Example;
Apart from the words, a report may also contain information expressed in pictorial or symbolic form, such as the following:
a) illustrations;
b) tables;
c) mathematics, physical, and chemical formulae;
d) signs, symbols and abbreviations.
The term "illustraions" includes graphs (plotted curves, histograms, etc.), line drawings, and photographs. The term "figure" is only used instead of all other terms, such as graph, plate, map, etc.
Illustrations play a significant part in the expression of technical report. It is required to respect drawing standards to establish clear, simple and understandable figures.
When illustrations are not created by the author, care must be taken to respect the rights of the originator and to acknowledge the source. It is recommended to study the relevant copyrights laws which may differ between nations.
Each illustration shall be numbered consecutively from the beginning to the end of report, or within a clause (or an annex), where such as Figure 4-3.
Each illustration(or table) shall be given a caption which shall be placed beneath it. A caption may include a descriptive legend. If possible, an illustration should be self-contained and intelligible without reference to the text. A list of illustration (and tables) should be included in the table of contents.
Illustrations(tables) should appear in the text immediately after their first citation, if possible on the same page. If they are not cited in the text, they shall not included in the body of report, but may be placed in an annex. Where there is a high proportion of illustrations(tables) to the text, it may be more appropriate to group together, either at the end of the clause or at the end of the core of the report. If so, page number of illustration should be given with the citation of it in the text.
Because of the loss of defferentiation after photocopying, telecopying and microfilming, colours should not be used. If colour is essential, lines and shading that are to appear in colour should be prepared so that the differences to be indicated by colour can be identified on black-and-white copies. Three lines in colour may be drawn as, for example, continuous, broken and dotted lines.
Because of copying difficulties, fold-outs should not be used for illustrations(tables). Moreover, the reading of microform will be simplified if the illustration(tables) lie in the same direction as the text and not at right angles to it.
Every graph shall indicate what kind of quantity and what units are plotted along the ordinate, the abscissa, and any parameters. These labels shall be written in the form "quantity/unit". Symbols and abbreviations shall be the same as in the text and shall follow the respective standards. Unless a graph is intended to provide a source of precise data(for which a table would be preferable), coordinate rulings should be limited to those necessary to guide the eye and should preferably be reduced to ticks on the ordinates and abscissae.
Line drawings are often preferable to photographs for illustrating equipment and techniques and for most geophysical representations. The infromation conveyed should be limited to that necessary to support the point make in the text, so as to avoid over-crowding. If much detailed labelling is rquired, simple symbols or shading should be used and a key provided.
Maps shall indicate the geographical coordinates or cardinal points, the scale and, where appropriate, the projection and any grid system.
Photographs are not always as suitable as line drawings. In particular, half-tone photographs cannot be photocopied satisfactory. If photographs are used the original should be of black-and-white and of the highest quality so as to minimize the loss of detail incurred by the half-tone process.
When a photograph is processed for printing purpose, the image is changed into an assembly of dotted patterns. Half-tone photographs may turn to either all black or all white images by the processings. By the same reason, photocopied images often badly reproduced for printed illustration.
The size of the photographed object shall be indicated by a scale or by its conjunction with another object of a recognizable size. Features of interest should be indicated by means of arrowed labels or letters, taking care that these stand out clearly against their background. The original photographs should be cripped to eliminate unimportant features and to centre points of interest.
Tables in the body of the text should contain only values that are pertinent to the points made. Any tabular material that consists of more than four or five lines should be made into a formal table. If large amounts of data have to be tabulated in the text, they should be divided into two or more tables even if this necessitates some repetition.
Columns or lines of data in a table should be separated by lines or spaces into convenient logical groups as an aid to interpretation. Data that are not pertinet to the text but may be required for possible reference should either be included such as in annexes or should be placed in some authorized organization depository, which should be cited.
It is essential that great care be taken in preparing mathematical matter and physical or chemical formulae. Symbols, quantities and numerical values shall be expressed in accordance with JIS Z 8302 or equivalent standards ISO 31 (Parts 0 to 13). Numerical values shall be clearly indicated with the applicable units. For examples, t/cm２, t/m２, kg/cm２ take different decimal points, m/sec, km/h take different values even if these are the same fact.
The presentation of mathematics shall follow conventional practices. It is therefore often preferable to use careful handwriting rather than to attempt to reproduce them on a conventional typewriter. However, some special printing apparatuses should be used.
ISO 31/0 requires that symbols for physical quantities be printed in italic type. However some symbol uses the same letter but italic. For example in ISO 5966, the capacitance symbol Ｃ(italic) may conflict with the SI unit coulomb C. To avoid confliction, capacitance may be denoted by lower case(c) or by Cp if these are not already being used for other physical quantities in the same report.
Special attention shall be given to the prevention of possible confusion between different characters as shown in examples below. General cares are recommended to adopt 0 (numeric zero) with slash from alphabetic oh O. But it should be remembered that similar letters are found in danish and greek.
If letters cannot be printed in bold, it is often easier with special typewriters or with handwriting to mark vectors with arrows.
Where it is necessary to include fractions in solid text, they should, where possible, be reduced to a single lebel by using the solidus(/), or the negative index: such as 1/(root 2) or 2-1/2.
Large numbers with more than 3 digits shall be divided by a small space between every 3 digits before or after a decimal point. The cypher 0 shall be placed before the decimal sign when the number is less than 1.
Parentheses(), brackets[] and braces{} used in mathematics should follow the conventional order and be of a size sufficient to enclose all the material to which they refer.
Example;
When mathematical equations are dis played in the text they shall be indented from the margin and separated from the surrounding text by extra spaces.
If the equation will not fit into one line, it should be broken before (=), after (+,-,x,/), therby emphasizing the continuity of the two lines. It should not normally be broken within a fraction, within an expression in parentheses, brackets or braces, or within an expression under a radical sign. In fractions, the horizontal line separating the numerator from the denominator shall be the length of the longer of the two.
Except when the report contains only a few equations each equation shall be identified
by a number placed in parentheses at the far right of the line. To avoid confusion, this number may be of different font from that used for numbers in equations.
If this is not possible, use as the examples below.
ISO 1000-1981(SI-units and recommendations for the use of their multiples and of certain other units) should be appreciated for the choice of units. However, there may be historical reasons based on every national background. It is recommended, on such cases that the equivalent SI units and values are added together with traditional manners.
Basically, the SI system of units(ISO-31 and -1000) shall be used. If measurements have been made in some other unit, conversion throughout the text may result in errors; it is then sufficient to limit conversion to SI units to values referred to in important statements. Values quoted in abstracts shall be given in SI units or multiples thereof.