The figure that is generated can be exported as a high-resolution image that is ready for publication. It is a vector-based drawing program that allows the user to import images, create drawings, and align multiple images into one figure.
There is a bit of a learning curve with Photoshop, but once the user has the basics covered, it is a very powerful tool for scientists. One of the key features is that several images can be combined to create figures for publication using layers and masking techniques. In addition, adjustments can be made using the levels, curves, and brightness and contrast features. Images can be sized and the resolution and color can be altered. It has to be used carefully when manipulating images for publication in scientific journals because it contains so many features for enhancing images that it is easy to inadvertently violate the image manipulation rules set by the publishers. Adobe Photoshop is considered as the most powerful image manipulation software that exists.Images and figures that are created with PowerPoint can be saved as other file types to be exported into other software programs for further preparation if necessary. Many researchers find this a standard mechanism for creating images and figures as they collect data because this format is often used for presentation purposes. It provides users with the ability to enhance images and figures through features such as cropping, add text, aligning, resizing, and changing the brightness and contrast. PowerPoint is a software program that is part of the Microsoft Office.Related: Need help with scientific illustrations? Make sure you read our post on MindTheGraph. It basically allows for image analysis and preparation, and when the images are saved they can be easily imported into other software programs for further preparation. It measures distances and angles and can be used to make density histograms and line profile plots. ImageJ can be used to calculate the area and pixel value statistics of user-defined selections and intensity-thresholded objects. It is compatible with many image file formats and supports image stacks. ImageJ lets users edit, analyze, process, save and print 8-bit color and grayscale, 16-bit integer, and 32-bit floating point images.
It is freely available and provides extensibility via Java plugins and recordable macros.
Academic journals have a set of standards for images and figures to be published. Part of the publishing process involves being able to generate scientific images and figures that represent the findings. In the process of academic research, the data obtained by researchers can only mean something when it gets published.