1. Template for IBI poster 56 inches in width and 36 inches in height The title occupies no more than two lines
First Author1, Second Author2, Third Author1,2
1Institute for Biomedical Informatics 2Additional UK affiliation University of Kentucky
About this template
This template will help you to create a poster with appropriate text size, margins, and typographical hierarchy.
Layout
This template has four columns. You may need to adjust the width of the columns to accommodate your figures. If you adjust column widths, make sure the lines of text don’t become too short or too long. Keep the line length between 55 and 85 characters. (Lines in the narrow columns are currently about 65 characters in length).
All margins are 1.75 inches. Columns are 11 and 17 inches wide. The width of the gutters (space between columns) is 1.5 inches.
A light-blue background box can be used to add emphasis to sections of text. The box extends 0.5 inches beyond the edges of the text. (This section of text shows how to use a background box.)
Typeface and styles
This template is set in Arial. You may substitute a similar sans serif font such as Helvetica.
Title: 76-point, bold, with 92-point line spacing
Authors: 48-point, regular
Affiliations: 40-point, regular
Headings: 45-point, bold, with 53-point line spacing
Sub-headings: 34-point, oblique, with 42-point line spacing
Body text: 26-point, regular, with 37-point line spacing
Figure caption: 24-point, regular, with 32-point line spacing
Vertical spacing
The vertical space around headings and paragraphs helps to create groups within the text. This amount of space is adjusted using paragraph styles within the software (not by adding empty lines).
Headings: 42-point space before, 24-point space after
Sub-headings: 14-point space before, 16-point space after
Body text paragraphs: 18-point space after
Text alignment
All text is set flush left, except for the affiliations (which is flush right, and should align with the right edge of the UK logo.
Colors
Text for section headings and affiliations is in Wildcat blue (#0033A0). All other text is white or black. The gray bar below the header is #DBDBDB. The light-blue background box is #EAEFF4.
Tips for developing the content of your poster
Convey the “big picture”
Research posters are a high-level summary of your work. Think of them as a “fat abstract” with a few figures, tables, or equations. Your task is to quickly convey to viewers the topic of your work, what you did, and what you found.
Don’t put in too much detail. If you are presenting at a conference, the purpose of a poster is to catalyze and support a conversation. If your poster is to be displayed where you work, the purpose is to give colleagues and visitors a sense of the type of work you do.
Select an informative title and section headings
Most viewers will read only your title (and perhaps the section headings), so make these as informative as possible. Your title should state more than just your topic—it can be a sentence that states your main conclusion.
Many posters use the section headings “Introduction”, “Methods”, “Results”, and “Conclusion”. But think about how you can make the headings more descriptive of your work. For example, you might have sections called “Developing the model” and “Evaluating the model”.
Refining the typography
Once you are in the final stages of designing your poster, pay careful attention to the presentation of the text.
Carefully check the titles and headings
Capitalization: If you choose to capitalize only the first word and all proper nouns, then keep this style throughout the entire poster.
Line breaks: Put the line breaks between phrases and avoid placing a single word on a line.
Format bullet lists for easy reading
The bullets should be close to the items they lead.
There should be a small amount of vertical space between each item.
This format helps the reader to quickly scan the items of the list.
If there is no vertical space between items, they will appear as a single block of text.
If the bullets are too far from the text, they will appear to be a column of bullets that are unrelated to the text.
Using images
Digital images come in two types: raster (also called bitmap) and vector. Raster images are composed of a grid, with each square in the grid assigned a color value. Vector images are formed by a set of anchor points and the lines (defined by equations) that connect the points.
TIFF, PNG, and JPEG (or JPG) are raster formats. SVG is a vector format.
Avoiding problems with JPEG compression
The JPEG format allows you to select the level of compression. This compression produces smaller files, but causes artifacts to appear in the images if the compression is set too high (Figure 1, below).
Figure 1: JPEG compression can cause artifacts to appear in the images (seen here as scattered gray pixels).
Avoiding problems with resolution of raster images
As shown in Figure 2 (right), the difference between raster images and vector images may not be noticeable when the images are small. But as a raster image is enlarged, the grid becomes visible and the lines and edges of the image appear jagged and of poor quality.
When preparing raster images, first consider how large they need to be printed on your poster. Then save the images at a resolution of at least 150 pixels per inch. If you are using a raster image that someone else prepared, calculate the maximum size for printing based on 150 pixels per inch.
Figure 2: Comparison of raster image (left) and vector image (right) at increasing magnification.