arrow icon
Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

November 2012

Axis Labels and Scales on Graphs

Preferred style for quantities with units:


For dimensionless quantities:


For text labels that represent dimensionless quantities:


Style for logarithmic scales:


Additional instructions:

  • Use standard abbreviations for the units.
  • Add units of before nonstandard units for clarity: e.g., (a) $\longrightarrow$ (units of a).
  • Use small spaces, not hyphens, dots, or other symbols, between the parts of compound units.
  • Use multiplication signs and powers of 10 with superscripts for numbers on figure axes.
    Do not use computer (E) notation.
  • Use decimal points (not commas) in numbers.
  • Avoid the ambiguity of using more than one solidus. Do not use a/b/c.
  • Add bracketing as needed to group fractions; e.g., instead of counts/sr/s, use counts/(sr s).


Not acceptable:

Do not use multiplication signs with units. Do not use an isolated power of ten as a unit. The following styles are ambiguous and are NOT ACCEPTABLE: