Introduction

Figures and tables in a lab report have a particular standard of presentation, much higher than that of figures you would put in lab book.

You may use any software you desire for producing graphs. At level 1 students will usually use Excel or other spreadsheet software, but at higher levels you may choose to use Python instead.

Some key points worth noting:

• If possible, have any tables and figures at the top and/or bottom of a page
• Do not wrap text around figures or tables
• Consider whether various results can be combined into a single graph.
• All figures and tables should have a caption and a figure or table number at the start of said caption(e.g. "Fig.3:" or "Table 2:").
• Captions should be short and sufficiently informative that someone with the necessary knowledge would be clear about what the figure or table represents without having to refer to your report.

Graphs

Some key points worth noting regarding graphs:

• Design your graphs so that they are easy to read and clearly show all key features
• Graphs are figures, and should therefore have a figure number at the start of their caption ("Fig.1:", not "Graph 1:")

Here is a checklist you can use to check your graphs are compliant.

• Things your graph should have:
  • Axis labels with units
  • Error bars
  • Tick marks at sensible intervals
  • A white background
  • Maximum and minimum values so that the most of the space is filled
  • Large enough font to be readable
• Things your graph should not have:
  • A title - Figures do not have titles, this information should go in the caption
  • Gridmarks
  • A border around the whole graph
  • A legend, unless absolutely necessary. Again, this information should preferably go in the caption
  • The equation of your line

Fig 1. shows 2 graphs that have been produced using Excel, one good and one bad. They have been annotated to highlight the differences.

Tables

Like figures, tables must have a caption and must be numbered. Tables are not figures and do not get called Figure 1, Figure 2, etc… They should be called Table 1, Table 2, etc… Removing useless horizontal or vertical lines will improve the presentation of your tables. All the entries, including the headings, should fit comfortably in the width or height of the columns or rows; long headings should thus be avoided. Below you can see a few other things to take note of when using tables.

Don’t include tables of data when the information is adequately given in a graph or by a few words of text; this is redundant and wasteful of space. Below is the same data presented in two formats; if presenting your data in a graphical form enhances the ability to convey information (as is the case here) you do not need to include the table of data, just the graph.