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WritingPlease write in a conversational style and in the first person. Remember that we have a broadly based membership, and not everyone is a specialist in the material you are presenting. Provide sufficient background information so that readers can follow your discussion. Remember that generic websites such as Wikipedia are not always reliable sources of factual information. When researching online, please use primary sources whenever possible, and double-check information wherever possible. DO NOT format the text when sending manuscripts electronically. Use one font (no larger than 11 point, please, apart from for the title) in regular, bold, and italic. No centering or columns. Please do not create multiple, individual text blocks within the document. Due to the demands of production, handwritten or hard copy manuscripts cannot be accepted. Always spell out an acronym the first time you use it; add the abbreviation in parentheses (even if you think everyone should know that PMG stands for Postmaster General, you’d be surprised that’s not always the case). You may send your article as an email attachment. The preferred file format is Microsoft Word. If you do not have access to Microsoft Word, please contact Tony Bard at editor@afdcs.org to discuss the software you intend to use. DO NOT insert scans or illustrations into your electronic text file. Each image should be submitted electronically as a separate file. Images should be named with their corresponding figure number. To indicate the ideal position of the image within the text, please include text corresponding to the image file name. In this example, the author indicates that image 5 should be positioned relative to the break between two paragraphs: “... lacks any reference to the Olympics. (Figure 5) Fleetwood and Fluegel used the name...” For most articles, each image will need a caption to connect the figure with the text. Manuscripts should include the captions – and please use “Figure” not “Fig.”!. Due to spacing, pagination and other considerations, images may not always appear in your preferred location, but the editor will make every effort to design layouts with a logical flow. Submitting a pdf of the article as you would hope to see it in print, with the images in situ, can be a useful addition. However, page formats, “house rules” on layout and the Editor’s own input may mean that the finished version differs from the pdf. ImagesNaturally, images are vital to the articles that appear in First Days. Taking care to follow the instructions below will help ensure the quality and clarity of the photographs and scans that accompany your work. The minimum image resolution for print is 300 dots per inch (DPI) at the actual size to be printed. When scanning materials that are smaller than 3 inches by 3 inches (7.5 cm x 7.5 cm), the preferred resolution is 600 DPI. This higher resolution affords greater latitude in the layout and scaling of images for detail. DO NOT apply sharpening or special effects filters to your images. While these adjustments may improve the on-screen appearance of an image, over-sharpening has a detrimental effect when the image is professionally printed. If image adjustment is needed, it will be handled during layout and production. Please scan images against a contrasting solid color background, the background. The actual color does not matter (although please ensure it provides a contrast to the item featured – so not a white envelope on a white background. Contrasting color aids in the image processing that must be applied before printing. It is also important that the background is not textured or patterned. For images that can overlap in an article (such as the front and back of a cover), please provide the full scan of both images. This allows latitude in layout and typically results in higher quality reproduction. The decision to overlap images will be made by the Editor during the layout process. It is not necessary to align items when scanning, this will be done as part of the editing process. Additionally, the reproduction quality of materials with fine engraved lines is often enhanced by scanning the specimen at an angle. Do not crop images tightly to the subject. Leaving a minimum of 1/8-inch (3 mm) around the item being scanned, as this makes processing easier. Save scans and images as JPG, TIF, or PNG files. The preferred format is JPG at high (10+) quality. Some software may refer to this as “low compression” and/or “highest quality.” Images saved from websites are usually low-resolution files. If your article requires such an image, please include the web address where the image was found.
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