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How to Design a Winning Poster Presentation: Quick Guide with Examples & Templates

How are research posters like High School science fair projects? Quite similar, in fact.

Both are visual representations of a research project shared with peers, colleagues and academic faculty. But there’s a big difference: it’s all in professionalism and attention to detail. You can be sure that the students that thrived in science fairs are now creating fantastic research posters, but what is that extra element most people miss when designing a poster presentation?

This guide will teach tips and tricks for creating poster presentations for conferences, symposia, and more. Learn in-depth poster structure and design techniques to help create academic posters that have a lasting impact.

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• What is a Research Poster?

Why are Poster Presentations important?

Overall dimensions and orientation, separation into columns and sections, scientific, academic, or something else, a handout with supplemental and contact information, cohesiveness, design and readability, storytelling.

• Font Characteristics
• Color Pairing
• Data Visualization Dimensions
• Alignment, Margins, and White Space

Scientific/Academic Conference Poster Presentation

Digital research poster presentations, slidemodel poster presentation templates, how to make a research poster presentation step-by-step, considerations for printing poster presentations, how to present a research poster presentation, final words, what is a research poster .

Research posters are visual overviews of the most relevant information extracted from a research paper or analysis.   They are essential communication formats for sharing findings with peers and interested people in the field. Research posters can also effectively present material for other areas besides the sciences and STEM—for example, business and law.

You’ll be creating research posters regularly as an academic researcher, scientist, or grad student. You’ll have to present them at numerous functions and events. For example:

• Conference presentations
• Informational events
• Community centers

The research poster presentation is a comprehensive way to share data, information, and research results. Before the pandemic, the majority of research events were in person. During lockdown and beyond, virtual conferences and summits became the norm. Many researchers now create poster presentations that work in printed and digital formats.

Let’s look at why it’s crucial to spend time creating poster presentations for your research projects, research, analysis, and study papers.

Research posters represent you and your sponsor’s research 

Research papers and accompanying poster presentations are potent tools for representation and communication in your field of study. Well-performing poster presentations help scientists, researchers, and analysts grow their careers through grants and sponsorships.

When presenting a poster presentation for a sponsored research project, you’re representing the company that sponsored you. Your professionalism, demeanor, and capacity for creating impactful poster presentations call attention to other interested sponsors, spreading your impact in the field.

Research posters demonstrate expertise and growth

Presenting research posters at conferences, summits, and graduate grading events shows your expertise and knowledge in your field of study. The way your poster presentation looks and delivers, plus your performance while presenting the work, is judged by your viewers regardless of whether it’s an officially judged panel.

Recurring visitors to research conferences and symposia will see you and your poster presentations evolve. Improve your impact by creating a great poster presentation every time by paying attention to detail in the poster design and in your oral presentation. Practice your public speaking skills alongside the design techniques for even more impact.

Poster presentations create and maintain collaborations

Every time you participate in a research poster conference, you create meaningful connections with people in your field, industry or community. Not only do research posters showcase information about current data in different areas, but they also bring people together with similar interests. Countless collaboration projects between different research teams started after discussing poster details during coffee breaks.

An effective research poster template deepens your peer’s understanding of a topic by highlighting research, data, and conclusions. This information can help other researchers and analysts with their work. As a research poster presenter, you’re given the opportunity for both teaching and learning while sharing ideas with peers and colleagues.

Anatomy of a Winning Poster Presentation

Do you want your research poster to perform well?  Following the standard layout and adding a few personal touches will help attendees know how to read your poster and get the most out of your information. 

The overall size of your research poster ultimately depends on the dimensions of the provided space at the conference or research poster gallery. The poster orientation can be horizontal or vertical, with horizontal being the most common.  In general, research posters measure 48 x 36 inches or are an A0 paper size.

A virtual poster can be the same proportions as the printed research poster, but you have more leeway regarding the dimensions. Virtual research posters should fit on a screen with no need to scroll, with 1080p resolution as a standard these days. A horizontal presentation size is ideal for that.

A research poster presentation has a standard layout of 2–5 columns with 2–3 sections each. Typical structures say to separate the content into four sections; 1. A horizontal header 2. Introduction column, 3. Research/Work/Data column, and 4. Conclusion column. Each unit includes topics that relate to your poster’s objective.  Here’s a generalized outline for a poster presentation:

• Condensed Abstract 
• Objectives/Purpose
• Methodology
• Recommendations
• Implications
• Acknowledgments
• Contact Information 

The overview content you include in the units depends on your poster presentations’ theme, topic, industry, or field of research. A scientific or academic poster will include sections like hypothesis, methodology, and materials. A marketing analysis poster will include performance metrics and competitor analysis results.

There’s no way a poster can hold all the information included in your research paper or analysis report. The poster is an overview that invites the audience to want to find out more. That’s where supplement material comes in. Create a printed PDF handout or card with a QR code (created using a QR code generator ). Send the audience to the best online location for reading or downloading the complete paper.

What Makes a Poster Presentation Good and Effective? 

For your poster presentation to be effective and well-received, it needs to cover all the bases and be inviting to find out more. Stick to the standard layout suggestions and give it a unique look and feel. We’ve put together some of the most critical research poster-creation tips in the list below. Your poster presentation will perform as long as you check all the boxes.

The information you choose to include in the sections of your poster presentation needs to be cohesive. Train your editing eye and do a few revisions before presenting. The best way to look at it is to think of The Big Picture. Don’t get stuck on the details; your attendees won’t always know the background behind your research topic or why it’s important.

Be cohesive in how you word the titles, the length of the sections, the highlighting of the most important data, and how your oral presentation complements the printed—or virtual—poster.

The most important characteristic of your poster presentation is its readability and clarity. You need a poster presentation with a balanced design that’s easy to read at a distance of 1.5 meters or 4 feet. The font size and spacing must be clear and neat. All the content must suggest a visual flow for the viewer to follow.

That said, you don’t need to be a designer to add something special to your poster presentation. Once you have the standard—and recognized—columns and sections, add your special touch. These can be anything from colorful boxes for the section titles to an interesting but subtle background, images that catch the eye, and charts that inspire a more extended look. 

Storytelling is a presenting technique involving writing techniques to make information flow. Firstly, storytelling helps give your poster presentation a great introduction and an impactful conclusion. 

Think of storytelling as the invitation to listen or read more, as the glue that connects sections, making them flow from one to another. Storytelling is using stories in the oral presentation, for example, what your lab partner said when you discovered something interesting. If it makes your audience smile and nod, you’ve hit the mark. Storytelling is like giving a research presentation a dose of your personality, and it can help turning your data into opening stories .

Design Tips For Creating an Effective Research Poster Presentation

The section above briefly mentioned how important design is to your poster presentation’s effectiveness. We’ll look deeper into what you need to know when designing a poster presentation.

1. Font Characteristics

The typeface and size you choose are of great importance. Not only does the text need to be readable from two meters away, but it also needs to look and sit well on the poster. Stay away from calligraphic script typefaces, novelty typefaces, or typefaces with uniquely shaped letters.

Stick to the classics like a sans serif Helvetica, Lato, Open Sans, or Verdana. Avoid serif typefaces as they can be difficult to read from far away. Here are some standard text sizes to have on hand.

• Title: 85 pt
• Authors: 65 pt
• Headings: 36 pt
• Body Text: 24 pt
• Captions: 18 pt

If you feel too prone to use serif typefaces, work with a font pairing tool that helps you find a suitable solution – and intend those serif fonts for heading sections only. As a rule, never use more than 3 different typefaces in your design. To make it more dynamic, you can work with the same font using light, bold, and italic weights to put emphasis on the required areas.

2. Color Pairing

Using colors in your poster presentation design is a great way to grab the viewer’s attention. A color’s purpose is to help the viewer follow the data flow in your presentation, not distract. Don’t let the color take more importance than the information on your poster.

Choose one main color for the title and headlines and a similar color for the data visualizations. If you want to use more than one color, don’t create too much contrast between them. Try different tonalities of the same color and keep things balanced visually. Your color palette should have at most one main color and two accent colors.

Black text over a white background is standard practice for printed poster presentations, but for virtual presentations, try a very light gray instead of white and a very dark gray instead of black. Additionally, use variations of light color backgrounds and dark color text. Make sure it’s easy to read from two meters away or on a screen, depending on the context. We recommend ditching full white or full black tone usage as it hurts eyesight in the long term due to its intense contrast difference with the light ambiance.

3. Data Visualization Dimensions

Just like the text, your charts, graphs, and data visualizations must be easy to read and understand. Generally, if a person is interested in your research and has already read some of the text from two meters away, they’ll come closer to look at the charts and graphs. 

Fit data visualizations inside columns or let them span over two columns. Remove any unnecessary borders, lines, or labels to make them easier to read at a glance. Use a flat design without shadows or 3D characteristics. The text in legends and captions should stay within the chart size and not overflow into the margins. Use a unified text size of 18px for all your data visualizations.

4. Alignment, Margins, and White Space

Finally, the last design tip for creating an impressive and memorable poster presentation is to be mindful of the layout’s alignment, margins, and white space. Create text boxes to help keep everything aligned. They allow you to resize, adapt, and align the content along a margin or grid.

Take advantage of the white space created by borders and margins between sections. Don’t crowd them with a busy background or unattractive color.

Calculate margins considering a print format. It is a good practice in case the poster presentation ends up becoming in physical format, as you won’t need to downscale your entire design (affecting text readability in the process) to preserve information.

There are different tools that you can use to make a poster presentation. Presenters who are familiar with Microsoft Office prefer to use PowerPoint. You can learn how to make a poster in PowerPoint here.

Poster Presentation Examples

Before you start creating a poster presentation, look at some examples of real research posters. Get inspired and get creative.

Research poster presentations printed and mounted on a board look like the one in the image below. The presenter stands to the side, ready to share the information with visitors as they walk up to the panels.

With more and more conferences staying virtual or hybrid, the digital poster presentation is here to stay. Take a look at examples from a poster session at the OHSU School of Medicine .

Use SlideModel templates to help you create a winning poster presentation with PowerPoint and Google Slides. These poster PPT templates will get you off on the right foot. Mix and match tables and data visualizations from other poster slide templates to create your ideal layout according to the standard guidelines.

If you need a quick method to create a presentation deck to talk about your research poster at conferences, check out our Slides AI presentation maker. A tool in which you add the topic, curate the outline, select a design, and let AI do the work for you.

1. One-pager Scientific Poster Template for PowerPoint

A PowerPoint template tailored to make your poster presentations an easy-to-craft process. Meet our One-Pager Scientific Poster Slide Template, entirely editable to your preferences and with ample room to accommodate graphs, data charts, and much more.

Use This Template

2. Eisenhower Matrix Slides Template for PowerPoint

An Eisenhower Matrix is a powerful tool to represent priorities, classifying work according to urgency and importance. Presenters can use this 2×2 matrix in poster presentations to expose the effort required for the research process, as it also helps to communicate strategy planning.

3. OSMG Framework PowerPoint Template

Finally, we recommend presenters check our OSMG Framework PowerPoint template, as it is an ideal tool for representing a business plan: its goals, strategies, and measures for success. Expose complex processes in a simplified manner by adding this template to your poster presentation.

Remember these three words when making your research poster presentation: develop, design, and present. These are the three main actions toward a successful poster presentation. 

The section below will take you on a step-by-step journey to create your next poster presentation.

Step 1: Define the purpose and audience of your poster presentation

Before making a poster presentation design, you’ll need to plan first. Here are some questions to answer at this point:

• Are they in your field? 
• Do they know about your research topic? 
• What can they get from your research?
• Will you print it?
• Is it for a virtual conference?

Step 2: Make an outline

With a clear purpose and strategy, it’s time to collect the most important information from your research paper, analysis, or documentation. Make a content dump and then select the most interesting information. Use the content to draft an outline.

Outlines help formulate the overall structure better than going straight into designing the poster. Mimic the standard poster structure in your outline using section headlines as separators. Go further and separate the content into the columns they’ll be placed in.

Step 3: Write the content

Write or rewrite the content for the sections in your poster presentation. Use the text in your research paper as a base, but summarize it to be more succinct in what you share. 

Don’t forget to write a catchy title that presents the problem and your findings in a clear way. Likewise, craft the headlines for the sections in a similar tone as the title, creating consistency in the message. Include subtle transitions between sections to help follow the flow of information in order.

Avoid copying/pasting entire sections of the research paper on which the poster is based. Opt for the storytelling approach, so the delivered message results are interesting for your audience. 

Step 4: Put it all together visually

This entire guide on how to design a research poster presentation is the perfect resource to help you with this step. Follow all the tips and guidelines and have an unforgettable poster presentation.

Moving on, here’s how to design a research poster presentation with PowerPoint Templates . Open a new project and size it to the standard 48 x 36 inches. Using the outline, map out the sections on the empty canvas. Add a text box for each title, headline, and body text. Piece by piece, add the content into their corresponding text box.

Transform the text information visually, make bullet points, and place the content in tables and timelines. Make your text visual to avoid chunky text blocks that no one will have time to read. Make sure all text sizes are coherent for all headings, body texts, image captions, etc. Double-check for spacing and text box formatting.

Next, add or create data visualizations, images, or diagrams. Align everything into columns and sections, making sure there’s no overflow. Add captions and legends to the visualizations, and check the color contrast with colleagues and friends. Ask for feedback and progress to the last step.

Step 5: Last touches

Time to check the final touches on your poster presentation design. Here’s a checklist to help finalize your research poster before sending it to printers or the virtual summit rep.

• Check the resolution of all visual elements in your poster design. Zoom to 100 or 200% to see if the images pixelate. Avoid this problem by using vector design elements and high-resolution images.
• Ensure that charts and graphs are easy to read and don’t look crowded.
• Analyze the visual hierarchy. Is there a visual flow through the title, introduction, data, and conclusion?
• Take a step back and check if it’s legible from a distance. Is there enough white space for the content to breathe?
• Does the design look inviting and interesting?

An often neglected topic arises when we need to print our designs for any exhibition purpose. Since A0 is a hard-to-manage format for most printers, these poster presentations result in heftier charges for the user. Instead, you can opt to work your design in two A1 sheets, which also becomes more manageable for transportation. Create seamless borders for the section on which the poster sheets should meet, or work with a white background.

Paper weight options should be over 200 gsm to avoid unwanted damage during the printing process due to heavy ink usage. If possible, laminate your print or stick it to photographic paper – this shall protect your work from spills.

Finally, always run a test print. Gray tints may not be printed as clearly as you see them on screen (this is due to the RGB to CMYK conversion process). Other differences can be appreciated when working with ink jet plotters vs. laser printers. Give yourself enough room to maneuver last-minute design changes.

Presenting a research poster is a big step in the poster presentation cycle. Your poster presentation might or might not be judged by faculty or peers. But knowing what judges look for will help you prepare for the design and oral presentation, regardless of whether you receive a grade for your work or if it’s business related. Likewise, the same principles apply when presenting at an in-person or virtual summit.

The opening statement

Part of presenting a research poster is welcoming the viewer to your small personal area in the sea of poster presentations. You’ll need an opening statement to pitch your research poster and get the viewers’ attention.

Draft a 2 to 3-sentence pitch that covers the most important points:

• What the research is
• Why was it conducted
• What the results say

From that opening statement, you’re ready to continue with the oral presentation for the benefit of your attendees.

The oral presentation

During the oral presentation, share the information on the poster while conversing with the interested public. Practice many times before the event. Structure the oral presentation as conversation points, and use the poster’s visual flow as support. Make eye contact with your audience as you speak, but don’t make them uncomfortable.

Pro Tip: In a conference or summit, if people show up to your poster area after you’ve started presenting it to another group, finish and then address the new visitors.

QA Sessions 

When you’ve finished the oral presentation, offer the audience a chance to ask questions. You can tell them before starting the presentation that you’ll be holding a QA session at the end. Doing so will prevent interruptions as you’re speaking.

If presenting to one or two people, be flexible and answer questions as you review all the sections on your poster.

Supplemental Material

If your audience is interested in learning more, you can offer another content type, further imprinting the information in their minds. Some ideas include; printed copies of your research paper, links to a website, a digital experience of your poster, a thesis PDF, or data spreadsheets.

Your audience will want to contact you for further conversations; include contact details in your supplemental material. If you don’t offer anything else, at least have business cards.

Even though conferences have changed, the research poster’s importance hasn’t diminished. Now, instead of simply creating a printed poster presentation, you can also make it for digital platforms. The final output will depend on the conference and its requirements.

This guide covered all the essential information you need to know for creating impactful poster presentations, from design, structure and layout tips to oral presentation techniques to engage your audience better . 

Before your next poster session, bookmark and review this guide to help you design a winning poster presentation every time. 

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Got a usb-c iphone here's what to do with your old lightning gear, don't have the time to play an mmorpg try these roguelikes instead, quick links, define the poster dimensions, design your poster.

Microsoft PowerPoint isn't just for presentations---it also provides all of the creative tools you need to design a beautiful poster. Just set the dimensions, design the poster, and print it out. Here's how to make a poster using PowerPoint.

Posters come in all sizes, but the first thing you need to know is PowerPoint's slide limit is 56-inches x 56-inches, so you'll need to plan accordingly. It's also important to note that you want to set your poster dimensions before you start designing your poster. Otherwise, you might end up having to rework parts of your design due to the size change.

Related: How to Reduce the File Size of a PowerPoint Presentation

Here are some of the standard poster sizes to get you started:

• Small poster: 11" x 17"
• Medium poster: 18" x 24"
• Large posters: 24" x 36" or 27" x 39"

Once you've decided on your poster size, set the dimensions in PowerPoint. To do this, open PowerPoint and navigate to the "Design" tab.

In the "Customize" group, select "Slide Size."

Select "Custom Slide Size" from the dropdown menu.

The "Slide Size" window will appear. Input the width and height specifications to match your required size. Keep in mind that if your height is larger in size than your width, the orientation of the slide will automatically change to "Portrait."

When you're finished, select "OK."

Once selected, a new window will appear giving you two scaling options: Maximize or Ensure Fit. If your slide already has content on it, you'll want to select "Ensure Fit."

Your slide will now be resized.

Your poster design is going to depend completely on you. You'll want to pay attention to the background of the poster, text and image arrangement, font size and style, etc. Essentially, you should treat this part exactly as if you were just creating another slide for a presentation.

Because the design and process of this step is going to differ for everyone, we'd like to offer some of our previous guides to get you started in the design process:

• Insert a picture or other object.
• Use an image as a background.
• Insert an image inside text.
• Get a picture behind text.
• Make a border or frame.

Once your design is ready, all that's left to do is print it out and hang it up!

Related: How to Troubleshoot Printing Issues in Microsoft Word

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Learn > How to create an effective poster presentation (plus 3 free templates)

How to create an effective poster presentation (plus 3 free templates)

Posters are often used within the academic community to share knowledge on a particular area of research.

The very best academic poster presentations summarize information concisely and attractively. They successfully publicize research findings and generate discussion using a mixture of text, tables, graphs and images.

Dishearteningly, perhaps, the visual appeal of an academic poster might actually be more influential than its content. In one particular study, 94% of delegates agreed that poster imagery (rather than content) is most likely to draw a viewer’s attention .

This raises the question of how many enlightening research results fail to make an impact on the scientific community simply because they weren’t presented in a visually appealing way.

Don’t let your valuable research fall by the wayside because of bad academic poster design! Follow these tips to ensure an engaging poster and those all-important opportunities to share your knowledge.

Get creative with your title design

There’s no getting away from it. Manuscript titles are often pretty dull. They usually describe the basic findings of a research paper and aren’t designed with audience engagement in mind.

With your poster title design , however, you can afford to be a little more creative. The right title design will help to catch a viewer’s attention and draw them in, giving you the chance to explain your research in more detail.

To make your title design stand out from the crowd, use a bold font over a brightly colored background. You could also make use of geometric shapes and other graphic elements to attract the eye.

Creating this kind of contrast in your poster title will attract attention. But it will also improve the legibility of your title, even for readers on the other side of a room.

Choose your fonts wisely

Squeezing your research summary onto a single poster page can be a challenge. Choosing the right font will help you to make the most of the space you have available.

A condensed font allows you to fit more text onto your poster. Sans serif condensed fonts are considered the easiest to read, even at small font sizes.

This leads us to the next important factor to consider when choosing a font style — legibility.

Some fonts are decorative and distinctive. Whilst these fonts are sure to catch the eye, they aren’t usually all that legible. Elaborate fonts often make text difficult to read and off-putting for a reader.

A less note-worthy font is your safest bet. Readers can focus fully on your content rather than the complexities of your font choice.

