Posters

Planning your poster

While you’ll be creating your final poster using PowerPoint or another design program, you should have a sketch of what you would like your final poster to look like.

Consider:

• Number of sections, section headings, and section order
• Types and number of images
• Placement of these items on the slide, along with the placement of the title, references, and additional visual elements, such as logos.

In general, your poster will read from left-to-right, and from top-to-bottom.

• Your reference list usually goes in the lower, right-hand corner.
• Your works cited list must be visible on the front of the poster.

Setting up your posters' dimensions

When setting up a PowerPoint slide from which you’ll build your poster, you need to do three things:

1. Create a blank slate

   To do this, bring up the Home tab, and then select Layout. In the Layout menu, select the Blank slide option.

2. Set your poster's size and orientation

   Your instructor may have already given you specific dimensions that you must use. Most research posters come in one of two sizes: 24” x 36” (60cm x 90 cm) or 36” x 48” (90cm x 120 cm).

   However, you may choose or need to size your poster to different specifications. In order to use the departmental plotter (by instructor permission), the poster can be no larger than 90cm x 120 cm.

   While most posters have horizontal orientation, a vertical poster may be more practical, depending on what you’re presenting.

   The default orientiation for PowerPoint is horizontal (Landscape), but you can also change it to veritcal (Portrait).

   To set the size and orientation, bring up the Design tab, and then select Slide Size. Then, select the Customize Slide Size option and enter your dimensions.

Adding a dash of colour

There’s no law that you need to give your poster a background colour other than white. White backgrounds make a poster easier to read and can make visuals on the poster ‘pop’. Colour can be used creatively in a research poster and can be used to help ‘theme’ the poster.

If you decide to add background colour, bring up the Design tab, and click on the Format Background. You can also use this function to add a background photo, or to add multiple colours and designs by changing the Fill.

• Be careful when using a photograph for your background. You should use a photo that will produce well when blown up to a larger size. When the photo is originally taken, the camera should be set to take a photo 11”x 17” or larger.
• Gradient fill should be used sparingly. Use different shades of the same colour.
• If you decide to stay with a white background, you may choose to add colour in other ways: by providing background colour to text boxes; by adding a border to the poster; through careful selection of visuals; and, in limited doses, by changing the typeface to a colour other than black.

To add colour to a text box, bring up the Format tab, then click on the text box so that it can be manipulated. (To draw a text box, see Step 5.) Next, select Solid fill from the Format menu, and select a colour.

If you would like to add a border to your text box, select Line on the bottom of the same menu.

To add a border to the whole poster, bring up the Insert tab, and then click on Shapes. Select the box shape, and then drag across your slide. The shape added will likely be ‘filled’ with a colour.

Adding and labeling visuals

You’ll next need to add your text boxes and visuals. There’s no ‘right’ order of operations here. To add visuals, you can import the images by:

• Cutting and pasting from the web (if a downloaded image) or another document
• Bringing up the Insert tab, then clicking on picture, and selecting from your menu.

Visuals must look clear and clean when printed. If you can see the pixelation of the image, then it’s been blown up too large for the poster. You will need to shrink it down. This is often the case with any downloaded images.

All figures must be labeled, using figure numbers, captions and sources. Do not include web addresses in your citation.

When you are the creator (photographer, cartographer) of the image used, you should still cite yourself, so as to avoid confusion. You can simply put "Photo by author" (or your last name and date).

Make sure to refer to all of your visuals in the body of your poster, e.g. See Figure 1.

Adding text

Some things to consider when adding text:

• Type your text into Microsoft Word if possible, and then import it. It will be easier to work with. Do not, however, try to do tables in Microsoft Word or Excel and then import if you don’t have to. PowerPoint will usually mess up the formatting, and you’ll spend more time fixing the table.
• Limit the amount of text in each text box. Too much text overwhelms the reader. Remember, most people are standing while they’re reading your poster.
• Likewise, don’t put too little text in a text box. Too many text boxes are messy and do not present information cleanly.
• To insert a text box, select the Insert tab, select Text Box, and draw it on your poster.
• Text boxes should be of consistent width. You ensure this by going to the Format menu, and checking (and if need be, adjusting) the measurements of text boxes under the Size menu.
• Use an appropriate font for the text in the body. You can use more decorative fonts (when appropriate, not usually for physical geography research posters), but limit their use to titles and headings. Select a font that will read well. San-serif fonts (like the one used here) are easier to read.
• Choose a font size between 18 pts (for larger typeface, e.g. Century Gothic) and 22 pts (for smaller typeface, like Corbel).
• Headings should be of consistent size and font. All text boxes need a heading.
• The title should be large enough to read across the room. Depending on the font selection, you may be sizing your title between 80 and 120 font. Your title must be interesting!

  Boring, loosely descriptive titles don’t draw the reader in, and this is a consideration in the evaluation of any poster. Titles need not be placed across the top; consider more creative placement as you become more skilled at making posters.

• Identifying information will include your name(s), course or instructor (if applicable), term (if applicable), department and university affiliation. This information is usually placed below the title, although it can be placed elsewhere. It should, nonetheless, be easily located on the poster, and in a logical location.
• Eyeball your poster for balance, flow, and overall presentation. Too much text, and few will want to read it. Too little, and you may be missing essential elements or background research.

Citations

A research poster is no different than a research paper in that it needs to be fully referenced.

For a poster, the same rules apply with regard to the frequency and type of citations used in research papers.

• You must include a references list on the front of your poster. This is usually placed in the lower-right hand corner, but this is not a hard and fast rule.
• You can shrink the size of your references list to make it ‘fit’ into your poster while not being too distracting. Most instructors will allow you to shrink your references list to 9 or 10 point. However, 12 point is preferred if it will fit.