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Requirements for bitmaps, vector graphics, and table preparation

Bitmaps

The quality of a bitmap depends on its resolution. Bitmaps include X-ray images, digital subtraction images, angiography images, ultrasound images, CT images, MRI images, and endoscopy images. Image size, font size, pixel, and image format should be considered when preparing bitmaps. The requirements for bitmap preparation are as follows:

1 Image sizing: The image should be less than 16.8 cm in width and less than 25.8 cm in height.

2 Font size: The font should be Tahoma with a font size of 7 and line spacing of 10. In case of special circumstances, the size and line spacing can be appropriately reduced, but the font size should not be less than 5; Greek letters such as a and β should be supplied in symbol font; abbreviations that are not commonly used should be spelled out or defined in the figure legend. There should be a space between a number and the unit; values do not require thousandth commas; for phrases, only the first letter should be capitalized.

3 Bitmaps: Save bitmaps in RGB color mode and in PNG format at a resolution of 300-500 dpi. Use distinct colors to enhance contrast but avoid using red and green for contrast when necessary so that color-blind individuals are able to read the figure. Multi-part images should be noted as bold capital letters A, B, C, etc. (black or white color, bold Tahoma font, size 10) in the upper left corner. When a figure is composed of multiple photos, the distance between the left and right sides or the upper and lower sides of two adjacent photos should be 1 mm, and the height of a single photo should be 5-8 cm. In order to display the photos neatly in PDF, the width of photos of the same type in the same manuscript should be equal or close, and the height of other bitmaps should be determined according to the height and content of the original photo. The thickness of arrows in the image should be 0.1-0.3 mm, which can be adjusted according to the original picture. The length of arrows is determined according to the length of the original picture; the color of arrows should be orange (RGB parameter: 255, 102, 0), but the final color can be selected according to the visual effect. When changing the color of arrows, note that the corresponding color description in the text or figure legend should also be changed. Generally, the size of the triangle arrow heads in the picture should be uniformly defined as H: 2.276 mm, W: 1.748 mm, and they should be filled with orange or white color. One to three photos are usually placed horizontally in the two column page. When there is a large area of black background or shadow around bitmaps such as CT images, it should be cut out. The patient's name and other private information in the picture should be covered.

Vector graphics

Vector graphics include bar charts and line charts, in which the thickness of the vertical and horizontal coordinate axes should be 0.1 mm, and the length is determined according to the size of the coordinate length in the original drawing; the scale should be 0.1 mm in thickness and 1 mm in length; the axis label should start with the first letter capitalized and do not contain any period; the distance between the scale value and the scale should be 1 mm; the distance between the scale value and the axis label should be 2 mm. The distance between the left and right sides or the upper and lower sides of two adjacent bar or line charts should be 3-5 mm. Bar and line charts should be prepared using Microsoft Excel or Prism. Since bar charts with different background grayscales has unified style and better contrast and visual effect than those with different colors (such as red lines), it is highly recommended to use pure black, white, or gray color to fill bar charts, and avoid to use patterns and background shadows. For flow charts, the text should be left-aligned, with upper, lower, left, and right margins of 2 mm; for PRISMA 2009 flow diagram, the boxes on the left to indicate the process of Identification, Screening, Eligibility, and Included should use orange background and white font.

Copyright and permission

In order to respect and protect the author’s intellectual property rights and prevent others from misappropriating figures without the author's authorization or abusing figures without indicating the source, we will indicate the author's copyright for figures originally generated by the author, and if the author has used a figure published elsewhere or that is copyrighted, the author needs to be authorized by the previous publisher or the copyright holder and/or indicate the reference source and copyrights.

Please check and confirm whether the figures are original (i.e. generated de novo by the author(s) for this paper). If the picture is ‘original’, the author needs to add the following copyright information to the bottom right-hand side of the picture in PowerPoint (PPT):

Copyright ©The Author(s) 2026.

Please click to download the sample document: Download.

If an author of a submission is re-using a figure or figures published elsewhere, or that is copyrighted, the author must provide documentation that the previous publisher or copyright holder has given permission for the figure to be re-published; and correctly indicating the reference source and copyrights. For example, “Figure 1 Histopathological examination by hematoxylin-eosin staining (200 ×). A: Control group; B: Model group; C: Pioglitazone hydrochloride group; D: Chinese herbal medicine group. Citation: Yang JM, Sun Y, Wang M, Zhang XL, Zhang SJ, Gao YS, Chen L, Wu MY, Zhou L, Zhou YM, Wang Y, Zheng FJ, Li YH. Regulatory effect of a Chinese herbal medicine formula on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. World J Gastroenterol 2019; 25(34): 5105-5119. Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc^[6]”. And please cite the reference source in the references list. If the author fails to properly cite the published or copyrighted picture(s) or table(s) as described above, he/she will be subject to withdrawal of the article from BPG publications and may even be held liable.

Tables

Authors are required to provide standard three-line tables, that is, only the top line, bottom line, and column line are displayed, while other table lines are hidden. The contents of each cell in the table should conform to the editing specifications, and the lines of each row or column of the table should be aligned. Do not use carriage returns or spaces to replace lines or vertical lines and do not segment cell content.