Use clear visual grammar

What do we mean by visual grammar? Visual grammar is a kind of graphic hierarchy — the visual clues we use to guide a reader through a poster (or any other kind of presentation).

When visual grammar is clear, a reader will understand the order in which to read the poster. And they’ll instantly know which information is the most important.

To achieve clear visual grammar, include the following elements in your poster design:

Consistent titles and subtitles

Use the same formatting for all titles and subtitles. They should be consistent in font, size, color and weight.

Use columns to organize the content of your poster. You can usually fit two columns onto a portrait poster and three to four columns on a landscape layout.

Columns make it easier for a reader to navigate the poster and read your content in the right order.

White space

White space refers to the parts of your poster that don’t include any text or images.

This white (or empty) space can be used to separate different sections of content, again making it easier for readers to follow your thread.  

A good visual balance of text, charts, images and white space will prevent a reader from feeling overwhelmed by the information you include on your poster.

Remember that simple, clean graphics communicate data relationships quickly

If you want your poster to really pack a punch, you need statistics, numbers and quantitative evidence to illustrate your points. That’s where beautifully designed charts, graphs and infographics can be used to great effect.

So how can you ensure your data makes the greatest impact possible?

Don’t try to fit too much data onto the page. Include every scrap of data you’ve gathered and you’ll end up overwhelming your readers. Remember that you’ll be there to elaborate once your poster has attracted audience attention.  

Highlight the key insights. You can do this by customizing your charts and graphs. Use color, a simple layout and employ good data storytelling . All of this will make your data more legible and focus audience attention on what matters most.  

Use color as emphasis — but don’t overdo it

Color always attracts attention and no poster is complete without it.

However, it’s important to achieve a balance between visual impact and legibility. We never want design (in this case, a liberal use of color) to eclipse and confuse your message. When deciding on how to use color in your poster design, consider the following points…

Aim to create contrast

We recommend choosing a light color background and a dark color font for your poster. This creates a good level of contrast.

Light text on a dark background also creates contrast, but this combination tends to be more difficult to read.

Stick to a color scheme

If you’d like to use a few different colors in your poster, stick to a color scheme that includes two or three shades. Then use them in a consistent pattern.

For example, dark green for headings, light green for subheadings and yellow for section borders.

This contributes to the visual grammar of your poster, helping readers make sense of the information you’re presenting.

Think about accessibility

One word of warning. If you’re using colors as part of your visual grammar, take a moment to consider readers who might be color blind.

The most common form of color blindness involves the confusion of greens, reds and yellows so try to avoid using all of these colors in your poster color scheme.

Keep content simple

A poster should never be simply an enlarged copy of your manuscript!

The most successful posters are graphically rich presentations of research. They highlight and summarize main research points, with the poster presenter filling in the details.

So — as hard as it may be to distill your research down to just a few paragraphs — try to keep text to a minimum. You should also use graphic tricks to highlight keywords within a sentence or paragraph.

Bold fonts , different colors and background highlights can all help to make certain key phrases stand out from the rest of your text. This will catch the viewer’s attention and make it easier for them to scan your copy.

Use a template and simplify the process of poster creation

Good design can’t fix bad content. But bad design can really ruin your academic poster, no matter how brilliant your research.

Luckily, you don’t need to moonlight as a graphic designer in order to create a poster that attracts and interests your audience.

Here at SlidesCarnival, we’ve created three exclusive academic poster templates. They’re free to use and completely customizable. Just drop in your content and your data. Then tweak the design as much or as little as you like.  

From perfect color schemes to beautiful charts and graphs, present your research in a comprehensive and visually appealing way with one of the templates below.

Download these 3 free research poster templates

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• A Complete Guide on Mastering Poster Presentations

Introduction to Poster Presentations

Understanding Poster Presentation Essentials

Aayush Jain

The history and evolution of poster presentations.

Poster presentations have become a cornerstone in academic, scientific, and professional communities, offering a unique platform for the succinct and visual dissemination of research, ideas, and projects. Originating from the need to share scholarly work in an accessible and engaging format, the evolution of the art of poster presentations reflects broader changes in communication, technology, and educational practices. By blending textual information with visual aids, posters serve not only as a method of presenting complex ideas but also as an art form in itself, balancing aesthetic appeal with informational clarity.

Tracing the Origins

The history of poster presentations can be traced back to the 19th century, when the advent of mass printing technologies made it possible to produce posters in large quantities. Initially used for advertising and public announcements, the potential of posters to attract attention and convey messages quickly became apparent. The academic adoption of posters for presentations began in earnest in the mid-20th century, as conferences and symposiums sought more interactive and dynamic formats for sharing research findings. This period marked a significant shift from traditional oral presentations to a more inclusive and visually engaging method of scholarly communication.

Real-world Evolution and Impact

Throughout the decades, poster presentations have undergone significant transformations, influenced by advances in digital technology and changing academic landscapes. The introduction of digital design tools and software has expanded the possibilities for creativity and precision in poster design, allowing researchers to incorporate multimedia elements and interactive content. Moreover, the global push towards interdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement has elevated the role of poster presentations in facilitating conversations across diverse fields and audiences. Notable examples include the use of poster sessions at international conferences to foster global dialogue on pressing issues such as climate change, public health, and technological innovation.

Supporting Evidence

The significance and evolution of poster presentations are well-documented in academic literature and historical analyses. For instance, studies published in Educational Researcher highlight the increasing adoption of poster sessions in academic conferences as a means to enhance participant engagement and knowledge exchange. Similarly, a review in The Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine emphasizes the role of visual aesthetics and advertising in improving the effectiveness of scientific posters. These sources underscore the dual function of posters as both educational tools and objects of visual interest, validating their continued relevance in the academic, classroom, and professional discourse.

Defining the Purpose of Poster Presentations

Exploring the Core Objectives

At its heart, the purpose of a poster presentation extends beyond merely displaying information on a large sheet. It is a strategic communication tool designed to capture the essence of research or a project in a manner that is both accessible and engaging to a diverse audience. Poster presentations serve a multifaceted role: they facilitate the concise summary of complex ideas, foster interactive dialogue between the presenter and the audience, and promote networking opportunities within the academic and professional communities. This unique format allows for the visual representation of data, theories, and conclusions, making abstract concepts more tangible and understandable.

Historical and Educational Context

The educational foundation of poster presentations is deeply rooted in the principles of active learning and visual literacy. By compelling presenters to distill their work into the most essential elements, poster presentations encourage clarity of thought and the ability to prioritize information effectively. Historically, this format has enabled a more democratized form of knowledge sharing, where students, researchers, and professionals, regardless of their stage in their career, can contribute their findings and insights to a wider discourse. The educational benefits of engaging with poster presentations are well-documented, highlighting improvements in critical thinking, design skills, and public speaking.

Real-world Applications and Benefits

In practice, poster presentations have proven invaluable across a multitude of disciplines—from science and engineering to humanities and arts. They offer a platform for early-career researchers to showcase their work, for interdisciplinary teams to present collaborative projects, and for seasoned academics to share their findings with peers and the public alike. Notable real-world applications include poster sessions at major international conferences, where cutting-edge research is introduced, sparking discussions that can lead to new collaborations, funding opportunities, and advancements in the field.

Academic and Professional Endorsements

The effectiveness and importance of poster presentations are reinforced by numerous studies and professional guidelines. For instance, The Chronicle of Higher Education emphasizes the role of poster presentations in enhancing scholarly communication and professional development. Additionally, guidelines published by leading academic institutions offer comprehensive advice on designing impactful posters, underscoring the importance of visual elements, concise content, and a clear message. These resources not only validate the significance of poster presentations within the academic community but also provide practical insights into maximizing their potential.

Different Formats and Styles of Poster Presentations

A Diverse Landscape of Presentation Formats

The realm of poster presentations is characterized by a rich diversity of formats and styles, each tailored to suit the specific needs of the subject matter and the audience . From traditional print posters to interactive digital displays, the evolution of technology and design principles has expanded the possibilities for presenting research and projects. This adaptability not only enhances the visual appeal of posters but also broadens their accessibility and potential for engagement. Understanding the variety of available formats is crucial for presenters aiming to convey their message effectively and captivate their audience.

Historical Evolution and Trends

Traditionally, university poster presentations were predominantly print-based, utilizing paper or fabric as the medium. These printed posters relied heavily on graphic design principles to organize text and images in a visually pleasing manner. However, the advent of digital technology has introduced new formats, such as electronic posters (e-posters) and interactive displays, which allow for dynamic content, including animations, video clips, and hyperlinks. This shift reflects broader trends in digital communication and multimedia, offering presenters innovative ways to illustrate their findings and engage with viewers.

Illustrating Through Examples

The impact of diverse formats and styles can be seen in various fields. For instance, in scientific conferences, e-posters have become increasingly popular, facilitating more in-depth discussions through embedded data visualizations and interactive elements. In the arts and humanities, posters often incorporate a blend of textual analysis and visual artistry, showcasing creative approaches to design and page layout. Examples of standout poster presentations can be found in academic journals and online platforms, where award-winning designs are shared as inspiration for future presenters.

Guidance from Experts

The choice of format and style should be guided by the content of the presentation and the context in which it will be displayed. Experts in visual communication and academic presentation, such as Edward Tufte and Nancy Duarte, offer valuable insights into effective design principles. Additionally, scholarly articles in journals like The Design Journal and websites dedicated to academic poster design provide practical advice, emphasizing the importance of clarity, coherence, and visual impact. These resources underscore the critical role of format and style in enhancing the effectiveness of poster presentations.

Essential Components of a Poster

Crafting a Compelling Visual Narrative

The effectiveness of a poster presentation hinges on its ability to communicate a complex narrative through a blend of visual and textual elements. Identifying and integrating the essential components of a poster are critical steps in crafting a presentation that not only captures attention but also conveys the intended message clearly and succinctly. These components typically include the title, abstract, introduction, methodology, results, conclusions, references, and acknowledgments. Each element plays a pivotal role in the poster's overall narrative, guiding the viewer through the research journey in a logical and engaging manner.

Building on a Solid Foundation

The foundation of a successful poster presentation lies in its structure and content organization. The title should be concise yet descriptive, offering a clear indication of the poster's focus. The abstract provides a brief overview of the study, inviting further exploration. Introduction sections set the stage, outlining the research question and its significance, while the methodology and results sections detail the research process and findings. Conclusions highlight the implications of the study, and the references and acknowledgments sections give credit to the sources and contributors. This structured approach ensures that viewers can easily navigate the poster and grasp the key takeaways.

Real-world Examples and Design Strategies

Examining real-world examples of effective poster presentations reveals common design strategies that enhance readability and viewer engagement. These strategies include the use of bullet points for concise information delivery, graphical abstracts to summarize findings visually, and the strategic placement of visuals to complement the text. For instance, a poster in the field of environmental science might use infographics to illustrate the impact of pollution on ecosystems, while a medical research poster might include charts and graphs to display clinical trial results.

Expert Insights and Resources

The importance of these essential components and design strategies is echoed in literature and resources aimed at guiding poster designers and creators. Edward Tufte's principles of information design emphasize the balance between visual and textual elements, advocating for clarity, precision, and efficiency. Similarly, resources like The Craft of Scientific Posters provide practical advice on selecting and organizing poster components to maximize impact. Peer-reviewed articles in academic journals also offer case studies and analyses of successful posters, serving as valuable references for those looking to create their own.

The Lifecycle of a Poster Presentation

From Concept to Display: Navigating the Journey

The lifecycle of a poster presentation encompasses a series of stages, from the initial concept to the final display and beyond. This journey begins with the identification of a research question or project theme, followed by the meticulous planning and design of the poster. Key milestones include the development of the poster's layout, the selection of visual elements, and the refinement of textual content. The culmination of this process is the presentation itself, where the poster is displayed to an audience, serving as a visual anchor for discussion and engagement. Understanding each phase of this lifecycle is crucial for presenters aiming to maximize the impact of their work.

Foundational Steps and Planning

The early stages of a poster's lifecycle are marked by brainstorming sessions, where ideas are generated and objectives are set. This phase involves extensive research and gathering of information, laying the groundwork for the poster's content. Decisions regarding the poster's format, style, and essential components are made, informed by the presenter's goals and the expectations of the target audience. Effective planning at this stage ensures a coherent structure and a focused message, setting the stage for a successful presentation .

Design, Development, and Delivery

The design and development phase is where the poster takes shape. Presenters employ various software and tools to create visual representations of their data and ideas, paying close attention to layout, typography, and color schemes. This phase is iterative, often involving multiple revisions to fine-tune the poster's aesthetic and informational elements. Once the design is finalized, the poster is produced—either printed or prepared as a digital display—and readied for presentation. The delivery stage is a critical opportunity for presenters to engage with their audience, field questions, and gain feedback, adding a dynamic dimension to the poster's lifecycle.

Post-Presentation Impact and Archival

After the presentation, the poster's lifecycle continues through the dissemination of its content in digital repositories, academic websites, or social media platforms, reaching a wider audience and extending its life beyond the initial event. This phase may also involve reflecting on feedback, making adjustments, and repurposing the content for future presentations or publications. Proper archival and sharing practices ensure that the knowledge and insights conveyed through the poster remain accessible and continue to contribute to scholarly dialogue and public discourse.

Incorporating Expert Guidance and Best Practices

Throughout the lifecycle of a poster presentation, adherence to best practices and expert guidance is paramount. Resources such as The Effective Scientist's Guide to Poster Design and academic blogs on presentation skills offer a wealth of tips and strategies for each stage of the process. These resources stress the importance of clarity, engagement, and adaptability, advising presenters to anticipate audience questions and be prepared to discuss their work in-depth. By navigating the lifecycle with intention and expertise, presenters can significantly enhance the visibility and impact of their research.

Selecting the Right Software and Tools

Charting the Digital Landscape for Poster Creation

In the era of digital communication, selecting the right software and tools is a pivotal decision in the lifecycle of a poster presentation. This choice can significantly influence the design process , the effectiveness of the final product, and the ease with which information is conveyed. From graphic design software to specialized scientific visualization tools, the range of available options caters to the diverse needs and skill levels of presenters. Navigating this digital landscape requires an understanding of the functionalities and features that best complement the objectives of the poster, ensuring that the chosen tools enhance rather than hinder the creative process.

The Foundation of Effective Design

The foundation of an effective poster design lies in the seamless integration of text, images, and data visualizations. Software such as Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, and Canva offers a spectrum of design capabilities, from basic layout and typography to advanced graphic elements and illustrations. For presenters focused on data-rich subjects, tools like Tableau or R with ggplot2 provide sophisticated options for creating compelling data visualizations. The selection process should consider factors such as user-friendliness, compatibility with other platforms, and the specific requirements of the presentation format, whether it be print or digital.

Real-World Applications and Choices

In real-world scenarios, the choice of software often reflects the discipline and objectives of the poster presentation. For instance, researchers in the sciences may gravitate towards tools that offer precision in data representation, such as MATLAB or Python for generating plots. In contrast, professionals in the arts and humanities might prioritize software with strong typographic and layout capabilities, such as Adobe InDesign. Notable examples of well-designed posters, often shared in online forums and design communities, illustrate the impact of software choice on the effectiveness of visual communication.

Guidance from Experts and the Community

For those navigating the selection of software and tools, guidance from experienced designers and presenters can be invaluable. Online tutorials, user forums, and academic workshops provide platforms for sharing insights and tips on maximizing the potential of different software. Additionally, reviews and comparisons in design publications and blogs offer an overview of the latest features and capabilities, helping presenters make informed decisions. Leveraging these resources can demystify the digital tools landscape, empowering creators to produce posters that are not only visually appealing but also rich in content and easy to understand.

Timeline Planning for Your Presentation

Setting the Stage for Success

Effective timeline planning is essential for ensuring the success of a poster presentation. This process involves allocating sufficient time for each phase of the poster's lifecycle, from initial research and design to printing and practice for the presentation itself. Establishing a detailed timeline helps in managing tasks efficiently, avoiding last-minute rushes, and ensuring a polished final product. By breaking down the project into manageable milestones, presenters can maintain a steady pace of progress, allowing for creativity to flourish within a structured framework.

Understanding the Key Milestones

The key milestones in the timeline of a poster presentation typically include the conceptualization of the idea, in-depth research, initial design drafts, feedback collection, final revisions, and printing or digital preparation. Additionally, presenters and event organizers should factor in time for rehearsing their explanation of the poster, as this verbal component is crucial for engaging with the audience during the presentation. Each of these stages requires careful consideration and allocation of time, taking into account the complexity of the topic, the availability of resources, and potential challenges that may arise.

Learning from Examples and Best Practices

Examining successful poster presentations provides valuable insights into effective timeline planning. For example, a presenter who begins the design process several weeks in advance can incorporate feedback from peers and mentors, ensuring a more refined and impactful poster. Academic journals and conference websites often feature timelines and planning guides, illustrating best practices for managing time efficiently. These resources highlight the importance of flexibility within the timeline, allowing for adjustments based on feedback and iterative improvements.

Expert Advice and Strategic Approaches

Experts in academic and professional presentation emphasize the importance of starting early and setting realistic deadlines. Resources like The Chronicle of Higher Education and Nature's guide to scientific posters recommend backward planning—starting from the presentation date and working backward to determine when each task should be completed. This approach ensures that all aspects of the poster, from content accuracy to design aesthetics, are given due attention. Additionally, leveraging project management tools and software can aid in tracking progress and maintaining focus on the ultimate goal: delivering a compelling and informative poster presentation.

Understanding Poster Size and Orientation

Navigating Dimensions and Design Impacts

The size and orientation of a poster presentation are critical factors that significantly influence its design, readability, and overall impact. Choosing the right dimensions requires a balance between the amount of information to be presented, the visual appeal of the poster, and the practical considerations of the venue where it will be displayed. Orientation—whether portrait or landscape—also plays a key role in how content is organized and perceived. Understanding these aspects is essential for creating a poster that effectively communicates the intended message while being visually engaging and easy to navigate.

Historical Context and Evolving Standards

Historically, the standard sizes for academic posters have evolved, influenced by printing capabilities, conference requirements, and disciplinary conventions. Common sizes range from A0 (33.1 x 46.8 inches) to A3 (11.7 x 16.5 inches), with variations based on specific event guidelines. The choice between portrait and landscape orientation has traditionally been guided by the nature of the content and the aesthetic preferences of the designer. As digital displays become more prevalent, new standards are emerging, accommodating a wider range of sizes and formats, and offering greater flexibility in poster design.

Real-World Considerations and Decisions

In practical terms, by contrast, the decision on poster size and orientation often depends on the venue's space constraints, the expected audience flow, and the method of presentation (e.g., hanging, digital screens, or stands). For instance, a larger poster in landscape orientation or standing might be more suitable for detailed data visualizations that require a wider format, while a portrait orientation could be preferred for posters that aim to communicate findings in a more linear, straightforward manner. Successful examples from various fields demonstrate how these decisions are integral to enhancing the poster's readability and audience engagement.

Expert Guidelines and Resources

Design experts and academic guidelines offer valuable advice on selecting the appropriate size and orientation for poster presentations. Recommendations typically emphasize the importance of clarity, audience engagement, and the effective use of space. Resources such as the American Psychological Association and The Royal Society of Chemistry provide specific guidelines on poster dimensions, aligning with the standard practices of academic conferences. Additionally, design software often includes templates and tools specifically tailored for poster creation, helping presenters visualize and plan their layouts in accordance with these dimensions.

Print vs. Digital Posters: A Comparative Analysis

Exploring the Mediums' Unique Advantages

The choice between print and digital posters presents a crucial decision for presenters, each medium offering distinct advantages and considerations. Print posters, traditional staples of academic conferences and public spaces, excel in delivering a tactile, permanent visual experience. Their physical presence allows for easy viewing in various settings, from gallery walks to outdoor displays. Digital posters, on the other hand, leverage technology to offer dynamic, interactive elements such as animations, videos, and hyperlinks, enhancing the engagement and accessibility of the content. This comparative analysis explores how both mediums cater to different presentation goals and audience expectations.

The Evolution of Poster Presentations

The evolution from print to digital posters mirrors broader technological advancements and shifts in communication preferences. Initially, the poster's role in disseminating information was predominantly served by print formats, favored for their simplicity and wide reach. However, the digital era introduced new possibilities for interaction and information sharing, challenging the traditional poster model. Today, digital posters can be easily updated, shared online, and integrated into virtual conferences, extending their reach beyond physical boundaries. This transition highlights the adaptability of poster presentations to changing technological and societal trends.

