![style faux pas style faux pas](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d9/70/7e/d9707e562ef0f8c400dc21aa587ac01c.jpg)
Test yourself! See if you can distinguish the good, from the bad, from the ugly figures. What it looks like when these style faux pas are addressed Maintain at least a 1/2 inch padding around the whole figure.Figure panel labels should be closer to their figure panel than other figure panels.Maintain a consistent degree of padding around figures.All figure panel labels should be consistent in terms of their relative position to figure panels.All figures should also be aligned/justified.All figure panel labels should be aligned/justified.Other figure labels like legends should be regular, size 12pt.Figure axis tick labels (#s) should be regular, size 10pt.
![style faux pas style faux pas](http://29secrets.com/wp-content/uploads/polka%20dot%20dress.jpg)
Figure axis labels should be regular (not bolded), size 15pt.Figure titles should be bolded, size 18pt.Figure panel labels (A,B,C,D, etc) should be capitalized and bolded, size 25pt.If you notice and are annoyed by these pixel-level imperfections like me, feel free to adapt this style guide for your own collaborations. So I made this figure faux pas style guide along with tips to help lay out what are the stylistic features that distinguish a good, bad, and ugly figure (in my opinion) regardless of the underlying data that’s presented. When making figures, I had a hard time communicating what my stylistic preferences were and what style faux pas drive me absolutely insane. This is typically achieved in programming through the adherence to a style guide.
#Style faux pas code#
The same principle applies to programming - regardless of whether the code was written by 1, 2, or 10 people, it should look like it was written by the same person. I believe, regardless of whether the figures were made by 1, 2, or 10 people, every figure should look like they were made by the same person. Recently, I collaborated with a fellow lab member to put together figures for a manuscript.