[R] PLoS, Arial, R & linux

[(Ted Harding)]

Greetings All.
According to the PLoS (Public Library of Science) Guidelines
for Figure preparation, if a figure is submitted as EPS rather
than TIFF then "Figure text must be in Arial font" -- see:

[1]
http://www.plosntds.org/static/figureGuidelines.action#text

and also other sections in that web-page

[2]
http://www.plosntds.org/static/figureGuidelines.action

Now, Arial font is not (as a rule) available in Linux, and
EPS diagrams prepared using R graphics will call for Helvetica
(by default). Of course the Helvetica family is very similar to
Arial, but the in-file font references will call for Helvetica
so a production system which is expecting calls for Arial may
be thrown off the rails by an EPS file which calls for Helvetica.

While there is a section ("Enable the use of Arial in R") in the
Guidelines (URL [2]), the instructions assume the presence of
Arial ".ttf" files, not usually the case with Linux.

The PLoS Guidelines state:

  "Figure text that requires a font family other than Arial
   (math symbols, etc.) must have the font information embedded
   in the figure file, or be converted to outlines."

(same URL as [1] above). Of course, the Helvetica fonts are
amongst the "Standard Adobe" set, and are assumed to be available
on any PostScript-capable rendering device/system (either in
the official Adobe font-definition form, or as a simulacrum
which can be evoked by the same name), so as a rule the issue
of embedding fiont definitions does not arise.

Therefore I am wondering whether
[A]
An EPS which simply uses Helvetica will be accepted by PLoS
(the substitution of Arial being automatic, as an alias);
or [B]
One has to take special measures when preparing a diagram for
PLoS using R in Linux when Arial is not available;
or [C]
One should proceed in quite a different way!

Note: I am not keen on the PLoS preferred alternative of
submitting a TIFF file, since this gives a bit-mapped result
whicvh could render poorly.

On the other hand, the Guidelines state (with resepct to LaTeX
files): "PLoS does not accept vector EPS figures generated
using LaTeX. We only accept LaTeX generated figures in TIFF format."
which suggests that vector-graphics formats (however generated)
may not be acceptable anyway!

I would very much welcome any guidance on these questions,
especially from people with experience of publishing with PLoS
who use R with Linux.

With thanks,
Ted.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 19-Nov-09                                       Time: 11:00:15
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