Practical Implications and Considerations

Choosing between print and digital formats involves practical implications regarding production, distribution, and presentation. Print posters require consideration of printing costs, materials, and logistics, particularly for large-scale or high-quality prints. Digital posters, while eliminating printing costs, may necessitate access to screens or devices for viewing and interactive features that require specific software or platforms. The decision often depends on the context of the presentation, the target audience, and the desired level of interaction and engagement. Real-world examples illustrate how presenters navigate these decisions, opting for the medium that best aligns with their objectives and the capabilities of their venue.

Expert Perspectives and Future Directions

Experts in visual communication and educational technology offer insights into the strengths and limitations of both print and digital posters. Studies and articles in academic journals, such as The Journal of Digital Learning, suggest that digital posters may enhance learning outcomes and audience engagement through interactive elements. Conversely, advocates for print posters highlight the value of a tangible, distraction-free medium that encourages in-depth, focused interaction. The future of poster presentations likely involves a hybrid approach, leveraging the advantages of both mediums to meet diverse needs and preferences.

Checklist for Poster Presentation Preparation

Crafting a Comprehensive Preparation Strategy

A well-organized checklist is indispensable for preparing an effective poster presentation , serving as a roadmap that guides presenters through each critical step of the process. From initial research and design to the final touches before presentation, a thorough checklist ensures no important detail is overlooked. This tool not only aids in structuring the preparation timeline but also helps in maintaining quality and coherence throughout the poster. Incorporating key tasks such as defining the poster's objectives, selecting appropriate software and tools, and practicing the presentation can significantly enhance the poster's impact.

Essential Checklist Components

The cornerstone of a poster presentation preparation checklist includes tasks such as:

Identifying the main message and target audience.

Researching and gathering relevant data and literature.

Selecting the right software and tools for design.

Drafting the layout and organizing content effectively.

Incorporating visual elements (graphs, images, charts) to complement the text.

Revising and refining the content for clarity and impact.

Ensuring adherence to the specific size and orientation requirements.

Printing or finalizing the digital version of the poster.

Preparing to create a concise and engaging oral synopsis for interaction with the audience.

Scheduling rehearsals to refine delivery and anticipate answers to questions.

Leveraging Real-World Examples

Examining real-world examples of successful poster presentations can provide valuable insights into effective preparation strategies. For instance, award-winning posters often demonstrate meticulous attention to detail, innovative use of visual aids, and clear communication of complex ideas. Academic institutions and professional conferences frequently share such examples, offering a practical glimpse into the preparation process that led to their success. These cases underline the importance of thorough planning and the impact of a well-prepared presentation.

Guidance from Experienced Presenters and Educators

Experienced presenters and educators emphasize the significance of early and thorough preparation. Resources like The Effective Poster Presentation Guide and The Academic's Handbook to Presentations offer comprehensive checklists and tips, covering every aspect of poster design and presentation. These resources advocate for a proactive approach, suggesting that presenters seek feedback during the preparation process and adapt their posters based on constructive criticism. Following a detailed checklist not only facilitates a smoother preparation experience but also increases confidence, ensuring presenters are well-equipped to engage their audience effectively.

Thanks for reading and be sure to share this guide if you enjoyed it!

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FAQs on Poster Presentations

What is a poster presentation format.

A poster presentation format involves a visual and textual summary of research or a project displayed on a large poster. This format is designed to facilitate interactive discussions between the presenter and the audience, often in an academic or professional conference setting. Key components include the title, abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions, strategically arranged for readability and impact.

What are the rules of poster presentation?

The fundamental rules include clarity in design and content, succinctness in text, effective use of visuals (such as graphs, charts, and images), adherence to specified size and orientation guidelines, humor and preparedness for an engaging discussion with the audience. Additionally, respecting copyright laws and citing sources accurately is essential.

How to prepare a poster?

Preparing a poster involves identifying the main message, gathering and organizing content, designing the layout using appropriate software, incorporating visual elements to support the text, and revising content for clarity. Following a detailed checklist can ensure a comprehensive preparation process.

How do I make my poster presentation stand out?

To make a poster stand out, focus on creating an eye-catching design, concise and impactful content, high-quality visuals, and a clear, logical flow of information. Interactive elements, such as QR codes for digital posters, can also enhance engagement. Practicing your pitch to communicate and sell your message effectively during the poster session will further distinguish your presentation.

What is the definition of a poster?

A poster is a visual tool used to communicate information concisely and attractively, combining text and graphical elements. It serves various purposes, including advertising, education, and information dissemination in both public spaces and specialized settings for events like academic conferences.

What is the purpose of a poster?

The purpose of a poster is to present information in a way that is accessible and engaging to a wide audience. In academic and professional contexts, for example, posters aim to summarize research findings or project details, facilitating discussion and knowledge exchange.

What makes a good poster?

A good poster effectively communicates its message through a clear, coherent design, concise content, impactful visuals, and a viewer-friendly layout. It engages and interests the audience, encourages interaction, and conveys the essence of the research or project succinctly.

How do you write a poster?

Writing a poster involves drafting text that is clear, concise, and focused on the key messages. Use bullet points for easy reading, integrate visuals to explain complex ideas, and ensure the content is organized logically, with distinct sections for the introduction, motivation, methodology, results, and conclusions.

What do you mean by poster presentation?

A poster presentation refers to the process of summarizing research or a project on a poster and presenting it to an audience, typically at academic, scientific, or related professional events. It allows for direct interaction with viewers, offering opportunities for feedback and discussion.

How do I make a poster presentation?

Making and selling a poster presentation involves several steps: selecting the right content and visuals, designing the poster layout, printing or preparing the digital display, and finally rehearsing an engaging synopsis of your work for presentation to the audience.

Discover how we can create magic in your communication

Creating a Poster Presentation Template

Methodically Creating a Poster Template

Establishing a Flexible Template Structure Introduction: Foundations of Versatility Creating a flexible poster template structure is essential for adapting to various content needs and presentation contexts. This adaptability allows users to customize their presentations while maintaining a coherent and professional design aesthetic. Background: The Importance of Flexibility In the realm

The Future of Poster Presentations

Predicting Emerging Trends in Poster Design

The Impact of New Technologies on Poster Design Introduction: Revolutionizing Visual Communication The landscape of poster design is undergoing a radical transformation, driven by the advent of new technologies. These innovations not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of posters but also extend their functionality, making them more interactive and impactful.

Poster Presentations in Virtual Environments

Adapting Posters in Virtual Environments

Best Practices for Virtual Poster Presentations Introduction: Mastering the Art of Virtual Presentation Virtual, poster boards and presentations have become a staple in the academic and professional landscape, offering a unique platform to showcase research and ideas remotely. Mastering this format requires understanding best practices that cater to digital environments.

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How to Make a Presentation Poster

Last Updated: March 28, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by wikiHow Staff . Our trained team of editors and researchers validate articles for accuracy and comprehensiveness. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 34,878 times. Learn more...

Presentation posters are an excellent way to present information and are required for many courses, projects, and conferences. Organise the content strategically so that it as clear and easy to read as possible. Use PowerPoint to quickly and easily format your content into an eye-catching poster. Once you have formatted the poster and finalised all the content, you are ready to present your poster!

Organising the Content

• For example, “New Poetry Discovered in the Journals of WW2 Soldiers” would be an interesting title for a poetry poster.

• If you're making a scientific poster, include your hypothesis in the introduction.
• This section is generally only 1 paragraph long.

• For example, if you collected water samples for a geography project, explain where you got the water from, when you collected it, and the method that you used to take the sample.
• If your poster is summarising the work of artists or researchers, such as in poetry, geography, or history, explain why you chose the publications that you used and detail the modes of research you utilised.
• If you are making a scientific poster, include all the materials that you used, your method of statistics, and why you chose the method that you used. Use sub-headings, such as “Materials” or “Steps” to break up the section.

• For example, if you are making a poster for a children's poetry fair, lots of funny poems and poetry facts would likely draw the children to your poster.
• If you are making a scientific poster, use annotated graphs and tables to visually display the data that you have collected.
• If you’re making a history or geography poster, consider placing an essay, timeline, or map in this space.

• Contemplate ending with a memorable quote. For example, if you are making a history poster, you could find a profound Nelson Mandela quote to finish with.
• If you are making a scientific poster, compare your results to the hypothesis and comment on whether your predictions were correct.

• This section can have a smaller font than the rest of the poster if you have limited space.

• Use high-resolution photos to ensure that the images don’t look fuzzy when they are printed.
• Avoid using Clip Art, as this tends to look unprofessional.

Formatting the Poster

• If you have enough room, increase the font size to 20 pt or 24 pt. The larger the text is – the easier it will be to read.

• Stand 10 ft (3 m) away from your poster and check that the key titles can be read. If you have trouble reading them, increase the size of the text.

• Times New Roman, Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, and Garamond are good font options.

• Bold any important words or phrases to help them stand out.

• Use paragraphs to break up large sections of text.
• Gaps between sections are often referred to as white space.

• Once you have created a first draft of the poster, ask a friend if they can easily understand the flow of the poster. If they can't, rearrange the components until they fit in a natural, logical way.

Using PowerPoint

• If you haven’t been given a specified poster dimension, make the poster 48 inches (120 cm) wide and 36 inches (91 cm) tall.

• If the slide is already in the correct orientation, skip this step.

• These templates can be edited in the same way as a regular PowerPoint presentation.

• The text box icon is a small square box with an “a” and horizontal lines inside it.

• Opt for high-resolution photos to ensure that the photos look sharp and clear when you print the poster.
• You can also use graphs, charts, and other visuals in addition to photographs.

• If you want to adjust the positioning of an object very slightly, hold down the Control (Ctrl) key as you use the arrows. This reduces the size of the movements.

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1876493/
• ↑ https://urc.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk3561/files/local_resources/documents/pdf_documents/How_To_Make_an_Effective_Poster2.pdf
• ↑ https://guides.nyu.edu/posters
• ↑ https://support.office.com/en-us/article/change-the-size-of-your-slides-040a811c-be43-40b9-8d04-0de5ed79987e#OfficeVersion=Office_2010
• ↑ https://support.office.com/en-us/article/change-the-page-layout-49030c0f-9cd9-4f92-a894-605bc0671d10
• ↑ https://templates.office.com/en-US/Posters
• ↑ https://youtu.be/jaGb5tckCZQ?t=19
• ↑ https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/insert-a-picture-in-powerpoint-5f7368d2-ee94-4b94-a6f2-a663646a07e1
• ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-keyboard-shortcuts-to-create-powerpoint-presentations-ebb3d20e-dcd4-444f-a38e-bb5c5ed180f4?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us

About This Article

To make a presentation poster in Powerpoint, start by changing your page setup to widescreen in the "Design" tab. Then, write a clear title that tells readers what your poster is about across the top of the page. After your title, write an introduction to your topic, including any research methods you used on the left side. Use the middle column to detail your main points. Then, on the right side, add your conclusion and any references you cited. If you want your poster to catch your readers’ eye, place a few images and graphs that illustrate your main points throughout the poster. For more tips, including how to choose fonts for your poster, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Make a Poster: Beginner’s Design Guide (& Templates)

Written by: Mahnoor Sheikh

Posters are excellent marketing tools that can be used to advertise movies, events, fundraisers, sales, businesses and more.

If you’re looking for an easy way to make a poster online, you’re in the right place.

In this article, you’ll learn how to create a poster in 7 simple steps.

We’ve also handpicked 25 stunning poster templates for various purposes that you can edit and download right now.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

What are the dimensions of a poster, 7-step process for making an eye-catching poster, bonus: make your digital poster interactive, 25 poster templates to help you get started, poster faqs.

• A poster is a printed or digital design that promotes business-related activities like events, grand openings, special promotions, etc.
• Posters have a set of standard sizes, but it’s best to check with your printing service or home printer first before starting on the design.
• The poster-making process includes identifying its purpose, choosing a template, adding text and visuals, customizing colors and fonts, adding a call to action or online form, and sharing with your audience.
• Poster design for beginners is easy when you have Visme as your content creation tool. Not only can you design using professional poster template s, but you can also create a myriad of client-facing and branded content.
• If you're running short on time and need to create eye-catching posters quickly, try out our AI poster generator !

When designing a poster, there are no set rules for the poster size or dimensions.

However, some printing companies use the same, consistent poster sizes, so it’s always a good idea to ensure your poster fits those dimensions.

Here’s an infographic summarizing the standard poster sizes used by printing companies worldwide. Keep reading for a brief explanation about each poster size.

• A4 Paper: 8.5” x 11” (21 x 29.7 cm). These posters are ideal for printing at home or at your local printing shop for personal use or for sticking on your shop window.
• Small Poster: 11” x 17” (28 x 43 cm). These posters are normally used as flyers or for sticking on street lights and bulletin boards. You can also use these posters for decorating offices, as they don’t take up a lot of space.
• Medium Poster: 18” x 24” (46 x 61 cm). These posters are mostly used in places like clinics, offices, shop windows and university walls. They can hold more information than small posters, but you should still keep the text minimal.
• Large Poster: 24” x 36” (61 x 91 cm). These posters are used by organizations for advertising businesses, films, events, fundraisers and promotions. You can usually find these posters outside malls, events and clubs.

The poster size that’s best for you will depend on your poster’s purpose and how you plan to use it. Make sure you ask your printer about the sizes and formats before designing one.

If you’re creating a digital poster that you plan to share online on social media or your website, you can check out this blog post on the best image sizes for different social media platforms .

Now, let’s get to the fun part: creating a poster!

Follow this poster making tutorial in order or jump ahead to a section of your interest.

Step #1: Identify the Purpose of Your Poster

Step #2: choose a poster template, step #3: add in your text content, step #4: add photos and graphics, step #5: customize colors and fonts, step #6: include a call-to-action, step #7: share and download your poster.

The first step of making a poster is to identify its purpose.

Answer the following questions before moving on to poster design:

• What’s the goal of your poster?
• Who is the audience?
• Where do you plan to share your poster?

Addressing these questions will help you determine the right poster size, draft appropriate poster content and find the right poster template.

For example, if you’re designing a poster to advertise an event, you need to understand what you want your audience to do after they see it.

Do you want them to register online? Do you want them to go to a physical place to buy tickets? Do you want them to scan a QR code ?

Knowing this will help you pick a poster size that fits in all the important information without looking cluttered or difficult to read.

If your audience is female students, for example, you’d want to start with a poster template with colors and a design style that appeals to them.

This leads us to the next step.

Once you’ve identified the purpose and audience of your poster, it’s time to choose a template that best fits your needs.

The first thing you need to do is log in to your Visme account. If you don’t already have an account, you can create one for free here .

Inside your dashboard, click on Create New . In the drop down menu, select Project then Printables .

This will open up the templates library. Click on Posters to browse through the various options and designs that appear below. When you find a poster template you like, hover on it and click on Edit to open it in the Visme editor and start customizing it.

Poster Templates

We Are Hiring Poster

Restaurant Poster

Life is Like Riding a Bicycle Quote Poster

Elephants Poster

Job Fair Poster

Swimming Poster

Create your poster View more templates

Alternatively, you can also search for relevant templates by typing in a keyword in the search bar at the top, such as “university poster” or “art poster.”

You can also browse through other template categories, such as flyers and social graphics, to find a design you like and customize the dimensions.

If you don’t want to move forward with a pre-designed template, you can also start from scratch by clicking on Custom Size at the right side of the screen. Then, simply add in your size requirements to open a blank canvas in the editor.

If you don’t want to move forward with a pre-designed template, you can also start from scratch by clicking on Create from Blank at the left side of the screen, above Generate with AI. Then, input content boxes, design elements and images.

And if you’re short on time, another option for creating your poster is to use the Visme AI Poster Generator . This AI-powered tool can design a visual poster from a single text prompt. In the template library, click on Generate with AI and a chatbot will open. Write your prompt in the text box, select one of the suggested styles and let AI do its magic.

Now, it’s time to customize your poster.

The first thing you need to edit in your poster template is the text.

Visme has realistic placeholder content written by professionals in almost all of the templates, and you can use it to inspire your own content.

For example, this minimal template already has a title and subtitle. You can replace this text with your own, and even add more text boxes.

If you’ve already written the content for your poster separately, you should add it to your poster in this step.

Double-click on any text box to edit it, and copy and paste your content. To add more text, click on the Header & Text in the left sidebar to choose from pre-designed text blocks.

Make sure you use separate text boxes for different parts of your content so you can move them around and so your content doesn’t end up looking like one big block of text.

Don’t forget to add details like event timing, contact information, location and more depending on the nature and purpose of your poster.

A part of the poster-making process is ensuring that the text is not too long or has any grammar mistakes. If you need some help, use the AI Writer to help you finesse your poster text by editing and proofreading it. Additionally, craft headlines that really grab the attention of your audience.

Once you have all your text content in place, it’s time to add some visuals.

This is the fun part! Make your poster speak volumes with eye-catching visuals.

Whether it’s a meaningful photograph, an illustration that sets the mood, an AI generated graphic, or bright and colorful icons that balance out the text — visuals can bring your poster to life.

In Visme, you have several options to add photos and graphics to your poster design:

• Browse millions of free stock photos in the built-in image library. Search for relevant keywords and scroll to look for options. When you find an image you like, drag and drop it onto your poster.
• Upload your own images by clicking on Photos and then on Upload. Your images will be saved in your Content library.
• Use the AI Edit Tools that help you unblur and upscale legacy photos, and remove pesky backgrounds or unwanted objects from photos.
• Generate unique, branded images and graphics with Visme AI Image Generator . Choose from the suggested output styles: photos, illustrations, paintings, and more.
• Add free vector icons, illustrations, shapes and more by browsing through the graphics library inside the editor.

Regardless of how you add visuals into your poster, you can edit them using Visme’s photo editor .

Resize your photos and graphics, crop them into shapes, apply filters, color overlays and borders, tweak the opacity settings and more.

When you’re happy with the text and visual content of your poster, it’s time to adjust the design style to pull everything together.

Great, your poster is almost ready.

All you need to do now is adjust the colors and fonts in the template so they are aligned with your brand style, theme, topic or vision.

If you have set design guidelines to stick to, you can easily set up your Brand Kit in Visme — upload your logo, color palette and fonts to use in your poster and any other Visme design project.

If you’re designing a poster for personal purposes, or if you don’t have any brand guidelines in place, you can always choose from the preset color themes that come built-in with the editor.

Simply click through the themes to change the entire color scheme of the poster in one go. Pick the color theme that works best with your poster topic, mood and visuals.

You can also use the color picker tool to adjust the colors of the background and each individual object.

The next thing to pay attention to are your fonts. Make sure you keep font pairing best practices in mind when designing your poster.

You don’t want to use a font style that clashes with your poster idea. Also, you want the font to be clear and easy-to-read, depending on where you plan to use the poster.

Woah — you’re almost done with your poster design! This takes us to the last step, adding a call-to-action. This ensures your poster is as effective as it’s good-looking.

For business and advertising purposes, adding a call-to-action (CTA) to your poster is one of the most crucial parts of poster design.

Before adding a CTA, go back to the first step and think about the goals and purpose of your poster. What do you want your audience to do when they see it?

Do you want them to register for an event, buy tickets for a movie, or visit your website or store in person? Whatever it is, articulate it into concise and compelling copy, and place the CTA where it’s prominent and doesn’t interfere with the design.

That’s it! You’re done with your poster design. When you’re happy with the result, it’s time to get your poster ready for printing or publish it online and share it with the world.

Finally, with Visme, you can share or download your poster in multiple formats, including high-quality JPG, PNG, PDF, HTML5 or social media posts.

The format you choose will depend on your printing and distributing needs. It’s better to ask your printer what format they prefer to use. They will typically accept a PDF file, which you can download from Visme with or without bleed marks.

If you’re planning to share your poster digitally, you can also download it as an HTML5 file (offline web), or share it via a live URL or embed code.

Additionally, when you share your poster as a live link , you have the ability to track its performance thanks to Visme's analytics dashboard . View data about who opened the file, saw the poster, from where, for how long and more.

And finally, from inside the Visme editor, you can also share your poster as a social media post. Use the integrated content calendar to schedule your poster design for your favorite social media platform.

If you’re working on a digital poster rather than a printed one, we’ve got great news for you — Visme lets you make your posters animated and interactive!

Other than photos, you can also add audio clips, video clips, animated backgrounds, animated illustrations and characters, animated icons, special effects and more from the built-in library.

You can also enable hover effects and pop ups on click, and add links into your poster to make it interactive.

For example, if you’ve added a CTA to register for an event in your digital poster, you can link it to your registration page to direct the viewer!

Furthermore, you can include a form on your poster, turning it into lead generation content . Use Visme Forms to create branded sign up forms you can then embed on posters; as well as websites, newsletters and more.

It’s easy to share your animated or interactive poster in Visme by generating an embed code and adding it to a web page or sharing it via a public or private URL.

