A major advantage of electronic publication is that it costs no more to deliver a color figure online than a black and white one. Printing color is, however, still a costly proposition. When publishing each article as soon as it is ready, another significant advantage of electronic publication, the placement of the color pages within the subsequent printed version of the journal can no longer be controlled. For a variety of reasons, articles in the printed version of AGU journals appear in the order in which they were published. Economical reproduction of printed color requires grouping the color in as few signatures as possible. (A signature is a group of 16 or 32 pages that is printed at the same time on a single sheet.)

Working within these constraints, AGU journals offer several options for authors who wish to use color. Of course, only the journal editor can determine whether color is required for adequate presentation of the science. The options are described below and the accompanying table indicates which options are available for the different journals.

Color Only Online

Color is free if the author chooses to have color only online.

Plate Section in Printed Journal

Color figures are printed together at the end of the journal. As is true with the online-only option, authors may provide a black-and-white version of the color figure to appear within the article or if the figure cannot be reasonably converted to black and white, the author may describe the figure in the article. The figure legend will appear within the article in either case, and there will be a note that a color version of the figure is available online and in the plate section of the printed journal.

Authors may have one page of color free so long as they provide appropriate electronic files that can be used for the printing process. If authors are unable to provide electronic files, there will be a charge for making separations from hard copy.

There is no longer an additional fee to integrate color into the online PDF.

Integrated Color in Printed Journal

Color figures are reproduced within the article both in the printed version and in the online pdf. The charge for this option is considerably higher than that for the plate section, for which the cost of the color press is shared by several articles.

Authors who are unable to provide appropriate electronic files can provide hardcopy and pay to have the separations made, as is true for the plate section.

Details about the prices for the different options can be found at Prices for Color in AGU Journals, http://www.agu.org/pubs/journal_forms/colorpricing.html. Specifications for figure files can be found at Guidelines for Preparing Graphics Files, http://www.agu.org/pubs/authoring/guides_graphics.html.