To get started, download the template that's the best fit for the photos and software you have:

 

Please read the guidelines below before inserting your photos and text. As you make your guide, refer to your favorite recent guide as a model.

Photos

If you're using the Word templates, photos should be cropped before being inserted into the template.  Photos should usually be 100–200 kB in size (unless fewer than 20 per page) and a single page is normally 2–4 MB in size. InDesign users can crop their photos within the program to fit the template:
  • VERTICAL photos
    375 x 500 pixels, 250 pixels/inch
  • HORIZONTAL photos
    500 x 375 pixels, 250 pixels/inch
  • SQUARE photos
    470 x 458 pixels, 250 pixels/inch
 
All photos should be saved at quality level 8.
 
Your guide is more likely to be accepted if your images are of high quality, the species are recognizable in this small format, and you follow our advice on choosing, optimizing, and cropping photographs. We've prepared a series of video tutorials for people using Photoshop.

Species, genera, family, and other names

Order the photographs in your guide in a way that is consistent and useful for readers. Please ensure that taxonomic information is free of typographic errors. We recommend online services like the Global Name Resolver (http://resolver.globalnames.org) or the Taxonomic Name Resolution Service for plants (http://tnrs.iplantcollaborative.org).

Supratitle

This text is optional and intended to add more detail to the short main title. We suggest the following format: 
 
(Higher order taxon if applicable), (expanded conservation unit name or more detailed locality if applicable), (country in caps)
 
Example: 
Leguminosae: Papilionoideae: Tribo Sophoreae, de Bahia, BRASIL
Meseta del Somuncura, Provincia Río Negro, Patagonia, ARGENTINA
Reserva Ecológica Cotacachi-Cayapas, Imbabura, ECUADOR

Main title

This text should be short, with key words emphasized in bold letters, underlining, or all caps. We suggest the following format: 
(Organisms) of (specific locality or region)
 
Example:
SOPHOREAE da BAHIA
PLANTAS del SOMUNCURA
Plantas Comunes de la Laguna de CUICOCHA
Common BUTTERFLIES of the Chicago Region
 
Please use a title that specifies the content, i.e., not 'Araceae of the Upper Amazon' or 'Araceae of Brazil' when it is really 'Araceae of Reserva Bruja'

Authors

Give serious consideration to including a photographer or a taxonomist as an author if they have made a significant contribution to the guide. Example for one author, one institution:
Juliana Livian Lima de Abreu
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Coordenação de Botânica, Belém, PA.
 
Give serious consideration to including a photographer or a taxonomist as an author if they have made a significant contribution to the guide. Example for one author, multiple institutions:
Ana Kelly Koch1,2
1Instituto de Botânica, Núcleo de Pesquisa Orquidário do Estado, São Paulo, SP, 2Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Coordenação de Botânica, Belém, PA.
 
Example for multiple authors, multiple institutions:
Juliana Livian Lima de Abreu3, Vinícuis Martins Barbacena1, Bruno Martins De Mello1, Ana Kelly Koch2,3, Jocasta Prado1, Maria de Queroz Carneiro-Silva3, André Luiz de Rezende Cardoso3 & Anna Luiza Ilkiu-Borges3
1BIOTA Projetos e Consultoria Ambiental Ltda, Goiânia, GO, 2Instituto de Botânica, Núcleo de Pesquisa Orquidário do Estado, São Paulo, SP, 3Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Coordenação de Botânica, Belém, PA.

The fine print

Please include:
  • Institutional affiliation of each author
  • Appropriate acknowledgment of funding sources and other assistance; this typically does not include Field Museum staff
  • Recognition of any photographers not listed as authors (alternatively, this can be done in the text under the relevant photos)
  • The e-mail address of the author(s) so that people who want to suggest corrections or make comments will contact the author first
  • A version number and date in the lower-right of the titles section, such as version 1, 01/2015
  • The author and/or author's institution should be listed as the copyright holder
  • A key to any abbreviations or symbols used in the text under the photos, preferably in bold, and below the copyright line.
Consider including:

Text under each photo

This text occupies a tiny space and must be very brief. It may include one or more of the following: species name, higher taxa name, common name, and habit. 
 
We recommend that species names be more conspicuous than other information in this field. If the photograph requires credit to photographer not listed in the fine print, that credit should be inconspicuous and not distracting from the identification and image.

Next steps

Once you have assembled your guide, we'd like to see it and talk with you about getting it online, if it is acceptable. Please email it as a PDF or MS Word file to fieldguides@fieldmuseum.org. Large files should be sent with Dropbox.