Now that you know how to create a poster in Visme, let’s look at some beautiful poster templates to give you a head start.

Create beautiful posters in minutes with Visme!

• Choose from our fully customizable templates
• Customize fonts and colors to match your theme
• Access built-in photos and graphics that tell your story

Visme comes packed with dozens of pre-designed, customizable poster templates that you can edit and download right away.

Just pick a template that works best with your topic, industry or design style, and click on the button below it to start editing it in Visme.

Alternatively, create your poster with AI using our AI Poster Generator . In the template gallery, click on Generate with AI and input your text prompt into the chatbot window. This tool doesn’t just for creating posters, it also helps you make first draft versions of plenty of other documents and printable designs.

Template #1: Social Distancing Poster

This social distancing poster is informative and attractive.

It can be used by doctors, health organizations, nonprofits, schools, universities and anyone who wants to communicate guidelines, best practices and important information to the public.

Customize this social distancing poster with your own information or use it as it is to spread awareness about the pandemic and prevention measures.

Template #2: Real Estate Poster

This real estate poster is ideal for advertising property listings of all kinds, such as offices, apartments, villas, shops and commercial land. Put the features of your property front and center and showcase them in an attractive way.

Make this poster template your own by changing the image, editing the text and color scheme, customizing the fonts and adding more information.

Save time before every open house and reuse templates for new real estate listings. Make them even more practical by adding dynamic links for the realtor’s name or the home’s address. With this feature, you can edit multiple templates without messing with the design.

Template #3: Conference Poster

The professional conference poster will make everyone want to attend your business events. With an eye-catching color scheme and a modern layout, this poster design puts focus on the things that matter — the topic, the speakers and the dates.

Personalize this template with your own text, colors, fonts, images and more. Swap the icons for other, relevant ones from Visme’s built-in icon library.

If you’re planning to share this poster online, you can even add animations and interactive links to take your audience immediately to the event registration page.

After you’ve finished the poster, complete the marketing stack and start working on your conference flyer using the same fonts, colors and information.

Template #4: Fashion Sale Poster

A trendy, colorful picture and the word “Sale” in big, bold letters is everything you need to catch your shoppers’ attention.

With this poster template, you have the perfect layout and design ready-to-go — all you need to do is plug in your own content and download your poster in high-quality for printing.

Template #5: Inspirational Education Poster

Inspire students and teachers alike with this quote poster with a saying by Malcom Forbes. Use icons and design elements to create a composition with the text and make it more memorable.

Change the colors of this poster template using Visme’s preset themes or upload your own brand colors. Personalize each and every detail so your poster is unique and engaging.

Template #6: We’re Hiring Poster

Get applications pouring in from the right candidates with this hard-to-miss we’re hiring poster template. If you have a job opening at your company, you need to ensure as many potential candidates know about it as possible.

Customize this poster with your own brand colors and fonts, add your logo, edit the text, and share it on social media or print it out and stick it in areas where your audience spends their time.

Template #7: Garage Sale Poster

Announce a garage sale with style using this poster template. The clean and modern layout puts all the important information front and center, and you can always move things around, remove elements or add more content to personalize this poster.

Make this poster your own by swapping the image with one from our stock library or by uploading from your computer. Change the color scheme, modify the fonts and do much more in Visme’s powerful drag-and-drop editor.

Template #8: Business Poster

Create a sleek and professional poster for your business with this customizable template. A poster like this is ideal for businesses of all sizes, and you can get it printed in large, medium, small and even A4 sizes, depending on how you plan to use it.

Personalize this poster with a photo of your own business, products or office building. Change the text, colors, icons and more in minutes using the drag-and-drop poster editor. Download it in high-quality image or PDF format when you’re done.

Template #9: Brand Promotion Poster

This conceptual geometry poster is a great pick for architectural firms or other business organizations with an eye for design. The photos in the triangles are easily replaced with another from your media library, or generated with AI.

Use shapes and frames to emphasize the visual aspect of your poster. You can also customize this poster template with your own colors, text, fonts, images and more.

Template #10: Yoga Class Poster

Spread the word about your yoga, meditation and fitness classes with this sophisticated poster template. This poster has a serene, calming design that can work for any topic related to health and wellness.

You can also customize it extensively to fit practically any theme. Change colors, fonts, photos, icons and more in a flash with Visme’s drag-and-drop editor. Download your finished poster in JPG or PNG format, or save it as a PDF to send off for printing.

Template #11: Fitness Gym Poster

Motivate your audience to join your gym and meet their fitness goals with this clean and modern poster template. This poster works as both an advertising tool and as an aesthetically pleasing addition to your gym’s exterior.

Customize this template with your own colors, fonts, text and photos. Add more information and text boxes by dragging and dropping from the left sidebar. Emphasize key points and visualize contact details with vector icons.

Template #12: Social Studies Research Poster

Get more eyes on your research with this social studies research poster. Use this design to share your findings with students and members of the faculty.

This poster template is super easy to customize with your own data. You can even animate the charts and add interactive links to it if you plan on sharing the poster digitally. Download your poster in high-quality to get printed in virtually any size.

Template #13: Restaurant Poster

A classy restaurant deserves a classy poster. And that’s exactly what you get with this restaurant or cafe poster template.

Personalize this template with your own images, food photos, text, colors, fonts and more. Drag and drop icons, cutouts and more onto your poster from the built-in editing panel.

Template #14: Poverty Foundation Poster

This poverty poster is thought-provoking and can easily be used by nonprofits to raise awareness for their campaigns. Even for-profit organizations looking to draw attention towards their social projects can take advantage of this template.

This poster is fully customizable, so make it your own by adding your own brand’s images, logos, fonts, colors and more.

Template #15: Elephants Poster

This inspiring poster is a great pick for all individuals, professionals and nonprofits looking to raise awareness and funds for their social campaigns.

It comes with stylish fonts that go well with the high-resolution stock photo in the background. Use this poster template as is or customize it by adding your own logos and fonts.

Template #16: Class Rules Poster

This fun-looking class rules poster can work well in most educational settings. It includes basic etiquette and manners expected from students in the class and promotes positive behavior.

It can easily be used as is by educators, or customized with different content and for other purposes, such as for employee rules in organizations.

Template #17: Music Workshop Poster

The music workshop poster template immediately draws attention and encourages the audience to read further, thanks to the colorful graphic and eye-catching fonts.

It can easily be used by all kinds of musicians, schools, community centers and more looking to promote their events or music classes.

Template #18: Scientific Research Poster

Looking for the perfect science poster to present at your next symposium? This scientific research poster is just what you need. This poster design is ideal for medical research purposes, but you can also customize it for any other health industry. Edit the text, colors, fonts, images and more in minutes using Visme’s drag-and-drop poster maker.

Template #19: Motivational Graffiti Poster

Looking for a fun, artistic poster to inspire students or colleagues? This poster template might be just what you’re looking for. Customize this motivational quote poster with your own colored font, background image and bold design elements.

In the template the background is of a man walking in front of captivating graffiti, but you can easily swap it for another image by uploading from your computer or choosing one from our free stock library.

Template #20: Photography Art Exhibition Poster

Advertise your art and photography events with this beautiful, clean and modern poster template. The best part about this template is it’s so versatile, you can use it for practically anything.

Get started with this template by customizing it with your own brand colors, logo, fonts and images. No brand assets? Choose from our preset color themes, built-in premium fonts and millions of free stock photos.

Template #21: Psychology Study Research Poster

This sleek and sophisticated poster template is ideal for presenting a research project on the rise of depression in New York City. But you can use for any type of research by customizing it in Visme’s drag-and-drop editor

Change the colors, fonts, images, icons and any other elements used in this poster template. You can also add animation and interactivity if you plan to share your poster digitally.

Template #22: Learning Quote Poster

If you’re looking for a quote poster to motivate your students, employees and any other audience, your search has come to an end. This quote poster is highly engaging, colorful and versatile — it will look just as good with any quote of your choice!

Customize this poster template with your own colors, fonts, text and more. You can also add an image in the background if you want to give this poster a thematic look.

Template #23: Political Finance Research Poster

This political research poster template is a great choice for you if you’re working with financial research and fundraising statistics. Likewise, it’s the ideal template for presenting any type of research that needs visualizing.

The design of this poster is minimal and versatile, and you can replace the charts easily from within the chart and graphs settings. Choose from bar graphs, line graphs, histograms and more.

Template #24: Farmer’s Market Poster

This colorful farmer’s market poster is an excellent pick for anyone looking to organize a local community event, such as one for local grocers and farmers to sell fresh fruits and vegetables.

The delightful font selection and color scheme of this poster immediately attracts the reader’s attention. Stick to the existing design or customize it extensively in Visme’s drag-and-drop editor with ease.

Template #25: Education is Essential Poster

If you're looking for a modern poster template with beautiful colors, fonts and icons, then get started with this education poster template.

This poster template is ideal for private organizations and nonprofits looking to promote a cause they believe in, and even for schools and colleges aiming to raise awareness for education for all.

Curious about other poster making topics? Here, these FAQs might help.

What Is the Best Tool to Make a Poster?

The best tool to make posters is Visme, the all-in-one content authoring tool. Not only can you use Visme to design a poster, you can also manage brand assets, collaborate with team members and create content for internal and external communications effortlessly.

Alternatively, you can use any of these other poster making tools like Canva but you can imagine which one we’re partial to.

Can I Print Posters Myself?

Yes, you can print your own posters. All you need is:

• A Visme account
• A computer, tablet or phone
• A printer with ink
• Poster paper

If you don’t have a printer at home, you can take your Visme designed poster in a USB stick to a printing shop or send it to them via messaging service or email. Finally, you can take your design to a self-service printing store like FedEx Office and print them there.

Can You Turn a Picture Into a Poster?

Yes, you can turn a picture into a poster. But first, make sure you have permission to use said image. When you create posters with Visme, you can use any of the millions of high resolution and royalty-free stock photos without worrying about licensing rights. Another option is to use photos you’ve taken yourself or that you’ve got the rights to use. Simply upload those to Visme and create your poster.

What Paper Do I Need to Make a Poster?

Depending on your needs, you can print a poster on glossy paper, matte paper, satin paper or vinyl paper.

• Glossy is shiny and is ideal for images and graphics.
• Matte is best suited for text heavy posters
• Satin is a combination between glossy and matte.
• Vinyl is durable and ideal for outdoor use.

How to Make Posters at Home?

Poster making at home is straightforward if you have a Visme account, and optionally, a printer. With Visme, you can make a poster at home in no time. All you need is a template and your ready-to-use information .

Now Over to You

Congratulations! You’re ready to create your own poster!

Whether you’re making a poster for personal purposes, business advertising, sticking on your shop window or sharing digitally on social media, Visme has what you’re looking for.

You can find the perfect poster template in the dozens of ready-to-go options in the template library.

Access design tools like preset color themes, built-in stock photos, icons, shapes and graphics, premium fonts, resize, cropping and editing tools, AI-powered tools and much more to create your poster in minutes — no design skills needed!

Sign up for a free Visme account today and start creating your stunning poster.

Design beautiful graphics you can be proud of with Visme.

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About the Author

Mahnoor Sheikh is the content marketing manager at Visme. She has years of experience in content strategy and execution, SEO copywriting and graphic design. She is also the founder of MASH Content and is passionate about tea, kittens and traveling with her husband. Get in touch with her on LinkedIn .

+31 (0)6 5465 1346 | [email protected]

CAUSE AN EFFECT

Blog on science communication

How to design a poster presentation that makes your research stand out

Have you submitted an abstract for a conference poster? Great! It can be an amazing opportunity to get valuable feedback, advance your career, and make lasting connections. But let’s face it: most conference posters are crammed with too much text, unclear graphs, and are difficult to understand. Don’t worry, we’re here to help. This is a step-by-step practical guide to help you create a poster that’s so good, that people actually stop to read it, start a conversation and even remember your poster years later.

This blog is based on our extensive Poster Design Guidelines , where we’ve visualized all the tips in six posters.

Define the true goal of your poster presentation

When we ask researchers why they’re presenting a poster, the typical response is, “I want to share my research.” Fair enough, but let’s be honest: if sharing your research was the only goal, there are much easier ways to do it. You could submit a summary in the conference booklet, email your paper to colleagues, or put it on social media.

Poster sessions are social events. The main goal is to network and connect with other researchers.

But here’s the thing—a poster session isn’t just about showing off your data. It’s your chance to dive into conversations, make new connections, and get instant feedback. In fact, it’s a social event! While sharing your results is important, the primary goal of a poster session is to connect with others.

What is your personal goal for the poster session?

Beyond that, you can also set personal goals. What do you want to get out of the poster session? How can you use this opportunity to advance your research, get answers to pressing technical questions, make an impact, or learn from others in your field?

Don’t just create a poster because you have to, this is your moment to define what you want to achieve with it. Here are some ideas for personal goals to inspire you:

• Get valuable feedback on your research. Receive tips on improving your methodology, avoiding pitfalls in your dataset, or addressing issues with participants. Constructive criticism and suggestions from others can be incredibly beneficial for refining your work.
• Connect with key figures in your field. Networking with (influential) people can advance your career. They might even point you toward a great post-doc position or other opportunities.
• Find potential collaborators. Meet researchers who can join forces with you on your project. Sometimes, the missing piece is just the right team or a fresh perspective.
• Share and promote best practices. Whether you’ve developed a new methodology or discovered flaws in existing treatments, use your poster to recommend better practices or warn others of potential mistakes. Think about ways that you can help others in their work.
• Test new research ideas. Are you considering a new research direction? Use the poster session to gauge interest and gather feedback before diving in. This can help you refine your ideas before committing significant time and resources.
• Influence funding decisions. Funders and grant reviewers often attend conferences. A compelling poster can catch their eye and improve your chances of securing funding for future projects.

Use these ideas to make the poster session work for you and then design your poster to help you achieve it.

Idea: Gather valuable feedback through your poster

Viviam attended our poster design workshop in Norway and was struggling with significant challenges in her PhD. She decided that her personal goal for her poster was to gather as much feedback as possible. To achieve this, she designed her poster around these roadblocks, and asked visitors to stick post-it notes with their tips and advice on the poster board. This approach not only provided her with valuable input but also earned her two poster awards!

“It was an amazing experience and the outcome was exactly what I wanted, a lot of interaction with the public, feedback, questions, many post-it notes, lots of connections in LinkedIn and possibly new collaborations. Also, my supervisors are extremely proud and happy. I couldn’t ask for more! THANK YOU!”

See her poster in our Hall of Fame .

Read more about the goal of your poster and writing a pitch in our blog Define the goal & pitch for your poster presentation

The essential elements of a poster

Before diving into the design, let’s make sure you’re including everything a good poster needs. Remember that your poster is a summary of your most important research results, so keep it short and to the point. If visitors want to learn more about the details, they can read (a printout of) your paper or start a conversation.

• Title: Your title is your first impression and the one thing people will remember, so make it count! It should be big, clear, concise, and ideally communicate your main message or conclusion. Avoid jargon and abbreviations unless you’re confident that your audience will get it.
• Context: Provide a brief background or context to orient your viewers or explain why your research is important. Keep this section short, a single sentence is often enough.
• Study details: A quick overview of your study design (e.g., type of study, number of participants, duration, intervention, outcome measure, etc). This is essential, but not the most exciting part, so stick to the essentials.
• Evidence (data) : The evidence for your main message statement. This can be a graph or even a written description of your main results. Don’t fall into the trap of including every graph and making them so small that nobody can read them.
• Visuals: We often include a large visual to draw attention to the topic or main result. This could be an illustration, picture, or diagram from your research result. You get the most effect if this is a large image that can be seen from across the room.
• Call-to-action: What do you want your audience to when they visit your poster? Give feedback on how to improve your work? Connect with you on LinkedIn? Have a fruitful discussion? Visit your website? Contact you for more details? Get the most out of your poster and tell people how they can help you.
• Contact details: Include your full name, affiliation, and contact details. Make sure people can reach out if they’re interested in your work or want to connect. You can usually leave out departments and author degrees. I can be nice to include a photo of yourself. This way people can recognize who presents the poster when you’re not standing next to it, and walk up to you later.
• References : If your poster is based on a published paper, you may include a reference. However, keep it short (you don’t have to include all authors) and use a small font size. This way, your audience can find the paper, without it taking up too much space or attention.
• Add sections for extra interaction and your personal goal : Include a section to highlight important elements of your research with a title like “What’s new”. Or add a highlighted box with “Give feedback”, or “How can you help?” to encourage visitors to talk to you. Starting a conversation can be intimidating for visitors too, so these sections can also give them a starting point for a discussion.

QR code or not?

If you have additional materials or want to make it easy for people to find your LinkedIn page, you can consider adding a QR code to your poster. It can link to your full paper, other references, a video explanation, or any other online resource that complements your poster. However, keep the limitations of QR codes in mind. People might not have a phone that can scan a QR code, forgot their phone or have low phone battery. And most importantly: you probably don’t want people to stare at their phone in the middle of an engaging conversation.

If you decide to add a QR code, make sure you:

• Clearly explain where the link leads to , and write down what people can find there. e.g. “Download my full paper”, “Watch the video about my methods”, “Connect with me on LinkedIn”. Or a combination of these: “Connect with me on LinkedIn to get my paper”.
• Always provide an alternative , like a short URL so you don’t rely on the code, and show people where it leads. It’s also wise to have a pen and paper handy to jot down someone’s email address or name, just in case technology fails.
• Design the QR code with a tool like QRcodemonkey , where you can customize the color, pattern, and add an icon to match your poster’s style. And remember to remove the ugly white background.

Check out part 1 of our Poster Guideline about the essential elements of a poster:

The most important thing first: write a title that captures your main message

Now that you know the essential elements to include on your poster, let’s dive in to some of the elements to make them great. We start by focusing on the most crucial part—your title. Your title is often the first thing people read: it should capture attention and communicate your main message.

Don’t write vague descriptive titles!

Whatever you do, resist the urge to just slap the title of your paper onto your poster. Descriptive titles are used in almost all peer-reviewed papers, but for posters they are terrible: they don’t give any information about the main conclusion, and only tell us about the topic you’re researching.

Let’s have a look at this generic descriptive title from this article on air pollution as an example:

“ Urban Air Pollution and Greenness in Relation to Public Health ”.

When we read it, we still don’t know anything! And at the same time it raises all these questions: “Is there a relation?”, “Is less pollution related to greenness?”, “Does this paper answer how we can reduce pollution?”.

When you write a title like this, you’re delaying communication of the main message, which will frustrate your audience. Imagine if every newspaper headline was that vague—no one would bother reading past the first line.

The one thing all the people at a poster session are looking for is your main message . That’s why you want your main message to be the first thing people read. And that’s usually your title, since it’s big and bold and catches the most attention.

Think about the one thing you want people to remember after they’ve seen your poster. That’s your title.

When creating your title, think about the one thing you want people to remember after they’ve seen your poster. That’s your main message, and it should be front and center. Most of the time, your main message is your research conclusion, but it doesn’t have to be. It could be a recommendation, a warning, or promoting a new research method that’s more effective than the old ones.

Conclusive title are better than descriptive ones

The best titles don’t just hint at your research—they spell it out. A conclusive title ensures that even if someone only reads your title and nothing else, they’ve still walked away with your key message. And that’s a win in communication!

Let’s compare the following titles, and see which one tells you more useful information about the study:

Descriptive title : Urban Air Pollution and Greenness in Relation to Public Health.

Conclusive title : Expanding green spaces and enforcing low-carbon policies can effectively combat health risks from air pollution in Addis Ababa.

Write a conclusive title, so people can read your main message at a glance!

If you’re struggling to write a conclusive statement, or if your results aren’t finalized yet, consider writing your title as a question. A title question does not tell the whole story but it might make people curious enough to walk up to your poster to find out the answer or have a discussion with you. What about “Mental health in hospitals: what can health professionals do to ease the pain?”. It’s the perfect start to a conversation. Think about the first question that you would ask a person approaching you, that can be your title.

TIP: Does your research show negative results? Shout it from the rooftops! Don’t be disappointed, your research is just as important as anyone else’s. Do not hide it, show it, so other people can learn from it.

For more examples and tips on how to formulate your title, read our blog Write a compelling title about your research . Learn why descriptive titles are the worst for good science communication and try out different main messages to see which one works best for your research.

Write headings to tell a story

To be an effective science communication tool, your poster needs to be easy to scan. At a conference, most people will glance at your poster, spend a few seconds reading the title and maybe some bold headings, and then decide whether to stop and talk or move on.

If your main headings are the traditional Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion, then you’re missing a chance to communicate your message quickly. Those headings won’t tell your audience anything new, and they’ll delay getting your main point across.

