Authors: Ned Carter and Kenneth Nilsson

POSTER-MAKING WEBSITE

Titleof the work

Your title should reveal your conclusion, not simply describe what you've done. Use "Treatment A Better than Treatment B" instead of"An Evaluation of Treatments A and B.”

Use a simple, easy to read font. A san serif style, such as Helvetica (Mac) or Arial (PC) is ideal.

Think Big! REALLY BIG!

The title should be readable from a distance of 5-7 meters. Your title will attract viewers closer to see your imaginative and exciting study. Theletters should be about 1.5 - 2 inches tall. That is about a 96 point size (or 48 points enlarged by 200% when printed.

There are seldom rules regarding line justification of the title. Determine if you will left or center justify the text of the title banner once it has been formatted, based upon personal preferences and space constraints.

Refer to your meeting guidelines for more details specific to the meeting you plan to attend.

If your title is no more than one line long, you can use all capitals, "TITLE". If your title is more than one line long, capitalize only the first letter, "Title". A title that is more than one line long is difficult to read if all text is capitalized. Use boldface.

Authors' names

Use first and last names, especially if you will be standing by your poster, to make it easier for attendees to talk with you. You rarely need to include your middle initial or title; include these on your handout, if you believe that they must be written somewhere.

Titles (Ph.D., M.D.) are usually omitted, although the meeting organizers may require that the presenting author, student authors, or society members be indicated. Use boldface and mixed upper/lower case for the authors’ names.

Authors' affiliations

Try to group author's names and affiliations, so that attendees can easily identify who comes from where.

City and state names can be dropped from the institutional affiliations. Your complete mailing address, including telephone, fax, e-mail and web-site addresses should be included on your handout.

Affiliations can be even smaller, at about 36 - 48 points (0.5 - 0.75 inch). Use plain text, no boldface, and mixed upper/lower case for affiliations.

Text

Conclusions first!Always putthe most important part - your conclusions -first! Place your conclusions in the upper left hand corner of your poster.

Prepare from the reader's perspective. What was done, by whom and your conclusion has to be accessible within a couple of second's reading! Use active voice when writing the text.

Text SizeLetters 1 cm high can be easily read from a distance of 2 meters while standing.

Fonts to useUse sans serif fonts such as Arial or Helvetica, rather than fonts like Old English or Times or Courier.

Paragraph FormatUse a maximum of 45 letters per line and no more that 4-6 lines per paragraph. Use left alignment! Justified test (straight right margin) is difficult to read while standing.

Avoid abbreviations

Avoid using abbreviations except for standard forms such as cm, m, etc. Abbreviations that require explanations make reading more difficult. The loss of accessibility costs more than the space gained.

Amount of textLimit yourself to 250 words of text. Delete allreferences and filler phrases, such as see Figure ... Your poster is an advertisement, not an article or report

Captions

Make sure that every figure, table, and picture has a caption that describes what is being shown. Since they have explanatory captions, you don’t need to label an illustration with Figure 1, Table 2, etc.

All text should be horizontal, not vertical. You may need to make new labels for figures you have published. See "Illustrations".

Letters 1 cm high, sans serif can be easily read from a distance of 2 meters while standing.

General Comments

Posters primarily are visual presentations. Self-explanatory graphics should dominate the poster. The text materials serve to support the graphic materials.
Good illustrations make for a better poster.A minimal amount of text materials should supplement the graphic materials.
Use regions of empty space to differentiate between and accentuate poster elements. Try to keep about 40% empty space and divide the rest equally between illustrations and text.
Illustrations should be easily legible from a minimum distance of two meters (six feet).
Restrained use of 2 - 3 colors for emphasis is valuable; overuse is not
Emphasize illustrations by mounting them separately on foam board or matte board, which you then fasten to the background (see Preparations). This will add depth and life to your poster.
Be sure to get permission if you use someone else's graphic material and acknowledge the creator on the poster
Remove all non-essential information from graphs and tables (data curves not discussed by the poster; excess grid lines in tables)
Label data lines in graphs directly, using large type & color. Eliminate legends and keys.
Artful illustrations, luminous colors, or exquisite computer-rendered drawings do not substitute for CONTENT.
Lines in illustrations should be larger than normal. Use contrast and colors for emphasis.
Use colors to distinguish different data groups in graphs. Avoid using patterns or open bars in histograms.
Use borders about 0.5 inches all around each figures. Border colors can be used to link related presentations of data.
Colored transparency overlays are useful in comparing/contrasting graphic results

General format

Look critically at the layout. If there is about 30% text, 30% graphics and 40% empty space, then you are doing well.

