
Writing 164
Style manuals 164
Electronic manuscripts 165
Desktop publishing 165
Legibility 166
Typography and layout 166
Tables 167
Graphs, charts and diagrams 167
Overhead projection 168
Copyright 168
Index 169
Computer Presentation of Data XI
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Like its predecessor, 'The Presentation of Data in Science',
this book owes a great deal to the medical staff at the Royal
Postgraduate Medical School (RPMS) who have used the
self-help facilities which were established in the Medical il
lustration Department in 1975. The original hand drawing
facilities have now been replaced with Apple Macintosh
computers which are available to all staff at the School, 22
hours per day throughout the year. Users' demands for an il
lustration service that would fulfil a multiplicity ofn eeds have
accelerated our own learning curves enonnously, and have
provided much of the material for this book.
Major thanks must go to Dr Frank Sketch, who provided all
the computer know-how necessary for the changes in working
methods at RPMS. Dr Sketch is an independent computer
consultant who is known for his work in computer graphics.
He currently works with CSS systems, specialising in sales
and support in higher education. His expertise in both the IBM
PC and the Macintosh environment has been a tremendous
advantage when designing a flexible inter-related system.
We are greatly indebted to the following for reading the manu
script of this book and for making many helpful comments
and suggestions: Dr Frank Sketch, Mrs Louise Perks of
RPMS, and Dr Susan Walker of the Department of Typogra
phy and Graphic Communication at the University of Read
ing. The authors take full responsibility for any inconsisten
cies that remain. We should also like to thank Dr C Winearls
for some of the data we have used in our examples, and we are
particularly grateful to Professor Twyman of Reading Uni
versity for agreeing to write the foreword to this book.
Doig Simmonds
Linda Reynolds Spring 1988