Number illustrations consecutively within the document (eg Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3), or by section or chapter (eg Figure 2.1, Figure 2.2, Figure 4.1, Figure B5). Numbering by section is useful because changes in one section will not affect figure numbering in another section. This is especially important in long documents or those that have many figures. Alternatively, illustrations could be named Plate 1, Plate 2 and so on, if there is a requirement to separate illustrations from figures within the publication.
Place the title as its own paragraph below the illustration, not within the illustration. This convention should also be used for web-based publications.
Use a title that describes the figure content, including the date, if appropriate:
Figure 3 Human muscle groups
Use minimal capitalisation (only capitalise the first letter of the first word of the title and proper nouns).
Use minimal punctuation to keep titles clean and uncluttered: follow figure numbers with a tab, not a colon, and do not place a full stop at the end. Using a tab also helps align the names properly in an automatically generated contents list of figures.
Spell out abbreviations in full in the title, wherever possible. Put any necessary detail in explanatory figure notes. The title should not cover more than 2 lines (preferably 1 line).
For a series of illustrations, give the same information in the same order.
