Tips for creating an effective poster
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Keep it simple- Present the large picture, not the details.
Use language most people will understand. Avoid jargon or acronyms understood by only
a small audience.
Make your text easy to read. Use larger font sizes for section headings. Be sure a reader
standing at a distance can see and easily read your poster.
Use graphs rather than tables- avoid cluttered figures. Avoid the use of legends. If it is
necessary include the information directly on the image.
Posters will be 36” tall x 56”wide in size. Caution: When a poster is enlarged, small
figures/graphics can become pixilated.
Recommendation- It is recommended that posters be completed in Power Point.
Links of example posters from other universities
The links below may offer guidance as to how a poster should look.
http://www.uvu.edu/insteffect/bestpractices/index.html
http://www.sru.edu/academics/assessment/Pages/PosterPresentation.aspx
http://web.ysu.edu/assessment/poster
A Note from Graphic Services
No matter how you create your poster, if you can submit a high quality pdf of it, actual size—
that is the best option. Illustrator and InDesign are great formats (saved as pdf files), but not
everyone uses those. For most people, it’s more likely that Power Point is an option. Power Point
files print well, but be sure to make the document the size of the poster rather than leaving it the
size of a standard slide. (You can change this under the “Design” tab on the upper left where it
says, “Page Setup.”) Word documents can be sent to as pdf file also.
Try to avoid sending us Publisher documents. Publisher is not the best alternative, as it fights
with the Graphic Service’s printers on a regular basis. Before you put in a lot of work on a
Publisher poster, make sure you can really get a good pdf file from it. Sometimes Publisher is
problematic in making pdf files.