Tables or figures?

Should a result be a table or a figure? Ask what the reader needs to do with it.

Use a figure when readers need to see

• Patterns and trends: how accuracy changes with data size.
• Comparisons at a glance: which group is higher.
• Distributions and spread: how values vary.
• Relationships: how two variables move together.

Use a table when readers need to look up

• Exact values they may want to compare or reuse.
• Many measures for a few items (a benchmark table of models by metrics).
• Mixed types: numbers, text and categories together.

Make tables readable

• Few lines: a line at the top, under the header, and at the bottom. No vertical lines. (This is the "booktabs" style.)
• Align numbers on the decimal point, and use the same number of decimals in a column.
• Sensible precision: 78.4%, not 78.4321%. Extra digits suggest a precision you don't have.
• Bold the best result only if you explain what "best" means and whether differences are meaningful.
• Put units in the header, not in every cell.

Don't do both

Showing the same numbers as a table and a figure wastes space. Put the figure in the paper and the full table in an appendix if needed.

RememberFigures for patterns, tables for exact values. Few lines, aligned numbers, honest precision.