Your goal should be for everyone to quickly grasp your entire research story without squinting at that tiny 12pt paragraph text. So, let’s dive into how to rewrite your headings to tell your story clearly and concisely:

Turn your lengthy introduction into a sentence for context

Start with a single, punchy sentence that gives context for your research. Forget the long paragraphs about why you’re doing this work—most people at the conference already know the big issues in your field (everyone’s out to cure cancer or save the planet, right?). Instead, summarize the core issue or background of your study in a single sentence. For example:

• T-cell therapy works very well for ‘liquid cancers’ such as leukemia, but is much less effective for solid tumors.
• Crucian carp can survive in ice-covered lakes without oxygen for months. We want to know if DNA methylation acts as a switch to transition from summer to winter months.

Turn your headings into sentences

With that context in place, keep the momentum going by writing conclusive statements for each of your headings. These sentences become the bold, eye-catching headings on your poster—the “chapters” of your story. This way, anyone can quickly scan your poster and immediately grasp the main message of your research.

Once you’ve set the stage with a brief context, continue with this to write a conclusive statement for each of your headings. These sentences become the bold headings on your poster, effectively turning them into the “chapters” of your story. This way, your audience can quickly scan the headings and immediately grasp the main message of your research.

For instance, instead of vague headings like “ Introduction ” or even the slightly better “ Costs of diabetes ,” go for something more informative like: “ Total costs of diabetes have increased to $245 billion .” This gives much more information at a glance.

People scan your poster, so turn your headings into a compelling story.

In our workshops, we encourage participants to start by writing their research in a single paragraph or a one-minute speech. Then, trim it down to just a few sentences. Those sentences will become your poster headings (think of them as the chapters of your story). This way, your audience doesn’t have to dig through paragraphs to find the key points—they can simply scan the bold headings and immediately understand your research.

If you’re afraid your supervisor is not going to like this departure from the traditional academic structure, you can keep those familiar headings as smaller, lighter eyebrow headings. This way you satisfy the more traditional academics while still making your main message stand out. (Learn more about eyebrow headings and text design in part 3 of our Poster Guidelines .)

Which behavioral and nutritional factors are targets for stomach cancer prevention programmes?

A meta-analysis and systematic review of 14 behavioral and nutritional factors in 52,916 studies.

Helicobacter pylori infection, smoking, alcohol, high salt intake were identified as the main factors contributing to stomach cancer.

These results may be utilized for ranking and prioritizing preventable risk factors to implement effective prevention programs.

Learn how you can write an engaging research story for your poster in our blog How to write a story from your research for posters & infographics .

Example of a story-based poster

Let’s have a look at this example poster we created from a paper on microbes in the Antarctic. Instead of sticking to dry, traditional headings, we transformed each section—Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusion—into a conclusive statement that tells the story of the research. This makes it easy to scan. You can add more details in the paragraph text or graphs under each section. But don’t overcrowd your poster with details. If people want more information, it’s better to discuss these details or hand out your actual peer-reviewed journal article. The more information you give, the less people will remember.

Design your poster like a professional

How do you think you will come across if you use different backgrounds, colors and fonts for every section? Does that really make you look creative and professional? We know it’s tempting, but don’t use every tool PowerPoint has given you to design with. Don’t use gradients, drop-shadows, text effects if you don’t know how to use them.

The design of your poster should support your story, provide structure, and make your presentation more effective. Design can also help distinguish between the main message and supporting information. By using different designs for your main thread and quotes, anecdotes, or examples you make sure people don’t lose sight of your most important messages.

We love to show bad examples, so check out this poster presentation dissection:

Get inspired by creative posters in our Poster Hall of Fame

We’re so proud of our workshops participants when they create a beautiful poster or win a poster award! So we created a hall of fame to showcase great posters. As you will see, there is no one standard, you can create any type of poster and still attract attention. Each poster is made under different circumstances and conference requirements.

Design your texts to make them easier to read

Since text is often the bulk of your poster, let’s see how we can design it better to help your audience understand it better.

• Write in simple and active language . Write “We analyzed the data” instead of “The data was analyzed”. Active text is more engaging and understandable, so avoid passive sentences as much as possible. TIP: Write as if you’re talking to your visitor and read your text out loud to see if it makes sense.
• Keep sentences short . Sentences should be short and to the point. Keep most sentences to a maximum of 14 words if possible. Paragraphs are no longer than 35 words, or 5 lines.
• Write full sentences . Writing short sentences doesn’t mean you should remove important words (and make it impossible to understand). Every sentence should contain a subject and a verb (yes, this includes bullet-points and titles). Without those, they miss essential information.
• Font size: Your main title should be bold and easy to read, between 100 and 150 points . If your title is too long, split it up with a short bold main title, and a smaller subtitle with more nuance or details. Section headings should be bold and between 60 and 80 points . The text of your headings should include important information (and not just introduction, methods, results). The paragraph text of your poster should be between 30 – 40 point size. Viewers should be able to read it from a few steps away. Details and references can be smaller, but don’t go below 24 point size.
• Align left : Unless you have a very good reason, left-align your titles, sentences, bullet-points, and paragraphs. Centering or justifying text slows down reading time and is not considered good practice for accessibility.
• Highlight: If you cannot make paragraphs shorter, you can highlight important sentences in bold to make them stand out.
• Make it legible : All your text should be legible and easy to read. So keep uppercase to a minimum (we reserve it for eyebrow headings). And don’t underline text unless it’s a hyperlink in a digital version of your poster.

Only use bullet points for actual lists

If there is one piece of advice we would love for you to remember from this post: do NOT use bullet points for sentences! It transforms them into weird short sentences and doesn’t make your messages any clearer. Please, only use bullet points for actual lists. Like countries, study details, or different outcomes you are measuring. Disregard your instinct to put bullets before sentences and just write a nice readable paragraph instead. People will love you for it!

Check out part 3 of our Poster Guideline for tips on structure, and writing texts:

Font size guidelines, a poster

We like to create posters about posters. So check out this A1 poster that shows the best practices for legible fonts on your poster:

Use images and icons, but make sure they’re effective

Text alone can be a bit uninspiring sometimes. We encourage the use of images but make sure they contribute to your message. Either use them to show which topic you are researching (e.g. plane aerodynamics, body fat distribution, or the history of women’s rights), or when they have intrinsic value and show something that you cannot point out in words (e.g. the location of an aorta stent, or the flow of information between low-orbit satellites). Don’t add cute images of people, landscapes, university buildings or flower patterns to spice up your poster.

So please don’t use random useless stock photo’s like these in your presentation! #facepalm

Images aren’t just there to make your poster pretty—they’re there to attract attention and help people understand your message. Here’s how to use images effectively:

• Draw attention with a large visual that shows your topic or supports your main message. Make sure it reflects your personality, this will make it more memorable for people (and make it more fun for conference attendees to browse posters).
• Use high-quality images: Use clear, high-resolution images. Blurry visuals scream amateur and can distract from your message. If you need to, remove the white background from images and graphs in PowerPoint or go to remove.bg .
• Icons: Use meaningful icons that help your audience scan your poster quickly. Realize that a lot of people will not have the same idea of what an icon means, so avoid using vague icons for vague concepts like process or implementation . And always add text to an icon.
• Don’t decorate, educate: Leave out fun, cliché, or decorative visuals that distract from your main message. Choose visuals that enhance the content and are easy to understand at a glance. They should be directly relevant to your study and should not require extensive explanation.
• Be consistent: Create a consistent professional design by picking icons in the same style (e.g. choose between line icons and solid icons) and do not combine illustrations and images from different styles (line-drawings, 3D design, or photographs).
• Be inclusive & avoid stereotypes . Think about it: Do the elderly all use canes? Is your population all white and able? Are all human shapes male? We encourage you to acknowledge diversity and use appropriate descriptions, including those for gender, sexual orientation, racial and ethnic identity, disabilities, and age.

Don’t use Google to find images (these are usually copyright protected). Instead, check out these websites for great images:

• pexels.com (stock images & videos)
• unsplash.com (stock images)
• Phosphor icons (general icons)
• bioicons.com (biology & medicine icons)
• scidraw.io (lab research icons)

For a huge collection of useful websites where you can find images, illustrations and icons, check out our blog Our favorite (free) tools to create better designs for science communication

Visualize your data clearly and effectively

Data is the heart of your research, but it needs to be presented in a way that’s easy to digest. Here’s how to nail your data visualization:

• Save space by visualizing only the most important results from your research that support your main message and give evidence for your conclusion. One or two graphs is enough. There is usually no need to include diagrams, tables, or graphs in your introduction or methods section.
• Create graphs instead of tables to make it easier to see trends and compare data. Graphs and other data visualizations help your audience see patterns in the data and allow them to quickly compare data points. Tables take too much time to understand in the limited time you have to make your point.
• Give the conclusion from your graph in the title above it (instead of a descriptive title), and highlight the data that support your main conclusion. Which title do you think is better? Projected disease prevalence and mortality reduction over 20 years for the population aged 18 to 95 years in nine European countries with lower salt intake. OR Lower salt intake reduced the prevalence of stroke in Poland by 13.5% . You can even write sentences inside graphs to clarify certain data.
• Use direct labels instead of legends, adding your data labels right next to the graph lines (instead of further away) makes it easier to understand your data.
• Tell a story . Show people where the interesting data is hiding in a graph and tell a story. Do this by highlighting the data that supports your main conclusion and writing short explanations to tell people what it means.
• Simplify your graphs: Keep your graphs simple and easy to read. Remove anything that does not help people understand your data like (grid) lines, borders, and (white) backgrounds.

Check out part 4 of our Poster Guideline for tips on datavisualization.

Choose and apply colors wisely in your design

Color can make your poster stand out from a sea of boring light blue posters, but too many colors can turn it into a visual assault. Here’s how to use color wisely:

• Be intentional . Don’t just use colors randomly because it’s ‘pretty’. Think about their purpose. Do you want to highlight and draw attention? Do you need colors to show differences between items? If there is no reason to use different colors for clarity, don’t do it.
• Use a simple color scheme: Stick to a maximum of two colors to create a cohesive look. If you’re having trouble choosing colors, use a single accent color with black, white, and grey. Using shades of a single color is often a better idea than using multiple bright colors. The darkest color will draw the most attention, so use it to create visual hierarchy. Use an online shade generator tool like shadegenerator.com .
• Avoid color coding. Don’t use five colors for different datasets in a graph, or make each section a different color. It can be hard for people to distinguish between colors, and they might assume the colors have specific meanings. Plus, with color-blind visitors in mind, it’s essential to make your point clear without depending on color alone.
• Contrast: Make sure there’s enough contrast between your background and text. Use a contrast checker to make sure the contrast is at least 4.5 (the minimum for accessibility). This improves readability and helps important information stand out.
• Draw attention : Color is a great way to draw attention to a part of your poster that contains important information. But don’t do this more than one or two times. If you highlight everything, nothing stands out.
• Re-use colors for a professional look. See if you can re-use colors from images elsewhere to make the design look professional. You can use the eyedropper tool in PowerPoint or browser extensions like ColorZilla to pick the color code (HEX or RGB) from any image.

There are many tools and articles to help you pick the right colors. Learn from their expertise:

• blog.datawrapper.de/beautifulcolors/
• learnui.design/tools/data-color-picker.html
• chartio.com/learn/charts/how-to-choose-colors-data-visualization/

Check out part 5 of our Poster Guideline for tips on the use of colors.

Achieve balance and symmetry in your poster design

A well-balanced poster is a joy to look at. Here’s how to achieve that perfect balance:

• Reading direction. Give clues on how to read your design. The standard reading patterns (in the English-speaking world) are the F and Z-pattern, so when in doubt, stick to the top-to-bottom and left-to-right patterns. If your design is more complex, add arrows to indicate the reading order.
• Balance all the elements on your poster by aligning them to each other and apply the same amount of spacing between and around (text) boxes. You can choose to align the text inside a box with other elements, or you can align the box itself with the other elements (see the visual examples in part X of our poster guideline).
• Be consistent and apply the same styles to elements like boxes, lines, text, icons and images.
• Margins and spacing: Use margins to frame your content. Don’t take text all the way to the edges of a text box—give it some breathing room.
• White Space: Don’t be afraid of white space. It’s not empty—it’s strategic. It gives your design room to breathe and makes the content more digestible.

Prepare for a conversation

Don’t just prepare your pitch, also think of what you want to say when someone approaches your poster. Or better yet, what you want to ask them. It’s an opportunity to learn something yourself. It also helps to reduce your nerves if it’s your first time (or if it’s just not your cup of tea to talk to dozens of strangers).

Also think about what critical questions people may have about your poster and prepare a short answer. Is your research about the benefits of cheese and it is funded by the dairy industry? Expect some critical questions. Be grateful you get these questions, it’s what proper scientific discussion is all about!

Do not conform to the (invisible) design standards set by other academics!

That other people are cramming graphs and text into their poster is not your problem. You don’t have to copy them. Do all posters need to be blue on white and have hundreds of bullet-points? The reason why so many academic posters are badly designed is because everybody is copying everyone else. And since almost nobody has followed a design or science communication course, they just do what everyone else does: copy their paper to a poster.

Institution templates

Institution templates are another hurdle to tackle. Maybe you have to abide by a standard template from your institution, or add huge logos from every single collaborator (and even pictures of their locations!) on it. We advise that you do NOT give in to these demands without a fight. Remember: these guidelines are not made by science communication experts, but often by the press officer with a desire for a uniform look, or by more senior scientists who think design is something achieved by rainbow-colored text effects in Word. You get our frustration…

Of course, it’s good to adhere to the physical format of the poster mount and have large and legible text, but we’ll try to push you out of your comfort zone here a bit. You will not get punished by anyone for using different colors than your institution, use a more legible font size, and use design in a way that makes your research pop. Remember: you can not stand out if your poster looks like all the other boring posters in the room!

An ugly template well done

Leonardo came to our workshop to design a poster for a conference that uses a specific template. It was a very ugly template with a brown gradient and a large conference logo and title. Since we could not change any of that, we advized to go all-in with the template colors. So we used the same browns as the header and made sure it was easy on the eyes.

With this poster Leonardo even won the best poster award! This shows that even with badly designed template you can still create a good poster if you apply all the design tips.

Conference guidelines

Conference guidelines are not all bad. We were surprised to learn that a lot of conferences actually want you to create something beautiful! Here’s a selection of some tips international conference organizers gave on their websites that we fully agree with:

• Avoid overcrowding figures and cramming too many numbers into tables.
• Avoid long text paragraphs and try to be clear and concise.
• Remember to keep illustrated and written material simple.
• Include your email address so that attendees can follow up with you on any questions related to your poster presentation.
• Add pictures describing your idea.
• Some text to present the main contributions and the achieved results.

Use handouts for the details of your study

There is a fear among PhD students that someone will come up to their poster and dislike it because it’s missing a specific detail. We get it, doing your first poster presentation can be terrifying. But remember, your poster is not the only source of information, you are! You’ll be there, ready to fill in any details that didn’t make it onto the poster.

If this doesn’t ease your mind, print out the (preliminary) paper or additional details not included on your poster, and keep them handy. Chances are, nobody will ask for them, but just having them around might give you peace of mind.

However, you might end up with 20 printed copies and no one to give them to. Plus, let’s be honest—how often do people actually read all the handouts they collect when they get home? Instead of focusing on the details, think about how you can make a lasting connection.

We think that making connections is more important than sharing all the details of your research right then and there. So instead, give out your LinkedIn or ResearchGate details, or your personal website URL, so you are instantly connected and they will see any new updates you post in their timeline. If they are still interested in the details, you have their contact information to send them your paper when it’s published!

Get creative

Do you want to stand out? Bring a prop related to your research to the stand. Do you research fat cells? Bring a pound of lard with you (in a sealed bag please). Do you research tooth health? Bring a plastic jaw with you that people can touch. This will ensure that people visit your poster and can be a fun way to meet new people.

Bring post-it notes for people to write tips and feedback on. Or laminate your poster and give people a whiteboard marker to write things on it or highlight sections they think are important. This is not only a nice gimmick that people will remember, but can be good for you as a reminder of the feedback you were given. As an added bonus it gives visitors a chance to interact with each other.

A template to get you started

Want to get a head-start on designing your poster? We’ve developed a simple template for your poster to get you ahead of the curve. But don’t take this template too seriously! In fact, we usually advise against using templates; if everybody starts using them to create the exact same poster, nobody will stand out. It’s your job to make it interesting and fit your needs and limitations.

Poster design checklist

Use the good design checklist from our workshops after you finished the design. If you tick all the boxes, you can be confident that you have created a good poster:

• Is the main message clear at first glance?
• Is there a clear hierarchy in the design?
• Are important points properly emphasized ?
• Is the reading direction clearly indicated?
• Are the texts and visuals easy to understand without extra explanation?
• Does every sentence have a verb?
• Is the meaning of the arrows clear?
• Do all images , icons , and illustrations have a purpose?
• Is the design balanced and consistent in terms of style and color?
• Is the design accessible and inclusive?

Submit your award-winning poster design and inspire others

Are you proud of your poster design? Did it win an award, or do you think it could inspire others? We’re on the lookout for well-designed, original posters to showcase how effective and beautiful poster presentations can be in our hall of fame .

We’d love to feature your work and help inspire the scientific community! Send us your best poster design as a PDF or PPT, along with your name and LinkedIn profile, to [email protected] . Feel free to include a short quote about the feedback and discussions your poster generated, and how you felt presenting it. Your work might be featured, helping others create impactful posters too!

Learn more in our hands-on workshops

Want to learn more about how to create amazing posters? Check out our workshop on Poster presentation & Infographic design .

Are you’re a university communication officer or conference organiser, get in touch to learn about our webinars so we can train your researchers to present their work better.

About the Author: Liesbeth Smit

Search for more scicomm tips:, read more about science communication:.

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Basics of science communication, pitch your research to any audience

By understanding your audience and aligning your message to their needs, you can really get your point across. In this workshop you’ll create a short pitch or article to practice just that.

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Create beautiful and effective infographics, posters and graphical abstracts. You will learn the best practices in design to make sure your work gets noticed and is easier to understand.

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Do you want to be more confident around journalists or the media? Or do you want to take advantage of the opportunities that social media offer for scientists? We'll get you started!

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How to Make a Poster in 6 Easy Steps [2023 Guide With Templates]

Posters continue to be one of the most popular visual communication formats. A stunning poster design won’t fail you if you need to inspire action, convey information, advertise a product, or promote an event.

In this article, we want to show you how to make a poster from scratch in six easy steps.

Whether you are a small business owner, a marketer, a healthcare professional, or a student, by the end of this guide, you will be able to create a professional poster design in minutes.

I invite you to follow along by  creating a free account for Piktochart’s online poster maker .

Then, we’ll learn how to make a poster in six steps and start creating stunning posters:

• Step 1: Start with your foundation
• Step 2: Draft an outline
• Step 3: Decide on your color scheme
• Step 4: Add your images
• Step 5: Add your copy
• Step 6: Make sure your CTA is easy to spot

How to design your own poster with free poster templates in six steps

Perhaps the biggest draw of poster media is the graphic’s ability to be eye-catching and artistic but also leave room for text that can have a call to action. 

For businesses, this could be an invitation to an event, a special promotion, or a simple announcement. 

If this is your first time creating custom posters from scratch, here’s a quick guide on how to get started with free poster templates. 

If you want to start right away, create a free account on Piktochart here and choose one of the available poster templates . You don’t need to start from scratch, just edit your fonts, colors, and icons in minutes!

1. Start with your foundation

The first step to making your own poster design is to put a few things on paper. 

Every successful poster design piece begins with the pre-design process. 

This is where you and your team hash out specifics like the design’s goal and objectives, who it’s for, and what you wish to accomplish with it. 

Identify your brand image and personality

For brands and companies, any poster template you create will automatically reflect your organization and what it stands for. As such, it’s important for the poster template design to stay true to your brand’s image and personality.

This can be a problem if you’re not sure what your brand is and if you don’t have a brand style guide to adhere to. How do you want people to see you? What values do you stand for? 

If you can’t answer these questions, your designs will feel all over the place and lack any sort of cohesion.

Remember your brand identity when you create posters for consistency in your brand messaging.

Here’s an example of a stunning poster from The North Face that stays true to the company’s image and personality of toughness and outdoor adventure. 

Identify your poster’s audience

If you don’t know who you’re designing for, your design won’t have the impact you expect. Worse, the finished product may end up feeling inauthentic and irrelevant. 

Before you start to design or even make a poster, take a moment to define your ideal viewer:

• Who is my target viewer?
• Why would that person be interested in my poster?
• What kind of content would they most likely respond to?
• What are their needs, challenges, and pain points?
• What can my brand/company/business do for them?

