Proofreading Illustrations and Artwork
When I was doing my proofreading training, learning how to proofread illustrations and artwork was one of my favourite modules. For some reason, it had completely slipped my mind that images would need the same amount of care and consideration in a manuscript as words do. Illustrations and artwork is a pretty broad term, but it includes photographs, drawings, cartoons, graphs, charts, and more.
You would mainly find images such as photographs in non-fiction works, such as travel guides, cookbooks and biographies. However, you can also find illustrations in fiction; children’s books will include cartoons/drawings, and you can often find maps at the beginning of fantasy fiction books.
It’s important to note that by the time you come to proofread illustrations and artwork in a manuscript, they should have already been checked by the copyeditor. Still, you should always make sure that the surrounding text is relevant to the images on the page.
Arguably, the most important things to look out for when proofreading illustrations and artwork are numbering, placement and citations.
When you are dealing with fiction, such as children’s story books, the pictures included won’t need numbers or identifiers, but you should ensure that each image is on the correct page and matches what is being told.
However, images that serve an informational purpose will need more attention, for example, figures (illustrations that are accompanied by a caption) can be confused if they are not accurate. Academic and educational texts will usually be split into chapters (e.g. Chapter 1.1, Chapter 1.2) and usually, figures will follow the same precedence (e.g. Figure 2.1, Figure 2.2). Typesetters will try and place figures as close to their first mention in the text, however depending on the size of the illustration, it might end up on the next page, meaning that the captions have to be correct at all costs.
As a proofreader, it is your job to make sure that any references to a specific figure have a numerical identifier to avoid confusion when the reader is trying to locate the corresponding image.
Proofreading illustrations and artwork means that one of the key things you will be looking for besides the obvious is consistency:
references and captions should use either ‘Figure’ or ‘Fig’ throughout the text — with or without a point is up to the author, and should be noted in the style sheet
make sure that each figure is mentioned somewhere in the text, and is in a sensible position which makes sense
photographs should be the correct way up and should be a clear enough resolution
graphs and charts need to have data presented clearly, and the colours used need to be suitable for publication
data in figures should not contradict what has been said in the text.
If you are unsure about anything regarding figures, it is best to raise a query to see whether something is intentional or a genuine mistake. This should be applied to proofreading in general, communicating with the author/copyeditor/typesetter is very important!
What has been mentioned in this blog post is just surface-level stuff which you will learn through proofreading training and experience, proofreading illustrations and artwork can be complicated when considering how there are different criteria for preparing illustrations in print and digital media. There are also copyright laws and clearances which need to be adhered to. If you would like a more in-depth guide to the general principles of working with illustrations, I would recommend Chapter 16 of New Hart’s Rules: The Oxford Style Guide (2014).
Lauren Ternent | The Editorial Geordie