Title of a Poster to be Mounted on 30”x40” Poster Board
Author, Calvin College
Abstract
Before you begin, edit your text to the bare
minimum. You want to get the reader’s attention
from a distance and not make him/her walk away,
because there is too much text to read. More
detailed information can be shared in a handout to
interested viewers.
Make the section titles about 48 point text. The
body text of a poster should be about 24-36 point.
18 point for captions and labels.
The text of the abstract should be slightly larger
than the text in the other parts of the poster. This
text is larger.
Rationale
Serif fonts (fonts with the little flags at the tops and
bottoms of the vertical letters) are best for reading lots of
text. Use serif for the body text. Use the Sans-serif fonts
(no flags) for headlines. The stroke of the letter is wider
and makes a bold impression.
Another Heading
Light Background vs. Dark Background…
• In the inkjet process, dark backgrounds takes much
more ink (therefore we like light).
• The important thing is contrast. If you love the rich
royal blues, then use a white text and make the text
bold. The skinny part of the letterforms fade away over
dark backgrounds. Also thin line widths will not show
up or show up as well.
• Don’t use a “busy” background. It’ll distract the reader
away from the text. If you have to “go busy”, put a
background color in the text block (format>text block)
so they are easily read.
Hypotheses
If the text in a paragraph excedes 10-12
words per line, break the paragraph into
two columns for easier readability. This is
needed when there is a lot of text. Lay out
posters that are over 3 feet in width with at
least six columns of text.
Results
If you want one-column sections copy one
of the other boxes to replace these two
(under Hypotheses). If you want all twocolumn sections, copy these 2 boxes in
place of the others.
Method
Background Color
To choose a background other than this parchment paper:
format/background then click on the down arrow and
pick a color or fill effect. If you choose to use a digital
image of your own, please include a copy of it with your
file.
Scans and Images
• Make your scans the size you want them in the poster
at 120 to 200 dpi. Convert them to CMYK if you can.
• Pictures from the Web: Most of the time, don’t use
them. They are too low resolution and too small. If
you stretch them bigger they will look jaggy or
pixilated.
• Background images: to fill the background with an
image you can get away with an output resolution of
100 dpi, even down to 50 dpi. But make sure you
scan to the size you want it. Never stretch a smaller
scan, your pixels will turn into little boxes.
• Poster dimensions 36 x 48” would need a scan 3600
by 4800 pixels minimum to fill the background. Or
output resolution of 100dpi scan 36” x 48”.
Figure 1
insert graphic here
Inserting Graphics:
We’ve had trouble printing large graphics inserted from
Excel or Word. Sometimes they only partially print. If
you do this, select the inserted graphic then go to
draw>ungroup. When it asks you if you want to make it a
Microsoft Office drawing object click yes. Now it is
editable in PowerPoint.
Conclusions
Remember the width of the paper is 36” and that
includes about 1.5” of margin. The other dimension is
variable.
Helpful Tools
Lining things up…There are features that can help you
line up columns or rows. See Draw>Align or distribute.
(Draw is on the lower left of your screen in Windows).
Also, there is a ruler guide that you can move - go to
View>Guides. Draw also has some snap-to features that
can be turned on and off.
Calvin Logo
If you need a different version of the logo (bottom right)
contact Instructional Graphics at 536-8614.
.
Printing
You can email your poster to: graphics@calvin.edu or
deliver the file on flashdrive or CD/DVD.Please allow
two weeks for printing. Include any graphics, photos or
fonts in a folder as well in case we need to re-insert
anything. Call us at 526-8614.
References
Figure 2
insert graphic here
Lastname, James M., & Witte, Kenneth L. (1988). Lasdkjf ;klj sdfkl jlk;jsdf
lk;sjdf klj. Bulletin of the Society 12 (4), 325-328.