These questions will help you better understand your poster’s audience, allowing you to make logical design decisions. 

Define your poster’s message

A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. It’s a cliché, but it became one for a reason. Your design doesn’t need a lot of text to say something. It does, however, need to have a specific message, which you can then refer to for all of your design decisions.

For example, if you want to promote an upcoming fun run, you’d want your design to communicate a sense of energy and movement. That could mean using excited and encouraging language, as well as bright colors. 

2. Draft an outline

You need to create an outline before you make a poster to ensure any information you’re presenting is clear, clean, and concise. 

It may seem like a good idea to place as much information as you can on the poster. In the case of an event, the details would include: 

• Complete details on ticket pricing, including early-bird discounts
• Event rules
• Parking locations

However, less is often more when it comes to posters. 

The more information your poster has, the higher the risk that it will confuse and overwhelm the reader. 

Here’s an example of a poster that tries to do too much at once. 

To minimize confusion, go back to the objectives of your custom poster . If it’s an event poster, it should have the following information:

• The headline/name of the event
• Pertinent details (i.e., the what, when, where, and how of the event)

The pet adoption drive poster template below is a good (and adorable!) example.

3. Decide on your color scheme

Your design’s color scheme is probably the first thing your audience will notice about your poster (especially from afar), so it’s important to get it right. 

Color selection might be one of the most basic principles of visual design, but it can take time to figure out if you’re someone who’s unfamiliar with color theory . 

60-30-10 color rule

One technique we recommend using is the 60-30-10 color rule . Basically, you want to pick a shade of a primary color: red, blue, or yellow. Next, pick two complementary colors. Use a tool like Adobe Color to choose colors that match your primary color. 

Your primary color should take up 60 percent of your poster design, while the two other colors can take the remaining 30 and 10 percent. 

You can always add one or two more colors, but the point of this color rule is to follow a hierarchy in your design. Here’s an example of a poster using this rule.

4. Add your images

Dramatic and relevant photographs have been a staple of poster design for decades. 

Take a look at the example below. The poster on the right can give you a huge boost in visual appeal over the one on the left. In fact, your image can convey much more than regular text ever will.

The right image can give your design a huge boost in visual appeal. In fact, your image can convey much more than regular text ever will for eye-catching posters.

If you’ve already identified your brand image and personality, choosing an appropriate photograph for your poster should come easily. Here are two things to keep in mind at this stage.

• For starters, you want an image that’s actually relevant to your message and poster objectives.
• Use a photograph that can facilitate a balance between your text and image. Look for images with a focal point, which you can then surround with text and other visual elements. 

5. Add your copy

Now it’s time to take your headline and details from your outline and insert them into your poster-making.

There are two things you’ll need to deal with at this stage to ensure your text elements jive with your images and other graphic elements. 

The fonts you choose will also have a significant effect on your poster’s mood and message.

For example, if your poster content has something to do with a modern theme or concept, consider sticking with a clean sans-serif typeface.

If you have a more serious poster design in mind or want to communicate class or a sense of whimsy, a serif typeface should do the trick.

You can also experiment with decorative typefaces , which allow your headlines to grab the reader’s attention. The Halloween poster template below is a good example.

One thing to remember with typefaces, however, is to avoid combining more than two different typefaces or four type variations (i.e., type size, and bold or italic style). 

When in doubt, stick to a sans serif font and serif font combination, or a decorative font for your poster headline and sans serif fonts for all other text. 

For a more in-depth guide to typefaces, read our guide: 4 Things You Need to Know to Pair Fonts Well

Text layout

The way your text is laid out on your poster is just as important as your typefaces. 

The rule to remember here is visual hierarchy. 

You want to use the size and position of your text elements to tell the reader where to look, like your headline and call to action. 

This can be a complicated topic, but our guide to creating a visual hierarchy with fonts can help you learn more about it.

6. Make sure your CTA is easy to spot

If your poster has a call to action (CTA), make sure it’s clear and visible to the reader. 

The whole point of a CTA is to get people to take action, so it only makes sense to draw people’s attention to it, but not so much that it overshadows your headline. 

As a good example, check out the job ad poster template below.  

Now that you have a better idea of how to make a poster let’s look at eight types of posters you can use.

8 Types of posters

Below are some of the most common types of posters in use today, along with a brief description of what makes them different from each other.

1. Event posters

Even in today’s digital world, event posters continue to be a primary medium for promoting any upcoming event, including concerts, plays and musicals, fairs, sporting events, conferences, and trade shows.

Almost any type of public event is advertised with a poster of some kind, with some leaving a lasting impression on our collective memories. Want to learn how to make a poster for events?

Piktochart offers professional pre-made poster templates for conferences and events. You could get started right away with our poster maker tool by creating a free account .

2. Advertisement posters

Advertisement posters or ad posters have given us many of modern history’s most iconic pop-culture images. 

Since the turn of the 20th century, brands like Coca-Cola, Camel, Apple, and Nike have produced posters that withstood the test of time. 

Many of these ads were designed to be multi-purpose print ads distributed through magazines, newspapers, billboards, and posters around cities. 

Ad posters are a popular type of business poster because it’s a simple way to promote products or services.

Customers are more likely to trust an advertisement poster because they appear in public places, making them more credible to a broader audience.

3. Political posters

Some of the most famous posters are associated with major historical moments and conflicts.

During World War I, the U.S. Army produced the “I Want You” poster depicting a commanding Uncle Sam urging the viewer to join the war effort in Europe. 

In World War II, Westinghouse Electric released the “We Can Do It” poster to boost employee morale and reduce absenteeism. 

In 2008, the iconic Barack Obama “Hope” poster, designed by artist Shepard Fairey, represented the energy and optimism surrounding the former president’s campaign. 

4. Movie posters

Of course, no discussion about posters would be complete without movie posters. 

These are perhaps the most popular and sought-after print materials. 

This is especially true for posters of classics like The Godfather , Jaws , Star Wars , Pulp Fiction , and Terminator , among many other hit films and franchises. 

5. Motivational posters

Anyone who was in high school in the ‘80s and ‘90s would probably remember a motivational poster hanging in the classroom or principal’s office. 

You’ve seen it before: a photograph (usually of natural landscapes, animals, and people) enclosed by a black border paired with sentiments about perseverance, hard work, and teamwork written in bold text. Admittedly, these posters can look dated. 

If you’re looking for motivational posters that come in more contemporary designs, Piktochart’s poster templates, like the ones below, are a good choice.

6. Travel posters

Posters are perfect for the travel industry because they make a strong visual statement through graphic design. 

Tourism agencies, tour companies, airports, and local governments have used travel posters since the early 20th century to encourage travel to different destinations. 

Wondering how to make a stunning poster? Just use a dramatic image of a location, add the name of the place, toss in a CTA, and you’ve got yourself a poster that just might get people’s wanderlust going. 

7. Educational and informative posters

Educational or informative posters are used in both the academic and corporate worlds.

Their goal is to convey information, increase knowledge around a specific topic, share interesting facts, or bring attention to company announcements.

Unlike other poster types, informative posters are always going to be fact-based. Thus they usually are more text- and data-heavy.

8. Infographic posters

Last but not least are infographic posters. This type of poster is very similar to informative posters.

An infographic poster uses graphical elements to grab the audience’s attention, like illustrations, icons, or photos combined with text to explain complex information clearly and visually. Infographic posters can serve as a helpful learning aid at schools, offices, or any kids’ room. These types of posters are perfect for explaining anything from  climate change ,  the immune system , or  the pros and cons of AI .

Our favorite infographic posters are created by the popular  YouTube channel Kurzgesagt . See the below example:

Beautiful poster designs with Piktochart

This guide only scratches the surface of the poster-design process. If you want to design and print an eye-catching poster and learn more advanced poster-making skills, our free online poster maker, and free online visual storytelling course can help you learn how to communicate through visuals more effectively.

To recap, here are the steps you should remember if you want to make a poster:

• Build your foundation
• Draft an outline
• Choose your color scheme
• Add your images
• Add your copy and graphics
• Make sure your CTA stands out

When you’re ready to get started, sign up for free on Piktochart to customize our large collection of poster templates with our online poster maker . 

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Blog Marketing How to Make a Poster in 10 Steps (2024 Poster Design Guide + Templates)

How to Make a Poster in 10 Steps (2024 Poster Design Guide + Templates)

Written by: Sara McGuire Jan 21, 2024

Posters are one of the oldest, most tried-and-true types of marketing collateral. Posters are an effective way to draw attention to your sales, events, fundraisers and more.

While there is no one right way to make a poster , there are still poster design best practices that you should follow.

So we decided to take it upon ourselves to write the ultimate, most in-depth poster design guide out there. If you want to learn how to design a poster from scratch (or with our professionally designed poster templates ), you’re in the right place.

These poster design tips can be applied to virtually any poster you design. So let’s get into it!

How to design a poster from scratch

Creating a poster from scratch can be a fun and enriching experience. Whether you’re crafting a school project to impress your teacher, using one to promote an event or simply presenting information in an engaging way, posters offer a unique opportunity to express yourself visually and share your message effectively.

This step-by-step guide will equip you with the tools and techniques to make your own compelling poster:

• Identify the goal of your poster
• Consider your target audience
• Decide where to share your poster
• Select a professional poster template
• Pick a relevant or branded color scheme 
• Include a clear call to action
• Use fonts to create a hierarchy of information
• Use icons to visualize concepts and grab attention 
• Add high-quality images & stock photos
• Download & export in the right format

How to design posters for different occasions

1. identify the goal of your poster.

The most important step in the poster creation process is to understand why you are creating this type of promotional material in the first place.

Is it because of advertising purposes for a new product? To grab the audience’s attention about a concert in the area? To highlight important details about a campaign? Or even just because there’s a sale coming up? All of these are goals that an ad maker and some engaging poster templates can help you achieve.

If you think about your main goals from the beginning, you can use those goals to guide your choices like a professional designer would.

For example, if the goal of your poster is to invite your community to a fundraising event , then your poster should be designed strategically to help you achieve this goal. A common rule for written communication is that simplicity wins.

Take a look at another fundraising event poster :

Just so you know, some of our poster templates are free to use and some require a small monthly fee. Sign-up is always free, as is access to Venngage’s online drag-and-drop editor.

Now, if you’re looking for information posters for your fundraising event, here’s another example you can keep in mind:

CUSTOMIZE THIS POSTER TEMPLATE

Start with a goal and plan your custom poster around it. 

2. Consider your target audience 

Next, you should consider who you are trying to reach with your poster. Answering this question will probably remind you of all the important details you should highlight while you make your poster.

For example, say you’re advertising an event for women’s rights like below:

Now compare it to this other design below:

The goal and audience on each of these templates are different and both designs will appeal to distinct groups of people. Make sure you have decided exactly who you want to appeal to, before jumping into your online poster creator tool and starting your creation process.

A perk of these eye-catching posters is that we can see inclusive visuals, maximalist elements and bold shapes — which happen to be some of this year’s biggest graphic design trends .

Also, remember that you can make multiple posters that cater to different customer personas . You don’t have to use one for every type of customer! 

3. Decide where you want to share your poster

The final thing you should determine to save time — before designing your poster — is where it will be shared. 

Would you like to hang it up on a wall? Or just share it with your followers on social media so they can leave comments and send it to other friends? 

It’s important to decide where you want your poster to be seen before you start working on your online poster maker. This is because, as you will see below, optimizing a poster properly for print is slightly different than for Twitter or Facebook. 

Optimize your poster for print 

You probably have an idea of where you’re going to share your poster. Where you decide to pin it up can help you make a few design decisions. 

If you’re planning on printing out your poster, there are some basic guidelines you should keep in mind.

Visualize where you will pin up your poster

If it’s going on a wall with a bunch of other movie posters though , print your poster in a larger size so it will stand out:

But if it’s going on a relatively bare wall, print it in a smaller size and pin up a bunch of them to then create posters with a larger footprint like the minimalist poster templates below:

If you’re looking for more ideas to present your findings effectively, search through our selection of scientific poster templates .

Select a standard paper size

Unless you want to create a big poster background, you probably don’t want to spend money on getting it printed. You can print it yourself by simply designing your custom poster to fit the standard ISO A1-A5 printer paper.

With Venngage you can magically resize any of our poster templates into Letter, A3, A4, A5 and any custom dimensions with a few clicks. First, click on the page size tab on the top left and then select what size you would like: 

The page resize option will also reformat your poster content to fit the new size you select — if you want it to. This simple feature will save you a TON of time in the long run, so be sure to try it out. 

You’re more than welcome to manually resize your poster the old-fashioned way, by updating the page size: 

You can also set the size of your poster background in Pixels, Inches, or Centimeters as well. 

That said, for most of the posters that you’re going to print out, it’s best to use the preset sizes. This will ensure that your printer can actually print out a beautiful poster.

above, there’s now a white border added to your design. This is — you guessed it — the bleed marks! 

Optimize your poster for social media.

There are fewer restraints when designing a poster for web than for print. This is a great opportunity to do something really fun with your design. Still, there are some guidelines you should follow.  

If you want your poster to look really good on social media, size it for the specific platform you’re promoting it on . You may want to make a couple of different versions of your poster for different platforms.

Remember, a square or portrait orientation looks best for mobile viewing. People are used to scrolling up and down on mobile, rather than side to side.

These are the ideal dimensions for each of the big social media platforms:

• Facebook : 1200 x 630 pixels
• X ( Twitter) : 1200 x 675 pixels for landscape images, 900 x 900 pixels for square images and 506 x 253 pixels for 2:1 aspect ratio images.
• Instagram : 1080px by 1080px at a 1:1 aspect ratio. For landscape posts, use an image that is 1080px by 566px, with an aspect ratio of 1.91:1.
• Pinterest : You have more wiggle room here for length, but try to use a ratio of 2:3 to 1:3.5. 

If you’re creating an advertisement poster for Twitter or Facebook, banners generally fit better on their newsfeeds. In that case, landscape orientation is fine.

Or if you’re looking for awareness campaign poster ideas to share on a Pinterest board:

4. Start with a professional poster template 

You don’t need to hire professional designers to create powerful poster backgrounds. Designing your own poster might sound intimidating but with Venngage’s free poster maker , you can make an engaging poster online — for business, virtual events, scientific facts, and much more.

A poster template will give you a foundation to create your own poster stand, your own design.

Start by picking a template that will help communicate the goal of your poster. Look for templates that reflect your poster’s theme or have the right layout you’re looking for. 

Here are some things to keep in mind when picking a poster template :

• Look for a poster template with a layout that fits your vision and goals (ex. header placement, image placeholders, icons and more).
• Pick a poster sample with the right dimensions for where you will be sharing your poster (ex. on a wall, on Facebook, in an email marketing campaign, etc).
• Remember that you can always  customize your templates  if there are aspects of the design that you don’t like.

For example, if you want to create a poster for your job fair, you would want to focus on the location, date, and jobs available:

However, if you’re creating information posters to raise knowledge and awareness about an important holiday or event:

If you’re creating an advertisement poster to promote a sale, the discount and date are probably should be the most eye-catching parts of your poster:

As you can see, these are all great poster templates, but each example is designed to help you achieve a unique goal. So just make sure you are picking a template that fits your goal and you will save a ton of time. 

Now if you want to learn how to create an event poster, business poster, sales poster and more, jump to the last section. There you will find a more in-depth guide on creating a killer poster. 

5. Pick a relevant or branded color scheme 

One of the first things that someone will probably notice about your poster is the color scheme.

In most cases, the appropriate color scheme will be obvious. So try not to overthink it! 

For example, if you’re creating a poster for a winter event, then a color scheme of warm green, red, and white will evoke the feeling of the holidays.

If your company has strict brand guidelines you need to follow, then you can incorporate your brand colors into your custom posters.

Now if you want to use your brand colors on any of our poster templates, just click the My Brand Kit tab on the left side of the screen: 

Then click one of your branded colors to add them to any poster template:

Click the palette again to change where the branded colors are used:

With a few clicks, you can create a ton of variations of your poster, like so: 

However, if you’re still struggling to come up with a relevant color scheme, take a look at the meanings and emotions of each color. 

The color blue is usually associated with wisdom, trust, and loyalty. Use this color palette on a business, event, or marketing poster to make it feel very professional: 

Green is associated with energy, the environment, and tranquility. It would make sense to use a green color combination on a nonprofit or fundraising poster, like below:

Red is associated with strength, courage, and joy. It also is super eye-catching, which you can see in the minimalist but stunning poster below:

As you can see, color theory should help you pick the right color palette in no time. Now if you’re not sure where to start when it comes to pairing colors, a color scheme generator tool like Coolors can be helpful.

6. Include a clear call-to-action

Once you have someone’s attention, you need to make it very clear what their next steps are to help. This is commonly known as a Call-To-Action (CTA). 

Every poster, no matter the topic or type, should have a CTA. Otherwise, what is the point of creating a poster in the first place?

In this marketing poster template, the CTA is the “ Register Online ” at the bottom:

The designer made sure this CTA would stand out from the rest of the poster by highlighting it in blue and using a unique font.

Additionally, they made the CTA very simple to follow. You don’t want to make your CTA a chore, especially if your poster wants them to visit a website.

The same can be said about this fitness poster template:

But in this example, the creator of this poster made the CTA stand out even more!

As you can see these CTAs are both near the bottom of the poster. This is on purpose and allows the reader to get more information before taking action:

Can you imagine if the first thing you read on a poster was CTA? It would be very confusing and probably make you ignore the rest of the poster.

Not all CTAs require the reader to visit a website, call a business or make a purchase immediately.

That action may be as simple as telling their friends about what they learned on the poster. Or about when a garage sale happens to be: 

The call to action on this poster is actually the entire black section of the poster. The top section informs the reader and the bottom helps them take an action. 

In this case, the action is visiting the garage sale, but it still is a CTA. Without it, no one would know what this poster was trying to get them to do. 

7. Use fonts to create a hierarchy of information

What information you choose to include on your poster will depend on the goal of your poster. 

But if you’re creating a fairly standard poster, it’s best practice to follow a hierarchy of information.

For example, if you are creating an event poster the information on your eye-catching posters should be read in this order:

• The name of your event.
• The date and time of your event.
• A short description of the event or a catchy tagline.
• The location of your event (if you choose to include it).
• A simple call to action like a website, social media page or contact number.
• The name of your company, department, organization, etc.

As you can see in this event poster design, the designer used a handful of different fonts to organize the information: 

The title of the event obviously uses the largest font, because it will hopefully catch someone’s attention. It also will give the reader context for the other information on the poster. 

But if they aren’t interested in learning more, they can quickly move on with their day after reading the title. 

If they are interested in the event, they can move on to the next piece of information, the date.

The designer used a bright yellow to catch your eye directly after reading the title of the event. If they would have used a simple white, the information would have been easily overlooked. 

The tagline of the event is italicized below the title, giving the reader a little more context about the event. Again, if this sounds interesting to the reader, they can move on to the next piece of information, and so on.  

This process will help eliminate people who don’t really need to see the CTA at the end of your poster. 

And finally, after moving through all the information, the CTA at the bottom uses another bold font and color so that people will not miss it. 

Can you imagine how hard it would be to navigate this poster if they would have used the same font throughout? It would look like a term paper that no one wants to read.

Now if you’re struggling to decide what the hierarchy of your poster should look like, think about the most important info you want the reader to walk away with.

In this example, the title of the event, the location and the CTA seem to be the most important.

Additionally, the font color used in this design contrasts exceptionally well with the poster background color. If you choose a font that doesn’t contrast, it will be very difficult to read your poster. 

As you can see below, a good rule of thumb is to use a light font color on a dark background:

Or a dark font on a light background:    

Even if you use a single font on your poster, you can quickly create a hierarchy of information just by changing the font’s color, size or weight. So again, don’t overthink it!

8. Use icons to visualize concepts and grab attention

Icons are symbols used in design to represent concepts. Icons are the perfect way to enhance your custom posters. You can use icons to embellish points and, in certain cases, replace text. 

They’re also great for illustrating ideas quickly. Or you could make icons the main focal point of your design, like the template below:

Keep these best practices in mind when using icons in your poster design:

• Pick icons with a consistent style (line thickness, flat or illustrated, line art or filled).
• Use icons sparingly and allow for plenty of whitespaces to let your design breathe.
• Add a simple border or background shape to your icons.
• If you do replace the text with icons, make sure that the meaning is very obvious.

Let’s take a look at some of those best practices in action, starting with keeping your icons consistent.

As you probably know, there are a few different kinds of icons that you can use. Some are flat, and can be changed to match the color of your poster very easily: 

While others are illustrated, and the colors can’t be changed:

Whatever icons you choose to use while designing a poster, just make sure the styles are consistent, like in the examples above. 

