All photographs should be placed at 300 dpi resolution to ensure crisp quality.

Photographs as figures within a publication

When photographs are included as figures, they need to follow the conventions and styling used for all figures for the publication, including:

  • a source or credit below the image (before the figure name if this appears below the figure) or at the end of the figure title (see Acknowledge the source)
  • a figure number and descriptive title
  • any required notes (placed between the image and the source or credit)
  • a corresponding reference in the text
  • placement as early as practical after the text reference to the figure
  • if published online, alternative text for accessibility.

Photographs as supporting images

Photographs that are not directly mentioned as figures in the text but are relevant to, and illuminate, adjacent text need:

Photographs as decorative elements

Photographs that are included to add visual appeal to a publication should be as relevant as possible to the topic of the page on which they appear. Those that will appear online need either:

  • alternative text for accessibility, or
  • to be tagged as an artefact or background object.

Figure name or title

The following principles are recommended:

  • Number figures consecutively within the document (e.g. Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3), or by section or chapter (e.g. Figure 2.1, Figure 2.2, Figure 4.1, Figure B5). Numbering by section is useful because changes in one section will not affect numbering in another section. This is especially important in long documents or those that have many figures. Alternatively, images could be named Plate 1, Plate 2 and so on, if there is a requirement to separate photographs from figures within the publication.
  • Place the title as its own paragraph below the photograph, not within the photograph. This convention should also be used for web-based publications.
  • Use a title that describes the content of the photograph:
Figure 3     Groundwater monitoring bores
  • Use minimal capitalisation (only capitalise the first letter of the first word of the title and proper nouns).
  • Use minimal punctuation to keep titles clean and uncluttered: follow figure numbers with a tab, not a colon, and do not place a full stop at the end. Using a tab also helps align the titles properly in an automatically generated contents list of figures.
  • Spell out abbreviations in full in the title, wherever possible. Put any necessary detail in explanatory notes. The title should not cover more than 2 lines (preferably 1 line).
  • For a series of photographs, give the same information in the same order.