Use landscape rather than portrait format. More content will be at eye level, which makes reading and interpretation easier.

Use more pictures and illustrations; they say more than lines of text.

Use a column format and numbering so that the reader understands your order of presentation.

Sequencing Contents

Present information in a sequence, which is easy to follow. Start with you Conclusions, since this is your most important message.

Determine a logical sequence for the material you will be presenting. Arrange the material into columns.

Organize your material into sections (Conclusions, Methods, Data/Results, Implications, Current research, etc.).

Use numbers (Helvetica boldface, 36 - 48 points) to help sequence sections of the poster.

Color

Use a colored background to unify your poster. Muted or pastel colors are best for the background. Use black text which you print/copy directly onto the background.

Use more intense colors as borders or for emphasis, but be conservative - overuse of color is distracting.

Two to three related colors would unify the poster.

If necessary for emphasis, add a single additional color by mounting the figure on thinner poster board, or outlining the figure in colored tape.

Color can affect how photos are experienced.

Highlighting

Use highlighting techniques sparingly. You should edit so that only the most important parts are on your poster.

You can emphasize text by using Bold or Italic styles, but never by Underlining.

Use bullets, arrows and shadows to highlight.

Preparations

Planning

Make sure that you know the exact size and format for the poster session. It’s essential for you to know whether 1.50 x 1 m is a landscape or a portrait format. If the instructions aren’t clear, contact the organizers as soon as possible.

If you can choose, use landscape rather than portrait format. More content will be at eye level, which makes reading and interpretation easier.

Always put the most important part first!Usually, this is your conclusion.

Don't hide your content behind too many words - or it won't be seen. Limit yourself to 250 words.

Use more pictures and illustrations. They say more than lines of text.

Making the poster

Prepare your poster directly on your computer. It's easier, faster and better looking.Save frequently and make at least one back up of your work!
Use a program that allows you 1) to see the entire poster on your computer screen; 2) to see the page breaks and 3) to print continuously over more than one page. Try a program available from - you are permitted to make several posters for free and can buy the program for a reasonable price. Commercial drawing and layout programs such as Arts and Letters, Canvas, Publisher, PageMaker can be useful.
We describe the do-it-yourself, low budget method of poster construction and printing below. You can also contact local printing companies and ask about the cost of printing your complete poster, either on paper or laminated. Ask about program and format requirements, costs of preparation and printing and delivery times.
Low budget preparation and printing
We suggest that you overlap text and illustrations only horizontally (this is why its important to see the page breaks). If you overlap both horizontally and vertically, you may have problems getting the parts to match when you've printed your poster.
Set the printer output to portrait format, using A4 or 8.5 x 11 inch paper. Set the margins to the minimum so that you print as close to the edge as possible.
Print a version on white paper and lay it out. Proofread and make necessary corrections. Print or copy your final version on pastel colored paper.A poster that is 1.5 meter wide and 1 meter tall will require 32 pages of A4 paper (4 rows of 8 pages).
Successive pages should overlap with only a small margin. Trim the overlap off one side of each page and fasten a row of pages together using a water based glue stick or a piece of double-stick tape.
Mount your poster on colored art, mat or Bristol board or 5mm foam poster board. You'll look professional and you'll have a durable poster. Use non-permanent mounting spray and a well ventilated room
Cut up the poster in smaller pieces that you can take with you as carry-on luggage.
Put small pieces of Velcro tape (double-sided) on the back of the mat or poster board. Your poster will be easier to put up and take down.

Other Tips

Take 100 handouts to the conference.Abstracts and press releases are preferablefor distribution. Include name(s), mailing address,e-mail address, address to homepage, poster title, conference name and date. Prepare business cards with your photo, name and address (including e-mail and homepage) on them. Add an adhesive label with the title of your poster on the back of the business card. Use a ring binder for material not included on the poster.Bring along detailed data, information on procedural details, etc in a ring binder so that they’re available for discussion without cluttering up your poster.

Use mailing labels if you're prepared to send material to people.Let them write their name and address directly on the label and save you the bother of guessing their address. Before removing the label from the backing, make a photocopy so you have a record of who was interested in your work.

Make sure to check out the website for more information! sections address appropriate coloring, desired font sizes, tips on titling…the list goes on and on!

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