So if you use a flat icon in one section, use flat icons throughout your poster and vice versa.

Next, let’s talk about using whitespace correctly when it comes to icons. If you’re not aware, whitespace is the open space around a design element like a block of text, a title or an icon:

Without it, your poster design will feel exactly cramped and unprofessional. It will also make your poster very hard to read or navigate. Check out how odd the poster below looks without adequate whitespace:

It looks like a mess, so be sure to take the time to use whitespace throughout your poster! 

One very easy way that you can create this whitespace around your icons is by using a background or border shape. Each icon in the template below uses a background shape:

Using background shapes in this way will not only give your icons some room to breathe, but it will also make them a lot more eye-catching. Without the border shapes in the example above, the icons would have just faded into the background. 

Plus, if you’re using illustrated icons it will make the design feel much more consistent across the poster:

And the finally best practice, be sure that if you replace text with an icon, the reader will actually understand it. The poster example below illustrates this tactic well in the contact section:

Readers are going to be able to decipher those icons because they are used a lot in the real world already. Others might not be so easy to understand, so you might have to add a label or title to them. Like below:

With Venngage, you can quickly swap any icon on your poster or one of our customizable poster templates , with just a few clicks as well. First, select on any icon on your poster and then click the Replace button:

Then just search for the icon that you want, and click on it to replace: 

It’s really that simple and can help you turn any template into your own unique graphic in no time. 

9. Use high-quality images & stock photos

If you have been paying attention to the templates and examples in this article you may have noticed that they use a lot of premium images.

Venngage’s free poster maker tool offers free and premium images, icons and graphs to help you edit poster designs with ease — no prior design skills needed. Here are some examples of stock images in the background: 

While others make it one of the main focal points of the poster:

But all of them use very high-quality images, no matter the type of poster.

If you plan to print out the poster or enlarge it, using high-quality photos is important. The slight blurriness or pixelation will quickly become a nightmare. 

It doesn’t matter if you are using a stock photo or one that you took, all of them should be very crisp and clear. Sometimes it’s better to use a professional stock photo in place of a blurry personal photo as well.

Plus, Venngage’s free poster maker tool is integrated with Pixabay and Pexels to elevate your design. Access stunning, professional photography with just one click.

Just head over to the left sidebar and click the Photos tab to bring up the search bar: 

Once you find the perfect stock photo just click the photo to add it to your poster.

Additionally, like with icons, you can swap any photo on your poster using the Replace button:

After you select Replace , you can search for any stock photo in our library and insert it into the poster with one click:

Now if you don’t want to use any of our stock photos, you can upload your own images by dragging it on the screen or by selecting Image Upload in the left sidebar:

As you can see, adding your own photos to your poster is very easy, just make sure you pick the right ones. 

10. Download & export your poster in the optimal format

After you have finished your poster, it’s time to share it with the world. On Venngage you can quickly download your poster by clicking the Download button on the right side of your screen:

Then select what type of file you would like your poster downloaded as:

Downloading your poster as a PNG should be fine for emails or social media. 

But if you want to print out your poster, download it as a PNG HD. This will make sure your poster is crisp and perfect once it gets back from the printer! 

Phew, that was a lot of info! Need a quick recap or want to share this information with your team? We have you covered with this video : 

All of the advice we outlined above can be used on almost any poster. But in this final section, we are going to get a little more specific.

Below are some of the most popular types of posters that you can create. 

But instead of waxing poetically on each type of poster, we are going to outline a simple checklist for each type of poster! 

So let’s get into it! 

How to make an infographic poster

• Choose a powerful topic you’d like to inform about.
• Do your research and gather relevant facts.
• Select an outstanding template that’ll help you grab attention.
• Add icons and graphs. Data visualization is key in an infographic poster.
• Create a content hierarchy and highlight the most interesting insights.
• Add your logo and company’s branding.
• Download in multiple formats and share.

Related: What Is an Infographic Poster and How To Make One?

How to make an event poster

• Start with an interesting background image or color.
• Use a large and bold font for your event title.  
• Add some embellishments to the title to make it pop.
• Add the date, location and time of the event. 
• Include a simple call to action.
• Describe your event or why people should attend.
• Make sure you add your logo and brand colors.

Related: 10 Event Poster Design Ideas [+ Free Templates]

How to make a marketing poster

• Arrange the 4 P’s of your strategy: your product, price, promotion and place.
• Choose a design that will mark your audience and look good in your selected place.
• Make your campaign details the focus of the poster.
• Add high-quality images of your product or service.
• Include a relevant call to action.
• Incorporate your branding.

CCUSTOMIZE THIS POSTER TEMPLATE

If you want to dig deeper into the steps to create a marketing poster and find campaign poster ideas, read this article: How to Design a Marketing Poster (10+ Templates Included).

How to make a sales poster

• Start with a simple background color or texture.
• Make the savings or discount the main focal point. 
• Show where or what store the sale is taking place.
• List exactly what products are on sale or discounted. 
• Add the start and end date or time of the sale. 
• Add some contact information or a website 
• Include your branding or logo. 

How to make an HR poster

Summarize important information, helpful resources, processes or events information.

• Define the department you’re referring to.
• Include only the key information.
• Choose the best layout to showcase your announcement.
• Customize a brand-aligned design.
• Optimize your poster for distribution.

Related: 17 Essential Human Resources Poster Templates (Updated) .

How to make a conference poster

• Start with an interesting background texture or color.
• Use a large, eye-catching font for the conference title. 
• Outline the speakers, events, or special guests.
• Add the time and date of the conference.
• Add the location(s) of the conference. 
• Include a CTA for tickets or to sign up.
• Describe why people should attend this conference.
• Add the logo or branding of the conference organizer.  

How to make a medical poster

• Select your health awareness topic or medical information theme.
• Write a catching title with bold fonts.
• Highlight important data, stats and recommendations.
• Add images and icons to ease retention.
• Invite your audience to a website or to access more resources.

Related: 15 Medical Poster Templates for Patient Education .

How to make a real-estate poster

• Include a few high-quality pictures of the house or listing. 
• Add an eye-catching “For Sale” or “For Rent” header.
• List the purchase price or estimated rent.
• Add the address of the house or listing. 
• List a few of the most interesting features of the house or listing.   
• Elaborate on the listing, location, or real estate agency.  
• Add a simple call to action.
• Include the contact information for the real estate agent.
• Add the logo or branding of the real estate company.

Hopefully, these simple checklists will help you create a poster in no time! 

If you want to learn more about designing these types of custom posters , start with these articles:

• 20+ Attention-Grabbing Event Poster Templates
• 55+ Creative Poster Ideas, Templates & Design Tips
• 17 Essential Human Resources Poster Templates
• 10+ Research Poster Templates to Share Information Professionally

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How to Make a Poster in PowerPoint: 10 Simple Steps

In addition to creating presentations, did you know you can use PowerPoint to design other elements such as posters? Today, we’re walking you through exactly how to make a poster in PowerPoint.

While not everyone thinks about making a poster design in PowerPoint, it’s pretty easy—and is a viable option if you need something quickly, or don’t have other design software available. (Posters made in PowerPoint are frequently used in academic settings for assignments and event promotion on college campuses.) Today, we’re going to take you through the steps of how to make a poster in PowerPoint.

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1. Collect Poster Materials

Before starting on a PowerPoint poster design, sit down and figure out what is going on in the poster. Write out a plan for the design and collect all materials in a folder on your desktop – text, charts or data, and photos or other graphics.

2. Launch Software

Navigate to PowerPoint on your computer and open the software. Start with a blank template. It does not matter which version of PowerPoint you use to create a poster design. (Here, we are using 365, but the steps and locations of menus are similar in all modern versions of the software.)

3. Set Dimensions and Poster Size

Pick a size for your poster design. Design the PowerPoint poster at the maximum size it will be printed.

PowerPoint has a maximum slide side of 52 inches wide and tall, so keep that in mind when planning your design. Common poster sizes include:

• Large, movie-style poster: 24 inches by 36 inches
• Medium, for windows and general hanging: 18 inches by 24 inches
• Small, for posting on billboards, etc.: 11 inches by 17 inches
• A4, for poster handouts: 8.5 inches by 11 inches

Set the dimensions in the Design menu, then navigate to Slide Size. Click the drop-down and select Page Setup. (The two default options are for presentation slides on screens.)

Enter your page size. Note that most posters use portrait orientation (taller than wide). If your slides already contain some content, scale up when given the option. This will ensure that the text is large enough for the new size. (In older versions of PowerPoint, these options are located in the File menu.)

4. Add Text

Once you have the layout set, add all text elements to the poster design.

Remember to keep the goal of the design in mind and keep text limited to only what’s necessary, such as an event name, time, date, and location.

Don’t worry about placement yet. But you can think about the fonts you want to use and how large text elements should be, as you create a hierarchy for how people should follow the text on the poster.

When it comes to type size, start with a headline of 75 to 100 points and body size of 24 to 48 points; adjust the rest of your type hierarchy accordingly.

5. Add Images

Bring images and other design elements you want to use into the poster design. Drag and drop each image from your folder into the poster design.

This is also the time to import or create any charts you might want to use.

The goal is to get everything you might include visually in the poster design on the screen. When it comes to making a poster design in PowerPoint, it’s a lot easier to put it all together if all the elements are on the canvas so you can see what you have to work with.

Make sure that all of your images are large enough to print as well. As a general rule, look for image elements that are 150 dpi or higher at the size it will be used. Images pulled from websites are often not large enough to use for printed elements and will look blurry or pixelated.

6. Adjust Colors and Design Elements

Once you have all your design elements available to work with, make adjustments so that every element is in the right location. You can adjust font color and size, positioning, and even colors on text boxes to ensure that every element is easy to see and understand.

Remember that when it comes to poster design, you want elements to be large enough to read at a distance. Avoid tiny text or design elements.

7. Move Elements on the Poster Canvas

Play with where elements are located on the poster canvas and move them around so that the poster design is easy to read and understand.

Most people will read a poster from top to bottom. Stack your information in such a way that makes this type of reading easy. Commonly the headline or biggest text will be at the top and smaller elements will be in the lower part of the design.

8. Use a Preset Template (Optional)

If you are lacking design elements for your poster, consider using one of the predefined templates in PowerPoint to add some visual flair.

Templates are available in the Design menu and include high-color options that will fit the canvas size you have selected.

9. Export for Printing

Once the PowerPoint poster design is ready, export the file for printing. The most common (and generally accepted format) is PDF.

After saving your file, navigate to the Acrobat menu (or File menu in older versions) and select Create PDF. The software will do the rest.

10. Print and Distribute

Put your PDF on a drive to take to the printer (or email it) and once the design is printed, you can distribute your poster made in PowerPoint.

While PowerPoint might not be the ideal solution for creating a poster design for everyone, it is a viable solution if that’s the only software you have available. One of the biggest constraints can be that PowerPoint files do have a limited size, so make sure that is appropriate for your design.

One benefit of creating a poster in PowerPoint is that you can reuse design elements for a presentation later if you are creating connected elements. You can also import elements or images that you had made in other software, in formats, such as JPEG or PNG.

PowerPoint is a versatile tool and learning how to make a poster is just one more tool to add to your design kit.

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Making Posters with PowerPoint

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Things to consider before beginning

What size is the poster.

PowerPoint places a limit on the dimensions of slides; if you plan on printing a poster that has dimensions larger than 56″ you will need to create it with another piece of software like  Photoshop  or InDesign.

How much does a poster cost?

Get an estimate using the  price calculator .

Where are the images coming from?

Images copied from the web are low resolution (72 dpi) and are not good quality for a printed poster. Minimum image resolution should be 150 dpi at actual printing size for best results.

What is the deadline?

Posters are printed Monday through Friday with a standard 24-hour turnaround time. Plan ahead to avoid high volume times for quicker turnaround.

Start with a template

Choose from a variety of styles and sizes. Download a template .

Create a new poster

Open a new document in PowerPoint.

• Go to Design –> Slide Size
• Choose  Custom Slide Size
• Set  Width  and  Height  (max. 56″)
• Choose the  Landscape  (horizontal) or Portrait orientation.
• Click  OK .
• If a message pops up telling you that “ The current page size exceeds the printable area of the paper in the printer ” just click  OK .

Basic design tips

Academic posters are a summary of what you did, how you did it, and what you learned. Most are divided into four parts:

• Introduction (what you did)
• Design or methods (how you did it)
• Conclusion (what you learned)

Space is limited. Choose your words and graphics carefully.

Don’t forget to SPELL CHECK your poster before submitting for print!

Design your file at full size (100%). If your poster is 36″ wide x 24″ tall then set your slide dimensions to 36″ x 24″.

Present information the way you would normally read —left to right, top to bottom.

Use columns and line breaks to divide the poster into smaller sections. Use bullets instead of long paragraphs to summarize information.

Maintain a good contrast between the background color and the text. Consider using a light color background and a dark text. A gradient color fill background, especially black, will print poorly and is not recommended.

Someone standing 3–4 feet away should be able to read everything on your poster. Here are some suggested fonts and sizes:

Sans serif:  Lucida Sans, Lucida Grande ; Serif:   Palatino, Book Antiqua

• Title: 72 point
• Headings/section titles: 40 point
• Body text: 24 point
• Captions: 18 point

Limit yourself to 2–3 types of fonts in order to create consistency and unity.

A picture is worth 1,000 words. Poster content should be 60% images, 40% text . Use graphs, charts, tables, and photos to summarize and present data.

High resolution images ( 150 dpi or higher ) are required for printing high quality posters.

Color mode for best results is CMYK .

Insert images directly into PowerPoint . Don’t cut and paste, or copy and paste.

Copy and paste Excel charts and graphs into PowerPoint.

To adjust an image and retain proper proportion, hold the shift key on your keyboard, click, and drag the corners to scale . Enlarging images in PowerPoint is not recommended.

Saving to PDF

CougPrints Plus requires a PDF file set to your custom page size . To save a PowerPoint poster to PDF, follow the steps outlined in Saving PowerPoint Presentations as PDF Files .

Printing your poster

Order your poster online from CougPrints Plus by filling in the submission form and uploading your PDF file. Pick up and pay for posters at CougPrints Plus in the CUB.

Place your poster order!

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How to Make a Poster in Google Slides

To announce any event, from birthdays, concerts, or even a graduation ceremony, a poster with all the necessary information is the perfect solution, as it is original and will ensure that everyone who sees it retains the most important information of the event in question. In addition, it is a great decorative element for any place.

However, how can we create these creative designs? At Slidesgo , we have some A3 Google Slides and PowerPoint templates ready to be printed to get amazing posters. You can filter your search on our website so that the results you get are A3 or even A4.

However, if you want to create the design yourself from scratch or adapt another design to the desired format to create the poster, in this post we will explain how to make a poster using Google Slides . Here we go!

How to make a poster in Google Slides step by step

• Open a new presentation in Google Slides. By default, the format is 16:9. To adapt it to the size you want your poster to be, click on File > Page setup. A small tab will appear where we can configure the slide. From the drop-down, select Custom and set the size. In the example, we have used a vertical A3 format (29.7 x 42 cm)
• If you click on Theme, you can use one of the defaults themes Google Slides for your design, but if you need a more professional style, at Slidesgo we have a wide variety of templates, even with formats such as A3 and A4 already defined. Take a look!
• You can also adapt a 16:9 presentation to the size of your poster. Just follow the same procedure as above, except that instead of opening a new presentation, open a previously created one. In the example, we have set the slide in A3 horizontal format (42 x 29.7 cm).

• If you want to print your poster, just download the presentation to your computer. You can delete the slides you don't need or download the entire presentation as a PDF. To do this, select File > Download > PDF Document. If you need more information about this process, you can read our tutorial on how to export a Google Slides presentation as a PDF file .

And that's it! Now you can print your poster and place it wherever you want, but make sure everyone is able to see it! We're sure it's an amazing design!

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How to Create a Poster Presentation

Getting started, poster design best practices.

• Don't be too wordy! Keep text concise and clear.
• Organization is key. Think about what you want to say first and then carefully consider layout.
• Consider your audience. What will they have questions about? What do you want them to learn from your poster?
• Make sure your title is descriptive and large enough to be readable from far away.
• Think about image and font sizes so the poster is readable from 5-8 feet away.
• Use headings, bullets, and graphics to break up text.
• Make sure your images and graphics have contrast so they pop on the page.
• Think about including contact information for those who want more information.
• Remember, your poster will read left to right just like a page.

Example Posters (Click arrow to scroll through)

Award Categories

This year posters will be judged in two categories:

Most Visually Appealing Poster Description: A visually appealing poster can be judged based on the following criteria:

• Do visuals enhance poster content? Is it eye-catching?
• Are the components of the poster balanced across the space?
• Easy to read, pleasing-on-the-eye font/ color scheme choices? Is text error-free?
• Are photographs, graphs, tables, and other graphics creative?  

Best Articulation of Career Development Through Internship Description: In this category, we are looking for the poster to show how the internship impacted the student’s career path and development of career competencies.

• Poster provides clear description of the internship including student’s responsibilities/accomplishments
• Poster clearly identifies career readiness skills and how they were strengthened through internship
• Poster articulates student’s next steps and career goals
• Poster showcases internship in dynamic way such as “day-in-the-life”

Poster Template

This template will help you get started. Just download this and add your content to the boxes using PowerPoint. Be sure to keep the box sizes the same so that the poster will print properly.

Need Access to PowerPoint?

Because of the ease of importing images, formatting text boxes, and making slides with extra-large dimensions, many people use PowerPoint for creating posters. For this project, please use the PowerPoint template on this page for your poster. BC students can download PowerPoint for free . You are only allowed one download per computer. If you have received a new computer since your first download, you can re-download it on your new device. For any other technical assistance or if installation does not work, please connect directly with BC Information Technology Services by either calling (617-552-4357) or visiting the IT Help Desk located in O’Neill Library, 3rd floor. For those on or close to campus this summer, you can also use the Library computers that house all softwares.

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• Last Updated: Feb 7, 2023 11:38 AM

104: How to Give a Perfect Poster Presentation

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It’s a tragic fact: many jaw-dropping, eye-opening, and heart-pounding research results never makes an impact on the scientific community.

And it’s partly your fault.

By “your,” of course,  I mean all of us.  Because when we waste the opportunity to share our results in their best light at a scientific conference or poster session, our viewers may overlook this valuable insight.

But we can do better!  With a little planning, collaboration, and hard work, we can make even a humble poster presentation a vehicle for inspiring the next discovery and building our scientific network.

Let’s get started!

Poster Perfect

A poster session is a unique opportunity for a young scientist.

As a viewer, you get the chance to engage in a casual conversation with other scientists, often one-on-one, about a topic that interests you.  It’s an opportunity to ask for clarity, pose a question, or offer ideas without an audience of 200 staring at the back of your head.

As a presenter, you get all of those benefits, as well as an opportunity to build your network and identify collaborators.  You also get many chances to practice your ‘pitch’ as new visitors step up every few minutes.  It will sharpen both your skill as a communicator and your research plan.

And while there are probably some guidelines for being a good poster-viewer, in this episode, we focused our discussion on the best ways to prepare and present a poster.

Before You Begin

As with any presentation, answering a few questions before you get started will save you hours in front of the computer.

Know Your Audience

If you are presenting to the Microbiology Conference, you may want to include more detailed background information than if you’re presenting to other experts in your sub-field at a Malaria Symposium.  Space is limited, and thinking ahead about what your audience may, or may not, know will help you prepare for the proper range of visitor experience.

Start Early

You may be a wizard of poster creation and can put off your design until the night before you fly to the conference, but that’s a bad idea.  Instead, leave extra time before printing share your file with collaborators for review.  They need time to look over your work and offer feedback before it’s committed to (gigantic) paper.

Practice, Practice, Practice

You’ll also need time to practice presenting the poster.  More on this later, but sometimes the act of presentation lets us see where we have gaps or mistakes in the logic or design.  It’s a good idea to practice with people from outside your lab because if they are already familiar with your work, they won’t notice when you skip steps or fail to explain a concept clearly.

Find Your Story

It may sound odd, but poster presentation is a form of story-telling.  The best posters make that story clear and concise.

Even if you have multiple projects in the lab, choose ONE to present in your poster.  Start by jotting down a central question you’re trying to answer, or a hypothesis your lab is testing.  Keeping this key idea in mind as you prepare the presentation will give you a firm structure on which to hang the other elements.

Making a Poster

There are a couple of broad guidelines to keep in mind as you create your poster.

First, remember that the poster is a visual form, and space is limited.  That means you should avoid printing long paragraphs of text.  Instead, use the space to display graphs, images, and figures, with a few bullet points or figure legends to help the viewer track the story.

