1. Poster Design
Hints and Tips

2. Poster Basics
Visual presentation of information - more than a reproduction of a written paper in poster size
Visual can mean more than adding images – design your poster to catch attention
Content should be coherent, and should not need verbal comment
Planning is important: Create a draft or sketch with paper and pencil before starting

3. Good or bad? Font size (title and name of author prominent)
Focus on essentials – there’s no space for too much detail
Graphs, tables, images to illustrate main points
Alignment and grouping of text with images
See
(University at Buffalo, New York, Art & Sciences website)

4. Font sizing (suggestions)
Available as pdf in the VLE
‘Poster Design’ Resources Poster_guidelines_MediaWorkshop
Font sizing (suggestions)
Titles: 86pt
Subtitles: 50pt
Body text: 34pt
Contact details:30pt

5. How-to Powerpoint In PowerPoint, create your poster as a single slide.
Set the page size using File > Page Setup
For an A1 poster: 594mm × 841mm
Specify this before you start in > File > Page Setup (there may be an A1 option. You can also enter the dimensions manually in ‘Page Setup’).
PowerPoint also allows you to add guidelines to help you line up the poster elements. Use View > Grid and Guides... and tick the Display grid on screen box.

6. How-to PowerPoint 2 Positioning text on screen:
Use the drawing toolbar to add text boxes to the screen:
Resizing images on screen:
Use ‘sizing handles’ in corners to maintain proportions, or better: right click on image for ‘Format picture’

7. Paper sizes A1 paper - 841 x 594mm 33 1/8 x 23 3/8 ins (double A3size)
A5 paper x 210mm 8 ¼ x 5 7/8 ins (half A4size)
A6 paper x 148mm 5 7/8 x 4 1/8 ins (half A5size)

8. Images Resolution: important for print (150 – 300 dpi)
Images downloaded from the web:
Copyright issues, but also often low resolution (75 – 96 dpi)
Free image editing software: Paint.NET

9. Sourcing Images for printing
Still images: Finding and using digital media
Flickr – creative commons licence
Opportunity to explore other people’s poster:
Poster sessions group on Flickr

10. Printing at Brookes Getting started with printing at Brookes
Printing Charges:

11. Save as PDF before printing
Save as pdf before printing (only sometimes necessary, for example file size problems):
Now possible with Office 2007 without additional software
Free software: PDFcreator

12. Expert advise
Don’t forget: your main concern is the content. However (last ressort): You can get expert (and friendly) advise regarding design and print issues at the Graphics Workshop, Gipsy Lane Campus: