Preparing paper figures

[JimiThing]

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Any advice on how I can import Excel charts into photoshop/illustrator without losing resolution? Or is there some other program that will let me make graphs and save them as a JPEG.

I can get them in there alright, but they lose clarity when I resize them.

 

[nosugrefneb]

Not sure if this would work, but try enlarging the Excel graph and then take a screenshot of it. (On a Mac, this is Shift+Cmd+4.) That way you'd have good resolution up to the size of your screen.

 

[fantasty]

I usually copy it from Excel and paste into paintshop or the free MS paint and save it as a jpeg from there.

 

[cerulean grass]

Make sure the graph is in its own tab. (When you create the graph, select the option, "Create in new tab," I think.)

Edit the graph as necessary. Here are the steps I take to get the best visual results: double click the bars (for a bar graph) or the lines (line graph) and select a heavier ("bolder") outline; change the colors as necessary; remove the lines going across the graphspace and any other useless marks; double click the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) graph direction lines and select a heavier outline for those; bold all fonts and increase the font sizes (>20).

Hit Ctrl+A (this selects the entire graph).

Hit Ctrl+C to copy the entire graph.

Go to Photoshop (or Illustrator if you want to play around some more), select New image, click Yes or OK until you get to a canvas, and hit Ctrl+V immediately. The graph will look tiny but that's because it's zoomed out to 50% or 66% or whatever. So just zoom in if you want to see how things look up close.

This is your high-resolution copy. It should look bold and crisp. Save this as a PSD and as a JPEG to keep the high-resolution copy on file. Then resize the image, maybe to 50% its size or whatever, then save it as another name and it will change the file size concomitantly to make it more portable for documents and PowerPoint presentations.

Good luck... I tried to be as basic as possible in case the non-tech savvy could use this too.

Take care,
CG

 

[dr.z]

I used Canvas and didn't have a problem.

For saving graph as JPEG, Primsm program is pretty good for making figure quality graphs.

 

[gbwillner]

Anytime you make a JPG you will lose resolution. The best way to do this with losing as little as possible is to use illustrator or photoshop. If you are making a figure for a paper use illustrator, if you want the chart by itself for some reason, use photoshop. You can then select what resolution to keep when saving.
As someone else said, make sure the chart is in its own tab. Select the graph, so that there is a dotted line around it. Copy and paste into illustrator. BTW, don't add any titles/numbers to the graph until you are in illustrator, or the letters will be distorted when you re-size.

What is the purpose of this figure?

 

[MrMunkily]

Getting high-resolution figures out of Excel is a real PITA. This is how I do it:

If you have a PDF printer driver (Adobe acrobat, pdf995.com or other) print the figure to a PDF, which is resolution indepenent, then import the PDF into photoshop at whatever resolution you wish.

 

[sciencewonk]

I'd recommend GraphPad (google to find demo software). Its the standard around where I work (academia) for those offical looking "textbook" graphs. it also lets you export in high res tiff files.

if not, go to www.download.com and download Windows Screenhunter (version 4 I think), which is freeware. It will let you take a screen shot of your graph in excel, copy it to your computer's clipboard, and then you can paste it in photoshop.

 

[mdphdhopeful]

if not, go to www.download.com and download Windows Screenhunter (version 4 I think), which is freeware. It will let you take a screen shot of your graph in excel, copy it to your computer's clipboard, and then you can paste it in photoshop.

you dont need to dl a program. just press PRINTSCREEN (PrtSc) in upperright hand corner of the keyboard. then press cntrl+V in any prog (word, paint, w/e)

 

[teiresius]

mrmunkily was correct.

Save the figure as a PDF. In this format you can zoom and zoom without pixelation. afterwards, import to illustrator or photoshop at max res.

this is the best 'easy' way. printscreen is quick and dirty, but is a crap way to do it...

 

[Hurricane]

Make sure the graph is in its own tab. (When you create the graph, select the option, "Create in new tab," I think.)

Edit the graph as necessary. Here are the steps I take to get the best visual results: double click the bars (for a bar graph) or the lines (line graph) and select a heavier ("bolder") outline; change the colors as necessary; remove the lines going across the graphspace and any other useless marks; double click the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) graph direction lines and select a heavier outline for those; bold all fonts and increase the font sizes (>20).

Hit Ctrl+A (this selects the entire graph).

Hit Ctrl+C to copy the entire graph.

Go to Photoshop (or Illustrator if you want to play around some more), select New image, click Yes or OK until you get to a canvas, and hit Ctrl+V immediately. The graph will look tiny but that's because it's zoomed out to 50% or 66% or whatever. So just zoom in if you want to see how things look up close.

This is your high-resolution copy. It should look bold and crisp. Save this as a PSD and as a JPEG to keep the high-resolution copy on file. Then resize the image, maybe to 50% its size or whatever, then save it as another name and it will change the file size concomitantly to make it more portable for documents and PowerPoint presentations.

Good luck... I tried to be as basic as possible in case the non-tech savvy could use this too.

Take care,
CG

Exactly 🙂

And if you paste it into illustrator, you end up with a vector-based image which is essentially unlimited resolution. And you can paste multiple graphs to make a multipanel figure and then arrange them, resize them, change the fonts, etc all from within illustrator.

Then when you're done, you can save it as a high resolution jpeg or a postscript file (if the journal will accept it -many do) which is even better because it is also vector-based, so resoultion becomes moot.

 

[Dr brain doc]

I agree with the GraphPad advice! It works like a charm for me!

Good luck with your preparation and congrats on the paper!