Second, stick with a ‘standard’ layout.  Your viewers have been trained for years to look for titles at the top and conclusions on the bottom right.  You make viewing your poster harder by moving these elements around.

Third, maintain consistency within your poster.  Stick with one or two fonts, and be sure that headings, bullets, and figures are matched in style, weight, and size.

Finally, give your work some breathing room.  White-space is important, and will make the poster more readable.

Poster Pieces

Manuscript titles are often formulaic and a bit dull as they describe the basic findings of the research paper, but your poster title can be more creative.  The goal is to catch a viewer’s attention while also letting them know what they’ll see when they visit.

Again, remembering your audience, include enough information to help them understand your main question or hypothesis.  Avoid paragraphs, and include a figure or diagram if you can.

Hypothesis / Main Question

This section is an absolute must, so don’t forget it!  It lets the viewer instantly understand what the poster is about and what they can expect to learn if they follow you through to the conclusion.

Again, a diagram or figure works great here.  Use this section to help the viewer understand your experimental approach to the question.  You don’t need to detail every last step – save that for the paper you publish!

This is where the action is.  Remember – you don’t need to include every experiment you’ve ever done.  Just describe the results that help address the main question/hypothesis.

Use descriptive figure titles that help the viewer understand your conclusion.  “Gel of Protein X” doesn’t help anyone, but “Protein X is Up-Regulated After Drug Treatment” tells them what they should expect to see in the scan. 

Cut out extraneous information or parts of the image, and use arrows or boxes to help direct attention to the relevant parts.

Double check this section for readability – axes and labels can often be too small to read from a four-foot distance.

Conclusions

Another chance to draw a diagram!  Or use 2-3 bullet points to help summarize what you’ve found.

Other Sections

Some posters include acknowledgements or future directions.  These are optional and might make sense on a case-by-case basis.

Every poster should include the author’s contact info, though!  This allows people to reach out even if you’ve stepped away from the poster, and helps collaborators keep in touch after the meeting.

Presenting a Poster

Crafting the perfect poster is only half the battle, now it’s time to describe that work from start to finish.

Timing is Everything

Walking a viewer through your presentation should take roughly five to seven minutes.  That doesn’t seem like a long time, but it’s an important target.  Many presenters take too long to share the poster, leaving the audience bored, uncomfortable, and searching for a way out.

By telling your story in five minutes, you let the audience guide the conversation.  If they’re satisfied with your description, or bored out of their minds, they can move on to another poster.

If they’re excited and want to learn more, they can ask questions or probe the results more deeply.

Act Like an Actor

As you present, remember that you mustn’t turn your back on your audience!  You’ll be tempted to turn to look at the poster yourself, closing off the conversation.  Instead, keep an open stance and point out relevant sections off to your side.

Also, check your enthusiasm.  Too many poster presenters seem bored, tired, or listless.  If they don’t think their work is exciting, why should their audience?! 

Stop a moment to notice your energy level, and try to step it up as you present.  Make eye contact, welcome new viewers as the approach, and modulate your voice. 

Your enthusiasm for your work can be contagious.

Tailor Made

Because most poster presentations occur one-on-one, it’s imperative that you actively tailor your pitch to the person standing in front of you.

When they step up, you can briefly ask about their background or interest in the subject.  If they’re a neophyte, you’ll want to avoid jargon and check that they’ve understood each section before moving on. If they’re an expert, they may want to skip straight to the results!

Be aware of their cues and body language, and let them help steer the conversation.

That’s it! Now you’re a poster-presenting-pro!  Go make a splash at your next poster session, and be sure to share YOUR tips and ideas for poster presentation in the comments below.

For more information on attending conferences, check out Episode  097: Conference Like the Pros – How to Plan, Network, and Win

I’m Getting Seasick

This week, we sample a very special ethanol that has probably traveled farther than we have. 

Jefferson’s Ocean Bourbon  spends its time in a barrel bobbing around on a research ship as it sails around the world!  Supposedly, all of that rocking, equatorial heat, and sea spray mimics the way bourbon tasted when it was shipped back from the New World.  

Best part: you get to read the Captain’s Log of each batch’s journey!

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How to Create a Research Poster

• Poster Basics
• Design Tips
• Logos & Images

What is a Research Poster?

Posters are widely used in the academic community, and most conferences include poster presentations in their program.  Research posters summarize information or research concisely and attractively to help publicize it and generate discussion. 

The poster is usually a mixture of a brief text mixed with tables, graphs, pictures, and other presentation formats. At a conference, the researcher stands by the poster display while other participants can come and view the presentation and interact with the author.

What Makes a Good Poster?

• Important information should be readable from about 10 feet away
• Title is short and draws interest
• Word count of about 300 to 800 words
• Text is clear and to the point
• Use of bullets, numbering, and headlines make it easy to read
• Effective use of graphics, color and fonts
• Consistent and clean layout
• Includes acknowledgments, your name and institutional affiliation

A Sample of a Well Designed Poster

View this poster example in a web browser .  

Image credit: Poster Session Tips by [email protected], via Penn State

Where do I begin?

Answer these three questions:.

• What is the most important/interesting/astounding finding from my research project?
• How can I visually share my research with conference attendees? Should I use charts, graphs, photos, images?
• What kind of information can I convey during my talk that will complement my poster?

What software can I use to make a poster?

A popular, easy-to-use option. It is part of Microsoft Office package and is available on the library computers in rooms LC337 and LC336. ( Advice for creating a poster with PowerPoint ).

Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign

Feature-rich professional software that is good for posters including lots of high-resolution images, but they are more complex and expensive.  NYU Faculty, Staff, and Students can access and download the Adobe Creative Suite .

Open Source Alternatives 

• OpenOffice is the free alternative to MS Office (Impress is its PowerPoint alternative).
• Inkscape and Gimp are alternatives to Adobe products.
• For charts and diagrams try Gliffy or Lovely Charts .
• A complete list of free graphics software .

A Sample of a Poorly Designed Poster

View this bad poster example in a browser.

Image Credit: Critique by Better Posters

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• Last Updated: Jul 9, 2024 5:34 PM
• URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/posters

Creating a Poster

What exactly is a poster presentation.

A poster presentation combines text and graphics to present your project in a way that is visually interesting and accessible. It allows you to display your work to a large group of other scholars and to talk to and receive feedback from interested viewers.

Poster sessions have been very common in the sciences for some time, and they have recently become more popular as forums for the presentation of research in other disciplines like the social sciences, service learning, the humanities, and the arts.

Poster presentation formats differ from discipline to discipline, but in every case, a poster should clearly articulate what you did, how you did it, why you did it, and what it contributes to your field and the larger field of human knowledge.

What goals should I keep in mind as I construct my poster?

• Clarity of content. You will need to decide on a small number of key points that you want your viewers to take away from your presentation, and you will need to articulate those ideas clearly and concisely.
• Visual interest and accessibility. You want viewers to notice and take interest in your poster so that they will pause to learn more about your project, and you will need the poster’s design to present your research in a way that is easy for those viewers to make sense of it.

Who will be viewing my poster?

The answer to this question depends upon the context in which you will be presenting your poster. If you are presenting at a conference in your field, your audience will likely contain mostly people who will be familiar with the basic concepts you’re working with, field-specific terminology, and the main debates facing your field and informing your research. This type of audience will probably most interested in clear, specific accounts of the what and the how of your project.

If you are presenting in a setting where some audience members may not be as familiar with your area of study, you will need to explain more about the specific debates that are current in your field and to define any technical terms you use. This audience will be less interested in the specific details and more interested in the what and why of your project—that is, your broader motivations for the project and its impact on their own lives.

How do I narrow my project and choose what to put on my poster?

Probably less than you would like! One of the biggest pitfalls of poster presentations is filling your poster with so much text that it overwhelms your viewers and makes it difficult for them to tell which points are the most important. Viewers should be able to skim the poster from several feet away and easily make out the most significant points.

The point of a poster is not to list every detail of your project. Rather, it should explain the value of your research project. To do this effectively, you will need to determine your take-home message. What is the single most important thing you want your audience to understand, believe, accept, or do after they see your poster?

Once you have an idea about what that take-home message is, support it by adding some details about what you did as part of your research, how you did it, why you did it, and what it contributes to your field and the larger field of human knowledge.

What kind of information should I include about what I did?

This is the raw material of your research: your research questions, a succinct statement of your project’s main argument (what you are trying to prove), and the evidence that supports that argument. In the sciences, the what of a project is often divided into its hypothesis and its data or results. In other disciplines, the what is made up of a claim or thesis statement and the evidence used to back it up.

Remember that your viewers won’t be able to process too much detailed evidence; it’s your job to narrow down this evidence so that you’re providing the big picture. Choose a few key pieces of evidence that most clearly illustrate your take-home message. Often a chart, graph, table, photo, or other figure can help you distill this information and communicate it quickly and easily.

What kind of information should I include about how I did it?

Include information about the process you followed as you conducted your project. Viewers will not have time to wade through too many technical details, so only your general approach is needed. Interested viewers can ask you for details.

What kind of information should I include about why I did it?

Give your audience an idea about your motivation for this project. What real-world problems or questions prompted you to undertake this project? What field-specific issues or debates influenced your thinking? What information is essential for your audience to be able to understand your project and its significance? In some disciplines, this information appears in the background or rationale section of a paper.

What kind of information should I include about its contribution ?

Help your audience to see what your project means for you and for them. How do your findings impact scholars in your field and members of the broader intellectual community? In the sciences, this information appears in the discussion section of a paper.

How will the wording of my ideas on my poster be different from my research paper?

In general, you will need to simplify your wording. Long, complex sentences are difficult for viewers to absorb and may cause them to move on to the next poster. Poster verbiage must be concise, precise, and straightforward. And it must avoid jargon. Here is an example:

Wording in a paper: This project sought to establish the ideal specifications for clinically useful wheelchair pressure mapping systems, and to use these specifications to influence the design of an innovative wheelchair pressure mapping system.

Wording on a poster:

Aims of study

• Define the ideal wheelchair pressure mapping system
• Design a new system to meet these specifications

Once I have decided what to include, how do I actually design my poster?

The effectiveness of your poster depends on how quickly and easily your audience can read and interpret it, so it’s best to make your poster visually striking. You only have a few seconds to grab attention as people wander past your poster; make the most of those seconds!

How are posters usually laid out?

In general, people expect information to flow left-to-right and top-to-bottom. Viewers are best able to absorb information from a poster with several columns that progress from left to right.

Even within these columns, however, there are certain places where viewers’ eyes naturally fall first and where they expect to find information.

Imagine your poster with an upside-down triangle centered from the top to the bottom. It is in this general area that people tend to look first and is often used for the title, results, and conclusions. Secondary and supporting information tend to fall to the sides, with the lower right having the more minor information such as acknowledgements (including funding), and personal contact information.

• Main Focus Area Location of research fundamentals: Title, Authors, Institution, Abstract, Results, Conclusion
• Secondary Emphasis Location of important info: Intro, Results or Findings, Summary
• Supporting Area Location of supporting info: Methods, Discussion
• Final Info Area Location of supplemental info: References, Acknowledgments

How much space should I devote to each section?

This will depend on the specifics of your project. In general, remember that how much space you devote to each idea suggests how important that section is. Make sure that you allot the most space to your most important points.

How much white space should I leave on my poster?

White space is helpful to your viewers; it delineates different sections, leads the eye from one point to the next, and keeps the poster from being visually overwhelming. In general, leave 10—30% of your poster as white space.

Should I use graphics?

Absolutely! Visual aids are one of the most effective ways to make your poster visually striking, and they are often a great way to communicate complex information straightforwardly and succinctly. If your project deals with lots of empirical data, your best bet will be a chart, graph, or table summarizing that data and illustrating how that data confirms your hypothesis.

If you don’t have empirical data, you may be able to incorporate photographs, illustrations, annotations, or other items that will pique your viewers’ interest, communicate your motivation, demonstrate why your project is particularly interesting or unique.

Don’t incorporate visual aids just for the sake of having a pretty picture on your poster. The visual aids should contribute to your overall message and convey some piece of information that your viewers wouldn’t otherwise get just from reading your poster’s text.

How can I make my poster easy to read?

There are a number of tricks you can use to aid readability and emphasize crucial ideas. In general:

• Use a large font. Don’t make the text smaller in order to fit more onto the poster. Make sure that 95% of the text on your poster can be read from 4 feet away. If viewers can’t make out the text from a distance, they’re likely to walk away.
• Choose a sans-serif font like Helvetica or Verdana, not a serif font, like Times New Roman. Sans-serif fonts are easier to read because they don’t have extraneous hooks on every letter. Here is an example of a sans-serif and a serif font:
• Once you have chosen a font, be consistent in its usage. Use just one font.
• Don’t single-space your text. Use 1.5- or double-spacing to make the text easier to read.

For main points:

• Use bold, italicized, or colored fonts, or enclose text in boxes. Save this kind of emphasis for only a few key words, phrases, or sentences. Too much emphasized text makes it harder, not easier, to locate important points.
• AVOID USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, WHICH CAN BE HARD TO READ.
• Make your main points easy to find by setting them off with bullets or numbers.

What is my role as the presenter of my poster?

When you are standing in front of your poster, you—and what you choose to say—are as important as the actual poster. Be ready to talk about your project, answer viewers’ questions, provide additional details about your project, and so on.

How should I prepare for my presentation?

Once your poster is finished, you should re-familiarize yourself with the larger project you’re presenting. Remind yourself about those details you ended up having to leave out of the poster, so that you will be able to bring them up in discussions with viewers. Then, practice, practice, practice!

Show your poster to advisors, professors, friends, and classmates before the day of the symposium to get a feel for how viewers might respond. Prepare a four- to five-minute overview of the project, where you walk these pre-viewers through the poster, drawing their attention to the most critical points and filling in interesting details as needed. Make note of the kinds of questions these pre-viewers have, and be ready to answer those questions. You might even consider making a supplemental handout that provides additional information or answers predictable questions.

How long should I let audience members look at the poster before engaging them in discussion?

Don’t feel as if you have to start talking to viewers the minute they stop in front of your poster. Give them a few moments to read and process the information. Once viewers have had time to acquaint themselves with your project, offer to guide them through the poster. Say something like “Hello. Thanks for stopping to view my poster. Would you like a guided tour of my project?” This kind of greeting often works better than simply asking “Do you have any questions?” because after only a few moments, viewers might not have had time to come up with questions, even though they are interested in hearing more about your project.

Should I read from my poster?

No! Make sure you are familiar enough with your poster that you can talk about it without looking at it. Use the poster as a visual aid, pointing to it when you need to draw viewers’ attention to a chart, photograph, or particularly interesting point.

Sample Posters

Click on the links below to open a PDF of each sample poster.

“Quantitative Analysis of Artifacts in Volumetric DSA: The Relative Contributions of Beam Hardening and Scatter to Vessel Dropout Behind Highly Attenuating Structures”  James R. Hermus, Timothy P. Szczykutowicz, Charles M. Strother, and Charles Mistretta

Departments of Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering, and Radiology: University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Self-Care Interventions for the Management of Mouth Sores in Hematology Patients Receiving Chemotherapy” Stephanie L. Dinse and Catherine Cherwin

School of Nursing: University of Wisconsin-Madison

“Enhancing the Fluorescence of Wisconsin Infrared Phytofluor: Wi-Phy for Potential Use in Infrared Imaging”  Jerad J. Simmons and Katrina T. Forest

Department of Bacteriology: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Academic and Professional Writing

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Analysis Papers

Reading Poetry

A Short Guide to Close Reading for Literary Analysis

Using Literary Quotations

Play Reviews

Writing a Rhetorical Précis to Analyze Nonfiction Texts

Incorporating Interview Data

Grant Proposals

Planning and Writing a Grant Proposal: The Basics

Additional Resources for Grants and Proposal Writing

Job Materials and Application Essays

Writing Personal Statements for Ph.D. Programs

• Before you begin: useful tips for writing your essay
• Guided brainstorming exercises
• Get more help with your essay
• Frequently Asked Questions

Resume Writing Tips

CV Writing Tips

Cover Letters

Business Letters

Proposals and Dissertations

Resources for Proposal Writers

Resources for Dissertators

Research Papers

Planning and Writing Research Papers

Quoting and Paraphrasing

Writing Annotated Bibliographies

Creating Poster Presentations

Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper

Thank-You Notes

Advice for Students Writing Thank-You Notes to Donors

Reading for a Review

Critical Reviews

Writing a Review of Literature

Scientific Reports

Scientific Report Format

Sample Lab Assignment

Writing for the Web

Writing an Effective Blog Post

Writing for Social Media: A Guide for Academics

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How to create a Powerpoint Presentation

Powerpoint presentations are a great way to share information with a team, but making them is a skillset in its own right. We've got guides on general Powerpoint use , but if you're keen to just get started making a slideshow right now, this is the way.

How to create a Powerpoint presentation

How to build your first slide, how to add more slides to a powerpoint presentation, how to make an awesome slideshow presentation.

Here's how to make a Powerpoint presentation.

What You Need

Powerpoint or Microsoft 365 subscription

The first step in building your fancy slideshow is to create the presentation itself. Here's how to do it.

Step 1: Install Powerpoint (as part of Microsoft 365 ) if you haven't already, then open the app up.

Step 2: The home screen will give you a range of options for selecting templates and premade presentations to give you a great starting-off point. Select one of them if they're applicable. For even more options, select the New tab from the left-hand menu.

Alternatively, if you want to start from a blank canvas, select Blank presentation.

Step 3: From there, it's a good idea to name and save the presentation so you can come back to it later. Select File > Save or* Save As*, then name the file on the right, choose a location for it, and select Save .

Step 1: Your first slide will automatically have text fields for a title and subtitle. If you want to have that on your first slide, select them, then type in what you want them to read. You can also click and drag them around, or resize them using your mouse.

Hover your mouse over the white circles, then click and drag them to resize the box. Alternatively, select the rotational arrows near the corners of the box, to rotate it.

If you don't want those text fields, select their boundary individually and press the Delete key to remove them.

Step 2: If you want to add more text to this slide (or any others in the future), select the Insert tab, then select Text box. Click on the slide where you want the box to appear, then use your mouse to drag the box to the desired shape.

Then click the box and type in what you want that text box to say. The contextual home menu will automatically adjust to give you quick access to font choices and other text style options.

You can access more detailed text formatting options by selecting the Format tab. There you'll find options for changing text coloring, its outline, and any text effects you want to use.

Step 3: To add pictures to your slideshow, select the Insert tab, then select Pictures in the top-left. You'll then have the option to insert an image from your local PC, a selection of stock images, or a range of online images.

Step 4: You can also freehand draw or annotate your slides, using the Draw tab, or alter the entire theme of the slideshow by selecting Design.

To add a new slide to your presentation, select the Insert tab at the top of the screen, then select New slide on the left. Then choose the type of slide you want. You can have a blank slide to do it all yourself, or you can get a headstart on its design by copying a previous slide, using the same theme as another part of your presentation, or having a predefined layout.

Want even more tips on making a great slideshow? We've got you covered. Check out our guide on how to use Microsoft Powerpoint , for all the most important tips.

We've also got a guide for more tips and tricks for making engaging and attractive slides .

Editors’ Recommendations

• The best PowerPoint templates
• How to change the background in Powerpoint
• 5 ways to add music to PowerPoint
• How to print a PowerPoint presentation with notes
• How to convert PDF to PowerPoint
• How-To Guides

While PowerPoint is widely used to develop presentations, using Google Slides has become a popular alternative. Part of what makes it so popular is that it's free to use, as is other Google software such as Google Docs and Google Sheets – which is a stark contrast to the premium price you'll pay for Microsoft Office and PowerPoint.

Even if you know how to use Microsoft PowerPoint, you might want to jump ship to Slides, and Google makes it easy to do so. In fact, it takes little more than a few clicks to convert a PowerPoint to Google Slides. Whether you need to change the format for a coworker or want to permanently switch to the free platform, here's a look at how to convert your PowerPoint into a Google Slides presentation.

We all know that Microsoft’s PowerPoint software has been a presentations staple for a few decades now. And whether you only used it in school once or twice, or you use it for work on a daily basis, there’s always something new to learn about the classic Microsoft platform.

Even if you know how to use PowerPoint, did you know that you can embed videos in your presentations?

Creating a successful slideshow is no small task. So, if you’re new to Microsoft PowerPoint, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the features and tools you need to build a presentation.

We’ll guide you through the process of creating a PowerPoint slideshow by adding slides and elements as well as how to present the show when you finish. These basics are just what you need as a beginner and should get you off to a terrific start with PowerPoint.